Photos - backup and more "handling"

[Sir Bobby]

I haven't used Photos in a while but after a wedding I imported some new content and then some questions came up.
I now make backup of my system with Time Machine to my NAS.

• Is this enough or should I do something else to keep an extra backup of the images? (Never used the recover-function so don't exactly know what it does *fingers crossed*)
• What's the difference between "Library", "Imports", "Latest" and "My photo stream"? Can I remove images in the later 3, without removing them from the system?

 

[NoBoMac]

If you only have one Time Machine instance, not enough, imo. Need to have a copy or two elsewhere. I make copies of my Pictures folder to several disks as well as export new pictures to a couple cloud accounts.

No, cannot remove from any of those "folders" without deleting them from the library. They are, basically, smart folders: links to the actual images. Not using extra space as there is one copy of the photo that all of them are referencing. Same thing that happens when you make an album: album references the image on disk.

 

[Sir Bobby]

Thanx for the update.

How do yo do when you make copies of that folder?
I tried to drag and drop the one file that is used but it can't handle that for some reason.
Is it the folders "database", "external", "Masters.legacy" etc?

 

[Fishrrman]

Get a second drive (USB)

Get either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Use CCC or SD to create a cloned backup on the USB drive.

You now have "a backup made another way".
In addition, the CCC/SD backups are "mountable in the finder" -- just as any other drive would be. No messin' with time machine to get at a file...

 

[NoBoMac]

How do yo do when you make copies of that folder?

I just copy the whole Pictures folder and then occasionally update the copy using the rsync terminal command:

rsync Pictures -lptgorDHv /Volumes/Partition/Pictures_Copy --delete

 

[Sir Bobby]

Get a second drive (USB)

Get either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Use CCC or SD to create a cloned backup on the USB drive.

You now have "a backup made another way".
In addition, the CCC/SD backups are "mountable in the finder" -- just as any other drive would be. No messin' with time machine to get at a file...

I have one actually connected to the NAS, but it's forever to transfer the folders and as I wrote before, can't just drag and drop the Photos-file but have to open it up to see all included folders in it.
But perhaps I have to connect the drive directly to the computer every now and then...