Apple Photos backup sync question

[facemeat]

Hello!

I currently store all of my RAWs and exported JPGs and TIFs in my pictures folder and sync said photos with a software called Carbon Copy Cleaner. This program copies the folders and their content unto an external HDD and a NAS (always have 3 copies of my pictures).If I add photos to my mac, it'll add them to the NAS and HDD, if I delete a picture, it'll delete them on the NAS and HDD.

Question; Can the Apple Photos library be synced with an external HDD and NAS? My current work flow is to sync my picture folders in Lightroom, do the editing, deleting and exporting there. I'd like to move away from Lightroom and their subscription only models and have found Apple Photos to handle basic photo editing fine, using that and Affinity Photo instead.

Is this possible? I wouldn't mind sticking to Apple Photos if it meant that I could sync whatever photos I add or delete to my external hard drives because I don't want to rely 100% on the cloud and a single library.

Thank you in advance!

 

[MacGizmo]

iPhoto doesn't sync photos at all. iCloud (the service) does. iCloud stored photos in a single-file database. You can have all the photos contained in it to sync with iCloud to your Apple account (provided you pay for enough iCloud storage, but that's it. THEN, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner the same way you do now to sync that file to an external HDD and NAS.

I can tell you though, you're much better off using Lightroom. MUCH better off. iPhoto is nice at a simple consumer level, but it's shockingly bad at organizing photos. And it's even worse and data integrity. You'll find duplicate photo issues, dates on photos randomly changing, etc. Other than iTunes, it's truly the worst app Apple makes.

 

[facemeat]

iPhoto doesn't sync photos at all. iCloud (the service) does. iCloud stored photos in a single-file database. You can have all the photos contained in it to sync with iCloud to your Apple account (provided you pay for enough iCloud storage, but that's it. THEN, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner the same way you do now to sync that file to an external HDD and NAS.

I can tell you though, you're much better off using Lightroom. MUCH better off. iPhoto is nice at a simple consumer level, but it's shockingly bad at organizing photos. And it's even worse and data integrity. You'll find duplicate photo issues, dates on photos randomly changing, etc. Other than iTunes, it's truly the worst app Apple makes.

Thank you, a pity regarding the cataloging and duplicity The search for a Lightroom replacement continues..

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Photos stores its photos locally by default, with iCloud sync optional. While the OS displays it as a single "file," it is in fact a directory that contains all the original photos, plus your edited copies (just right-click it and select "Show Package Contents.") It can be stored on any local drive (or even a network share, although it doesn't handle the latency of even a Gigabit network well,) and you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or even just rsync to copy it to another drive.

Inside its "folder masquerading as a file" directory, it even stores them in a nice date-stamped foldering system:

 

[facemeat]

Photos stores its photos locally by default, with iCloud sync optional. While the OS displays it as a single "file," it is in fact a directory that contains all the original photos, plus your edited copies (just right-click it and select "Show Package Contents.") It can be stored on any local drive (or even a network share, although it doesn't handle the latency of even a Gigabit network well,) and you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or even just rsync to copy it to another drive.

Inside its "folder masquerading as a file" directory, it even stores them in a nice date-stamped foldering system:
View attachment 737164

Wow, thank you!
That looks wonderful!
I can't check at the moment, but if I delete files in the Apple Photos app will it also delete files in the file location as well? As in can I sort and delete files as I please in the Photos app and it will have deleted the apps in the directory as well so the delete files don't carry over to my backup drives?

 

[facemeat]

Photos stores its photos locally by default, with iCloud sync optional. While the OS displays it as a single "file," it is in fact a directory that contains all the original photos, plus your edited copies (just right-click it and select "Show Package Contents.") It can be stored on any local drive (or even a network share, although it doesn't handle the latency of even a Gigabit network well,) and you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or even just rsync to copy it to another drive.

Inside its "folder masquerading as a file" directory, it even stores them in a nice date-stamped foldering system:
View attachment 737164

Pictures did disappear from the master folder when I deleted them from the Photos application, sadly I'm not able to copy the Photos Libraries content into my backup devices. I can't seem to open the programs content in Carbon Copy Cleaner. It was worth a shot though!

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Wow, thank you!
That looks wonderful!
I can't check at the moment, but if I delete files in the Apple Photos app will it also delete files in the file location as well? As in can I sort and delete files as I please in the Photos app and it will have deleted the apps in the directory as well so the delete files don't carry over to my backup drives?

That depends on how you have the library synced. By default, it probably would. You'd have to set up CCC to only add, not remove, synced files.

 

[MacGizmo]

Wow, thank you!
That looks wonderful!

While the fact that the database file is just a package file that can be opened to view the directory, trust me when I tell you that it's still a complete mess. There a numerous duplicate versions of files, the timestamps are often grossly inaccurate–which means the file structure is incorrect to begin with, and navigating it is tedious at best. iPhoto and Photos app are just a hot mess, and there's no justifying it or getting around it.

Syncing the Photos database file is an all or nothing thing when you use 3rd party utilities (unless something has changed recently and I'm just not aware of it - I honestly don't know anymore because I have plenty of iCloud storage so I just use Apple's built-in features). In other words, if you have a 50GB collection of photos and you delete a single photo, it's going to have to sync the entire 50GB again as thought it's a brand new 50GB file. That alone limits its usefulness to TimeMachine backups and iCloud (which work around that "feature" with their preferred Apple access).