Introducing Photos Backup Anywhere: A Simple Backup Solution for Your Photos

[UltimateSyn]

This is such a wonderful idea. My use case would be to let my MacBook 'Optimize Storage' but still get a backup of full-resolution photos onto an external drive. I'm not at my Mac right now, so I can't check, but aren't there two versions for downloading originals - download original and download 'full-resolution' original? If that's true does this pull in the absolute highest resolution available?

 

[gerdemb]

This is such a wonderful idea. My use case would be to let my MacBook 'Optimize Storage' but still get a backup of full-resolution photos onto an external drive. I'm not at my Mac right now, so I can't check, but aren't there two versions for downloading originals - download original and download 'full-resolution' original? If that's true does this pull in the absolute highest resolution available?

Thank you for your interest. Your use case is similar to mine--making a full backup of a photo library when "Optimize Storage" is enabled.

To answer your question, the app backs up the full-resolution photo or video exactly as it was initially imported into the photo library. If 'Optimize Storage' is enabled, it will transparently download the original images from iCloud as necessary.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Thank you for your interest. Your use case is similar to mine--making a full backup of a photo library when "Optimize Storage" is enabled.

To answer your question, the app backs up the full-resolution photo or video exactly as it was initially imported into the photo library. If 'Optimize Storage' is enabled, it will transparently download the original images from iCloud as necessary.

Awesome, thank you, going to buy it after work. Just curious how the mechanics work - is it basically just doing a library export onto whatever target drive you select?

 

[bhagemann]

The backup works fine with "Optimize Mac Storage" enabled. Any photos missing from the local photo library will be transparently downloaded from iCloud.

The current released version (1.3) only backs up the original items. However, I'm working on a new release that will also back up non-destructive edits. You can find a link to try the beta version for free at the bottom of the website: https://photosbackup.app I would love to hear your feedback!

To recover your photos, use the Photos app to re-import the images from the backup folder. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't provide an API for programmatically importing photos, so you will need to manually recreate albums, faces, and other organizational features.

I love the idea of getting a "FULL" backup of my photos and all the work put into this library over a decade or so. Preserving the edits is good, and albums would be a plus. But my biggest fear is to lose all the faces data. I've thought there ought to be a way to somehow embed face data into the exif tags of photos so its there for future apps, but Photos only saves face data locally. Same with locations, tags and other things as far as I'm aware. If it was possible to read the face data and add tags, maybe 'on backup' you get a checkbox to have face data embedded if not already. To me, having face data and albums and so on as part of the backup would be good to have even if Apple doesn't use that on import. At least it'd be in the files. BUT I'm sure thats outside the scope of your application. AND there's likely privacy implications I'm not thinking of. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

[gerdemb]

Awesome, thank you, going to buy it after work. Just curious how the mechanics work - is it basically just doing a library export onto whatever target drive you select?

Thank you for your interest! The app uses Apple's PhotoKit API to directly access image and video assets in the photo library. It doesn't depend on or use the export function of the Photos app itself, allowing for more flexibility and performance compared to using the Photos app's built-in export function.

 

[gerdemb]

I love the idea of getting a "FULL" backup of my photos and all the work put into this library over a decade or so. Preserving the edits is good, and albums would be a plus. But my biggest fear is to lose all the faces data. I've thought there ought to be a way to somehow embed face data into the exif tags of photos so its there for future apps, but Photos only saves face data locally. Same with locations, tags and other things as far as I'm aware. If it was possible to read the face data and add tags, maybe 'on backup' you get a checkbox to have face data embedded if not already. To me, having face data and albums and so on as part of the backup would be good to have even if Apple doesn't use that on import. At least it'd be in the files. BUT I'm sure thats outside the scope of your application. AND there's likely privacy implications I'm not thinking of. Looking forward to trying it out.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I also wish there was a way to fully back up all photo library details, such as face data, albums, and edits. Unfortunately, the API that Apple provides for apps to work with the photo library is pretty basic and doesn’t provide access to most of this information, which makes it impossible to preserve all metadata during backup. The only exception is location, because that’s usually embedded in the image file itself.

If you want a complete backup of your photo library preserving all the metadata, the best solution I know of is to store the library on your Mac’s internal HDD or on a directly connected external disk (no NAS or network shares!). If you’re using iCloud, make sure that you have selected “Download Originals to this Mac.” Then you can backup this photo library using Time Machine or another backup tool. Unfortunately, this solution is impractical for many users, especially those with large libraries like mine. This is why I developed the app.

My focus with the app is on creating a simple and reliable backup of photos that, like Time Machine, is 'set-and-forget', running automatically without requiring constant user intervention.

Thanks again for your interest—I hope the app meets your needs, and I’d love to hear your feedback when you give it a try.

 

[agregson]

@agregson
Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad to hear everything is working well.

About the backup status: If the menu bar icon has a green checkmark badge, that means the backup is complete. A blue down arrow badge means a backup is currently running. If there's no badge, it means no backup is running. If you want more details, such as when the last backup finished or the progress of the current backup, click the menu bar icon. This will show you the current status. I wanted a simple "set and forget" design that works automatically in the background, much like Time Machine.

The app automatically checks your photo library for new items every hour. This full scan should only take a minute or two.

Thanks again for all your messages, and feel free to reach out if you have any more questions or feedback. Your comments have been very helpful!

It is working extremely well. Just what I needed. I also love the minimalism of the app. It does what it is supposed to do with minimal fuss, intervention or intrusion. I have long wanted an app like this. Thanks!
As for features - don’t be tempted to do what so many do and add more. It is great. I suppose the only thing would be support for other network storage such as SFTP, Google, DropBox, OneDrive. At the moment I script and schedule Transmit to sync a folder from external drive to online storage.
Happy user and will recommend to others.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Okay, sorry to keep bugging you. I bought the app and completed my first backup. Was incredibly easy and fast, I suppose mostly since all the local copies were already available on my Mac. All is well, photos appear to be in place.

My question today is how would I go about re-importing these photos into Photos if something catastrophic were to occur and my normal library became lost / corrupted? I noticed the month/year structure of the backup, and am wondering if I would have to go into every folder to manually re-import, of if there's another easier way that this was designed for.

 

[agregson]

Okay, sorry to keep bugging you. I bought the app and completed my first backup. Was incredibly easy and fast, I suppose mostly since all the local copies were already available on my Mac. All is well, photos appear to be in place.

My question today is how would I go about re-importing these photos into Photos if something catastrophic were to occur and my normal library became lost / corrupted? I noticed the month/year structure of the backup, and am wondering if I would have to go into every folder to manually re-import, of if there's another easier way that this was designed for.

Could you not just drag and drop the relevant folders you wish to import onto a new photos library? I tried that by setting up a new library and dragging in a backup of a year and it seemed to import without issue. Part of the reason I wanted a file based backup such as this app allows was to make it easy to access the photos. I like to have the same as my second backup after Time Machine. Now have files covered with rsync (and versions), photos with this app (and versions via rsync).

 

[gerdemb]

Okay, sorry to keep bugging you. I bought the app and completed my first backup. Was incredibly easy and fast, I suppose mostly since all the local copies were already available on my Mac. All is well, photos appear to be in place.

My question today is how would I go about re-importing these photos into Photos if something catastrophic were to occur and my normal library became lost / corrupted? I noticed the month/year structure of the backup, and am wondering if I would have to go into every folder to manually re-import, of if there's another easier way that this was designed for.

I'm glad the initial backup went smoothly; that's exactly the experience I aim for.

In the event that you need to re-import your photos after something catastrophic, you'll need to reimport them into a new photo library. (Unfortunately, Apple doesn't provide developers an API for apps to create photo libraries or automate imports.)

In the Photos App, go to File | Import... and select the folder containing the photos you wish to import. In my experience, Photos can handle importing several thousands of photos at a time, but may struggle to handle tens of thousands of files, so you might want to limit your imports by year depending on how many photos you have.

Thanks again for your interest and please don't hesitate to contact me again if there's anything else.