Library damaged, Time Machine backup Libraries damaged... have I lost all my photos?

christos75 asked,

"Is there a way to also store my photos elsewhere, in case this Library system breaks down again?"

I do a number of different backups. I use Apple's Time Machine, which does incremental backups every hour, at least after I get home and plug in my laptop. Since it only adds recent changes, it's very fast, and it keeps copies back in time, so you can go back to see what your computer looked like a couple months ago, if you like. This, really, is quite remarkable! I also copy my Photos Library to a separate external drive maybe every month or so, hoping I remember.

The only real downside to relying on copies of the Photos Library as your picture backup is that you have to have the Photos app to take full advantage, so the full resources aren't available if you want see edits and comments. Even without Photos, the Originals are completely available from within the Library, but you'd find them with confusing filenames.

If you want to save copies of your pictures as files in Finder folders, then you would use the menu option File>Export. The "File>Export>Export Unmodified Originals" choice is fast, but since they are the originals they don't have any edits or comments you may have added. "File>Export>Export nn Photos" saves the edited and annotated versions of your pictures. Doing both takes twice the storage space. Neither option preserves the albums and folders, but that might not be important for an "dire emergency" backup.

I save my original Nikon file before I import them to Photos, so I keep that extra backup. I've had a hard drive go belly up, so I'm a bit sensitive to losing my pictures!

What do you think?

Dear Christos, like Richard I am archiving my original image files in Folders on an external drive, before they are getting imported to Photos. Only the photos taken with my iPhone need exporting from Photos.

I am also using "File > Export > Export unmodified original", and I am checking the option "IPTC as XPM" to write a sidecar file with the GPS and other metadata. I am saving the files with the original filename. Then I can at least get them into some chronological order based on the image numbers.

Additionally I am using the format for subfolders "Moment Name". This way, any exported photos taken on the same day at the same location will be grouped together in folders named by the date and the location and will be easier to find.

Léonie

What do you see at iCloud.com? Are all your pictures there? If so, you can make a new, empty Library and fill it from iCloud Photos.

To make a new Library for the Mac, close Photos, option click the Photos icon, and choose Create New from the Library dialog. 

Then, on the Mac in Photos>Settings>General, you must make this new, empty Library your System Library. 

In Photos>Settings>iCloud, set "Download Originals," and connect it to iCloud. On a Mac, don't choose "Optimize" unless you absolutely have no choice. A backup of optimized pictures is no backup.

Then wait. Wait some more, and eventually this new Library will fill with full sized images from iCloud.

If you don't see the pictures at iCloud.com, you still will not lose all your pictures-- they are in the Library package, but it would take some work to get them and re-construct what you had.

Let us know how it goes-- you run into things I forgot to mention...

Besides Time Machine, I have an additional external drive that I occasionally (oops, I am about due!) copy my Photos Library to. I keep the last two copies that I made.

christos75 wrote:

...

For no reason whatsoever, recently Photos won't open my Library, says it's damaged. ...

Can you give us some more background information? What has changed, right before you could no longer open your Photos Libraries?

Have you just installed a system upgrade? Which system version is running on your Mac btw?

And where are your Photos Libraries stored? Are they on an external drive or on your system drive in the Pictures folder?

Have you been running any cleaning applications to save storage on your Mac?

That is a good point, Keith. I am also keeping copies of the Photos Library, but for they would not suffice as as a backup for four reasons:

• I am using iCloud Photos, so a copy of the library may not include all originals, even with the "Setting > Download originals" enabled. Photos does not have a status indicator, that would show us reliably, if all originals have been downloaded from iCloud. Whenever I try to open a copy of my iCloud Photos Library, I am usually getting a warning about a few incomplete items.
• I am usually keeping my older Macs as well instead of trading them in when buying a new Mac. Currently I am running four different system versions on my Macs, macOS 10.5 Leopard, macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS 13 Ventura, macOS 14 Sonoma. A copy of the lIbrary created on the newest Systemversion will be useless on the older Macs.
• We need to be able to run Photos to extract the originals from the copy of the Library with the original filenames and dates. Photos is no longer storing the originals unmodified in the library package. It is hard to find a particular photo in the package contents.
• I want to archive the originals as they have been at the time of the first import as a protection against data corruption. Transmission errors, bad disk blocks, a failing drive can modify and corrupt the stored data. When we copy the library as a backup and an image file buried somewhere inside the library package has become damaged months ago, the file in the copy will also be damaged. Then we need to go back to the oldest version of the file we can find. I have already needed to go back to an original I saved in 2002.

léonie wrote: ... I am also keeping copies of the Photos Library, but for they would not suffice as as a backup

You're feeding my paranoia! Do you keep backup files of your edited favorite pictures? I don't--yet. I keep Originals in multiple forms, but now I'm thinking of all the work that went into editing, cropping and annotating them...

I am not yet archiving edited versions, but edited versions of my important photos are in my iCloud Photos Library synced to all my Macs, so I am having them in more than one Time Machine backup.

They are included in Photo Books. And I am having copies of them on iCloud Drive, when I shared them with my husband.

The edited versions are not as stable as the originals. I keep editing them over and over again, as my editing skills are improving and my taste or mood keeps changing. Currently I like my landscape photos to be full of light, but that will probably change soon time and I'll be back to dramatic clouds.