

I’ve also been an iCloud Photos user since day one without issue.
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I’ve been way less diligent about creating offline backups since switching to a Mac notebook full time in 2019. Perhaps that needs to change.Įither way, there’s no way to create local storage backups while using Optimize Storage. iPads are used like MacBooks today, but there’s no Time Machine for iPadOS. My hybrid mode may not be the best solution it’s still clunky and doesn’t help iPhone and iPad users. The challenge is harder to solve on iPhone and iPad – I’ll leave that to more creative minds than mine. Virtually unusable low resolution versions of your library are used for browsing and downloading photos and videos on-demand. Optimize Storage mode isn’t too different from how this mode would work the feature uses available storage to keep full resolution photos and videos on your storage. The Photos app could present a web view of my photo library when the drive is detached.
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Ideally, I could update and sync my local storage photo library each time my external drive is attached. inferior performance) – the benefit is that it enables local backups without totally sacrificing library access. That means using Safari for photo access instead of the Photos app (i.e. iCloud Photos is available as a web app when the hard drive is detached. My solution for my MacBook Air is to have my full photo library on an external hard drive, so it can be cloned or backed up with Time Machine. That’s what I consider an all-or-nothing approach a hybrid approach that uses the best of both worlds would be ideal.
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Right now, there are two options for handling iCloud Photos on the Mac: download your entire library with local storage or optimize storage and load in full resolution photos and videos on-demand. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, though. The solution to this problem isn’t obvious, which is probably why there isn’t an answer in 2022. Technically, it’s possible to download these files to external storage that connects to your iPhone or iPad, ut as Steve Jobs once said – that’s a bag of hurt. The request can take a few days before being fulfilled and requires downloading batches of 20GB files from the web. My best advice for iPhone and iPad users who want a separate copy of their photo library outside of iCloud Photos is this: you can request a copy of your iCloud data including photos and videos as files. Having your data on an Apple server isn’t the same as having your data on a hard drive in your possession.

That’s just iCloud Photos without the syncing component, though. ICloud Backup exists and makes your data recoverable from Apple’s servers. The benefit of local storage on the Mac is that you can view your library offline and back it up externally the benefit of local storage on iPhone and iPad is instant access and offline access only. What about iPhone and iPad? You can pay top dollar for 1TB iPhones and iPads, but creating local backups on external storage isn’t really a thing. If you pay the price upfront, it’s possible you can house your whole photo library locally and still backup to an external hard drive with Time Machine on a regular basis. 1TB solid-state drives were super premium back then (and they’re still higher tier for MacBooks), but new machines come with options for 2TB, 4TB, and even 8TB SSDs. One thing that has changed since 2015 – storage limits on new MacBooks have increased a lot. It’s not the most attractive method, but it’s good backup hygiene for your collection of memories. The critical step is to keep a regularly updated Time Machine backup on a separate external drive.

Either you have enough internal storage, or you connect enough external storage to have every photo and video if you library download locally. My method from seven years ago remains the best strategy today for desktop users. I would wager that the majority of users are on iPhone – Mac desktops probably rank last. The easiest way to keep an offline copy of your photo library is … own a desktop Mac.

iCloud Photos really doesn’t encourage methods of keeping separate, offline copies of photos and videos. It’s really just your photo library in a single place - even if you don’t use Optimize Storage. Keeping a local backup of your photo library is mighty important. Still, iCloud Photos backups shouldn’t be ignored. Have a 300GB photo library? With an iCloud subscription and Optimize Storage, you don’t need a 512GB or 1TB iPhone to take your media with you. ICloud Photos is a fantastic feature for syncing large photo and video libraries across all your devices.
