Update Sept 17 2024 - Continues to work with MacOS Sequoia 15.0 for a Photo Library that uses 1.72 TB containing ~ 159,000+ photos and ~ 6400+ videos on an SSD disk.
Update: June 16 2023 - This configuration continues to work well. Currently running macOS 13.4 (Ventura) for a Photo Library that ~1.5TB space used with ~151,000 Photos and ~5500 videos.
Risk:
Not having a COMPLETE backup of all full original resolution photos and videos that the Photos Application is being used for.
LEAST cost and requires minimal intervention on my part.
Try at your own risk. Please be careful. At no time do you want to impact the iCloud version of the photo library and what is stored on it already. You DO NOT want to accidentally erase or overwrite your iCloud library. Thus
Most likely you SHOULD NOT do this if:
Details and Step by Step Instructions:
OS: using macOS Monterey 12.6.1
HW: MacBook Pro 14" 2021
Primary Account Configuration:
macOS Account Name: PrimaryUser (admin)
Under System Preferences - logged into AppleID with Primary.User@icloud.com
Photos App: Preferences | General | Library Location: MacBook SSD>Users>PrimaryUser>Pictures>Photos Library.photoslibrary
Photos App: Preferences | iCloud: iCloud Photos: Optimize Mac Storage option selected.
Next steps,
Secondary Account on macOS: (secondary account used ONLY for one purpose - to download full quality Original photos and videos from iCloud to External USB attached storage).
Configuration:
Created a new account while logged in as PrimaryUser via System Preferences | Users & Groups | + for a new account:
While Remaining Logged in as PrimaryUser - select Apple Icon from top left of menu bar and choose Lock Screen. Then choose from near bottom center right - Switch User.
NOW Login as Secondary User
On 1st login -- it'll try to guide through setup of various items - do as you wish EXCEPT cancel out of anything iCloud / AppleID related - select setup later for those.
From top left corner of screen: Apple Logo | System Preferences | Apple ID.
Configure it to login as primary.user@icloud.com (yes - the same as your primary account).
Once iCloud has logged in for AppleID configure the items to only have the following selected: Photos and Keychain. You don’t need any other item checked off within AppleId such as iCloud Mail, Notes, etc.. Similar to below.
Open Finder Window. Navigate to your external USB Drive. Create a Folder called Full_Originals_Library off the root of the volume. Close Finder
Open Photos App.
Select Photos Preferences | General | Library Location and click on Show in Finder.
Quit Photos App.
Use the Finder Window that opened in prior step. Move that new and empty Photos Library.photoslibrary file over to your External USB drive to the Folder called Full_Originals_Library. Close the Finder window.
[side note: you could technically take an existing photos library that is FULLY populated already and point to it (if it's located where you want it to be or you could move it to a new location. What will happen though is the following: If a brand new empty library -- it will be synced from iCloud and fully populated with full resolution objects -- a download over your internet connection. If it is an existing library (moved / copied or pointed to) -- chances are it will NONE THE LESS go through a sync process in which it UPLOADS or at least does a evaluation of every single object and hashes each one and uploads the hash to iCloud to check if the object matches. Either way it's time consuming and I am not sure if it is uploading the full item or just a hash. If just a hash -- it'll go faster. If full item -- it'll go slower as most people have faster download speeds as compared to upload speeds on their internet connections. i.e. asymmetric connection of 500/35 (like Xfinity) vs a symmetric connection of 500/500 (like FIOS)]
Hold down the OPTION key on the keyboard and while holding it click on the Photos App icon. You'll be shown a list of various photo libraries to select from. Pick the 1st one on the list - make sure it points to the Library.photoslibrary file in the external drive folder called Full_Originals_Library.
Within Photos App select Preferences | General. Library Location should show something like: ExternalUSBDrive>Full_Originals_Library>Photos Library.photoslibrary
Click on the iCloud Tab within Photos Preferences.
Select the Download Originals to this Mac option
Exit out of Photos Preferences
Within Photos App click on left hand sidebar Library at near the top. You should start seeing the library populate with photos. It'll take some (A LOT) of time depending on how large your library is. For me it took approx. 4 days for my library to fully download.
Once it is fully downloaded (and even as it’s happening from the start or anytime in between) at bottom of your Photos | Library view - where you see the latest photos you'll also see a count similar to what you see in the picture above (sometimes it take a few mins for that count to show up). If you see something else -- it'll be descriptive enough to know it is still syncing / downloading / uploading / etc.. When I saw the above though I knew my library was fully downloaded.
You can exit the Photos App for SecondaryUser. In background, even while Photos App isn't running, there are system processes that run to analyze your photos library as well as to keep it in sync with iCloud. I believe that is the case though ONLY when you leave the user account logged in (it may well work even when logged out of Secondary User account but the machine is turned on still and another user account is active (need to do some experiments to see what the case is. Until then I have a small penalty to pay — I log in as Secondary User and I switch away from it to Primary User and I have no issues at all).
Select Apple Logo Menu (top left corner), Lock Screen. Switch User. Primary User - provide password. (As per above you want to leave SecondaryUser logged in still but you don't need to be doing anything except leaving it logged in and in the background).
Set up or configure your Backup Solution to ensure it includes the new directory on the External Drive that contains the Full_Originals_Library>Photos Library.photoslibrary. You may also want to tell your backup solution to EXCLUDE the optimized version of the library on your internal storage — as there is no need to back that up — as you’ll never want to restore from that limited version.
In my case -- I had BackBlaze configured to already be backing up that External USB Drive so that new directory with the Full Library was automatically picked up and backed up. I added the exclusion of the photo library from the internal storage though.
Now anytime I reboot the MacBook -- I first log in at PrimaryUser. I ensure the External USB Drive has mounted properly (sometimes takes a minute or two for such slow storage to mount). Switch User (not logout and login) over to SecondaryUser - open Photos App. Close Photos App. Switch User (not logout and login) back to Primary User. Do what ever work I want to be doing etc. etc. etc.. If the MacBook goes to sleep (or I put it to sleep) — no issues, when I wake it up I just authenticate Primary User and continue to do what ever work I want to do. Secondary User remains logged in and in the background — and Photos services continue to sync etc.. so far from what I can tell.
When I am moving away from my clamshell mode and external accessories -- No problem. I switch over to Secondary User. Log out as Secondary User. Switch over to Primary User. Eject the USB Drive safely. Unplug all external devices and continue to use in laptop mode under PrimaryUser. When I dock back again - I attach the external drive back make sure its mounted properly etc.. under PrimaryUser. Then I just switch over to SecondaryUser - open Photos app - close Photos app and switch back to PriumaryUser and I am doing my regular work again as Photos services for Secondary User in background pickup again and sync the Full Library.
Backups to Backblaze happen on their own whenever the ExternalDrive is attached and when it isn’t they still happen for the rest of the system except the external drive. SecondaryUser Full Library continues to download and sync Originals to ExternalDrive when ever it's connected. PrimaryUser has an optimized version of library on local SSD for quick browsing / viewing / editing while docked or in laptop mode. I actually prefer doing my edits on pics / videos using the Optimized version as I generally find that library faster (Even when downloads are involved) since it is on a fast SSD vs a horribly slow external spinning HD.).
You should definitely take a look at the following:
And if you are interested in setting up a regularly occuring export:
github.com
Update: June 16 2023 - This configuration continues to work well. Currently running macOS 13.4 (Ventura) for a Photo Library that ~1.5TB space used with ~151,000 Photos and ~5500 videos.
Risk:
Not having a COMPLETE backup of all full original resolution photos and videos that the Photos Application is being used for.
- iCloud is only place where ALL the full original resolution photos and videos are stored (2 TB plan storing 1.5TB of photos and videos).
- My devices: iPhone (256GB), iPad (64GB) and Macbook (1TB SSD) dont' have sufficient internal storage to have a FULL ORIGINALS Photo Library. They are all set as optimized storage.
- Thus none of the backups made of my devices is actually fully backing up ALL photos and videos in full resolution. At best, might be getting a backup off the Macbook of an reduced resolution version of all photos and videos (no guarantee actually that it has downloaded from iCloud and synced to local disk every single photo and video in reduced resolution library).
- Don't want to buy another Mac with a drive that is large enough to store the full originals (Mac Mini 4TB is 2500 USDollar)
- Don't want to replace existing Macbook with another Macbook with a larger drive (4TB +1200 USDollar when configuring a Macbook 14 Pro going from 512GB to 4TB)
LEAST cost and requires minimal intervention on my part.
- Used existing Macbook.
- Attach external drive (SSD preferred but also works with slower spinning drives)
- Have two seperate user accounts.
- 1st user account on MacBook has photo library configured as Optimized Version on internal SSD.
- 2nd user account on the MacBook configured to also log into the same iCloud account as 1st User account above. For this account though you will configure it's Photos App Photo Library to point to a folder on an external drive and you'll configure on the iCloud tab as FULL Library - Download Originals. Additionally, if you want you can without any signficant storage space used penality (due to APFS) configure a reoccuring job to export from that full resolution Photos Library every photo and video into a directory structure organzied for example by Year and Month.
- Above enables full backup (via Backblaze for me) of all originals both as part of the Apple Photo Library as well as individual files outside of it.
- I like having an optimized version on the internal SSD as it allows me access to my photos when I am away from my "docked" configuration (external monitor, drives, trackpad, keyboard, etc). I do NOT backup this version of the photos library.
Try at your own risk. Please be careful. At no time do you want to impact the iCloud version of the photo library and what is stored on it already. You DO NOT want to accidentally erase or overwrite your iCloud library. Thus
Most likely you SHOULD NOT do this if:
- You don’t already somehow have a full backup of all your photos and videos ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- You don't understand clearly everything below and the work around that is being attempted and why it theortecically works currently and why it may not work in the future. I've only done this on macOS 13.x [Ventura] and macOS 12.6.1 [Monterey].
Details and Step by Step Instructions:
OS: using macOS Monterey 12.6.1
HW: MacBook Pro 14" 2021
- M1Pro w/ 32GB RAM
- 1TB internal SSD
14TB USB External Hard Disk via via USB-C (slow as F but serviceable for archive purpose)- 2 TB USB External SSD
Primary Account Configuration:
macOS Account Name: PrimaryUser (admin)
Under System Preferences - logged into AppleID with Primary.User@icloud.com
Photos App: Preferences | General | Library Location: MacBook SSD>Users>PrimaryUser>Pictures>Photos Library.photoslibrary
Photos App: Preferences | iCloud: iCloud Photos: Optimize Mac Storage option selected.
Next steps,
Secondary Account on macOS: (secondary account used ONLY for one purpose - to download full quality Original photos and videos from iCloud to External USB attached storage).
Configuration:
Created a new account while logged in as PrimaryUser via System Preferences | Users & Groups | + for a new account:
Account Type: Administrator
Full Name: Secondary User
Account Name: SecondaryUser
While Remaining Logged in as PrimaryUser - select Apple Icon from top left of menu bar and choose Lock Screen. Then choose from near bottom center right - Switch User.
[Can also enable switch user via Control Center from menu bar near top right of screen and select Switch User icon (may need to enable that icon to show - via System Preferences|Dock & Menu Bar | Fast User Switching | Show in Control Center Check turned on)]
NOW Login as Secondary User
On 1st login -- it'll try to guide through setup of various items - do as you wish EXCEPT cancel out of anything iCloud / AppleID related - select setup later for those.
From top left corner of screen: Apple Logo | System Preferences | Apple ID.
Configure it to login as primary.user@icloud.com (yes - the same as your primary account).
Once iCloud has logged in for AppleID configure the items to only have the following selected: Photos and Keychain. You don’t need any other item checked off within AppleId such as iCloud Mail, Notes, etc.. Similar to below.
Open Finder Window. Navigate to your external USB Drive. Create a Folder called Full_Originals_Library off the root of the volume. Close Finder
Open Photos App.
Select Photos Preferences | General | Library Location and click on Show in Finder.
Quit Photos App.
Use the Finder Window that opened in prior step. Move that new and empty Photos Library.photoslibrary file over to your External USB drive to the Folder called Full_Originals_Library. Close the Finder window.
[side note: you could technically take an existing photos library that is FULLY populated already and point to it (if it's located where you want it to be or you could move it to a new location. What will happen though is the following: If a brand new empty library -- it will be synced from iCloud and fully populated with full resolution objects -- a download over your internet connection. If it is an existing library (moved / copied or pointed to) -- chances are it will NONE THE LESS go through a sync process in which it UPLOADS or at least does a evaluation of every single object and hashes each one and uploads the hash to iCloud to check if the object matches. Either way it's time consuming and I am not sure if it is uploading the full item or just a hash. If just a hash -- it'll go faster. If full item -- it'll go slower as most people have faster download speeds as compared to upload speeds on their internet connections. i.e. asymmetric connection of 500/35 (like Xfinity) vs a symmetric connection of 500/500 (like FIOS)]
Hold down the OPTION key on the keyboard and while holding it click on the Photos App icon. You'll be shown a list of various photo libraries to select from. Pick the 1st one on the list - make sure it points to the Library.photoslibrary file in the external drive folder called Full_Originals_Library.
Within Photos App select Preferences | General. Library Location should show something like: ExternalUSBDrive>Full_Originals_Library>Photos Library.photoslibrary
Click on the iCloud Tab within Photos Preferences.
Select the Download Originals to this Mac option
Exit out of Photos Preferences
Within Photos App click on left hand sidebar Library at near the top. You should start seeing the library populate with photos. It'll take some (A LOT) of time depending on how large your library is. For me it took approx. 4 days for my library to fully download.
Once it is fully downloaded (and even as it’s happening from the start or anytime in between) at bottom of your Photos | Library view - where you see the latest photos you'll also see a count similar to what you see in the picture above (sometimes it take a few mins for that count to show up). If you see something else -- it'll be descriptive enough to know it is still syncing / downloading / uploading / etc.. When I saw the above though I knew my library was fully downloaded.
You can exit the Photos App for SecondaryUser. In background, even while Photos App isn't running, there are system processes that run to analyze your photos library as well as to keep it in sync with iCloud. I believe that is the case though ONLY when you leave the user account logged in (it may well work even when logged out of Secondary User account but the machine is turned on still and another user account is active (need to do some experiments to see what the case is. Until then I have a small penalty to pay — I log in as Secondary User and I switch away from it to Primary User and I have no issues at all).
Select Apple Logo Menu (top left corner), Lock Screen. Switch User. Primary User - provide password. (As per above you want to leave SecondaryUser logged in still but you don't need to be doing anything except leaving it logged in and in the background).
Set up or configure your Backup Solution to ensure it includes the new directory on the External Drive that contains the Full_Originals_Library>Photos Library.photoslibrary. You may also want to tell your backup solution to EXCLUDE the optimized version of the library on your internal storage — as there is no need to back that up — as you’ll never want to restore from that limited version.
In my case -- I had BackBlaze configured to already be backing up that External USB Drive so that new directory with the Full Library was automatically picked up and backed up. I added the exclusion of the photo library from the internal storage though.
Now anytime I reboot the MacBook -- I first log in at PrimaryUser. I ensure the External USB Drive has mounted properly (sometimes takes a minute or two for such slow storage to mount). Switch User (not logout and login) over to SecondaryUser - open Photos App. Close Photos App. Switch User (not logout and login) back to Primary User. Do what ever work I want to be doing etc. etc. etc.. If the MacBook goes to sleep (or I put it to sleep) — no issues, when I wake it up I just authenticate Primary User and continue to do what ever work I want to do. Secondary User remains logged in and in the background — and Photos services continue to sync etc.. so far from what I can tell.
When I am moving away from my clamshell mode and external accessories -- No problem. I switch over to Secondary User. Log out as Secondary User. Switch over to Primary User. Eject the USB Drive safely. Unplug all external devices and continue to use in laptop mode under PrimaryUser. When I dock back again - I attach the external drive back make sure its mounted properly etc.. under PrimaryUser. Then I just switch over to SecondaryUser - open Photos app - close Photos app and switch back to PriumaryUser and I am doing my regular work again as Photos services for Secondary User in background pickup again and sync the Full Library.
Backups to Backblaze happen on their own whenever the ExternalDrive is attached and when it isn’t they still happen for the rest of the system except the external drive. SecondaryUser Full Library continues to download and sync Originals to ExternalDrive when ever it's connected. PrimaryUser has an optimized version of library on local SSD for quick browsing / viewing / editing while docked or in laptop mode. I actually prefer doing my edits on pics / videos using the Optimized version as I generally find that library faster (Even when downloads are involved) since it is on a fast SSD vs a horribly slow external spinning HD.).
You should definitely take a look at the following:
And if you are interested in setting up a regularly occuring export:
Scheduled Export: launchd invokes shell script with macOS permission granted (in place of crontab) · RhetTbull osxphotos · Discussion #1080
Hopefully this might be helpful to others who want schedule a job for an osxphotos export. Been using osxphotos export --download-missing --use-photokit for a while with a shell script. Has worked ...
github.com
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