It doesn’t solve the problem, no.
macos osx photos catalina
- Thread starter whitecrook
- Start date
It doesn’t solve the problem, no.
Soldato
Basically you need 1 machine which you can plug an external drive into to be the machine that downloads all of the originals.
As you’ve mentioned this cannot be your current Mac.
To me that seems to suggest you need another Mac designated for this purpose.
I do pretty much the exact thing as you are trying to achieve except my existing Mac is the machine that houses the originals, so I already have somewhere to plug in an external disc and make a copy.
But I really like the idea of having a Mac mini sitting doing this so I can turn on optimise storage on my MBP!
As you’ve mentioned this cannot be your current Mac.
To me that seems to suggest you need another Mac designated for this purpose.
I do pretty much the exact thing as you are trying to achieve except my existing Mac is the machine that houses the originals, so I already have somewhere to plug in an external disc and make a copy.
But I really like the idea of having a Mac mini sitting doing this so I can turn on optimise storage on my MBP!
Thanks. Exactly!
my question was is this the only way, and short of going down a vm route (maybe even a vm on my existing windows pc) it appears to be.
Why cant apple just make a time machine option for icloud. I.e->a literal CHECK BOX to download originals to time machine when plugged in. That way i could use my existing backup/ external drive and setup with dock as i do now but still have orig available and optimise on the laptop. Maybe but apple are removing features from their software these days rather than adding so we’ll see.
Soldato
I’d say for reliability and how important photos usually are, I wouldn’t be relying on a VM for this task, but that’s just me and the level of risk I’d be prepared to take!
I like the idea of time machine backups downloading new photos on the fly to backup the originals whilst still leaving your Mac with optimise storage turned on. Maybe submit feedback to Apple on that?
Yes, I don't like the VM idea for this task very much, but it's an interesting avenue.
I left enhancement request on apple.com
Commissario
The MacGeekGab guys are very against saving the photos library on an external drive, saying that it's known to cause big corruption issues. I've never tried it so I can't comment but they're always very vocal against it whenever it's mentioned.
Soldato
My approach would be to store the originals in the VM and simply copy the photo library onto an external disk.
For backups....? Perhaps operationally maybe. Dunno, never had an issue with it. On my iMac Pro - my main one - the photos library is on a Samsung X5, and it's been absolutely fine. Backs up to my Min & NAS.
Yes that's what I would do.
Need some data on that. Sounds like it may be 'OK'. I can see corruption issues potentially if it's an external drive that's getting removed and sporadically updated, perhaps even on multiple systems(!) or someone is swappign between different libraries trying to do clever things, but a permanently connected drive to a fixed system with one library should be OK I would have expected and thought.
It is supported from what I can tell. I do know if I try open it from my NAS directly it completely ruins the library. Won't do that again.
Commissario
No, for the main location of your Photo library file.
Soldato
- Joined
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You might not be able to find an elegant solution which solves all of your points.
How about buying some onedrive storage and have the iphone sync the camera roll to both photos and onedrive? AFAIK, onedrive (unlike amazon photos) uploads the exact 100% raw image in the apple format (not jpg). That would do for your backups and wouldn't eat up your local storage.
You could also install the onedrive client on the mac to see them in finder.
Plus, if you fancy an office365 family sub, you get 1tb stoage with vault access and can share the plan (or sell wink wink) to 5 friends.
How about buying some onedrive storage and have the iphone sync the camera roll to both photos and onedrive? AFAIK, onedrive (unlike amazon photos) uploads the exact 100% raw image in the apple format (not jpg). That would do for your backups and wouldn't eat up your local storage.
You could also install the onedrive client on the mac to see them in finder.
Plus, if you fancy an office365 family sub, you get 1tb stoage with vault access and can share the plan (or sell wink wink) to 5 friends.
Soldato
AFAIK OneDrive STILL doesn’t support Live Photo’s.
Soldato
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ah, good point
Soldato
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mmmmm, not really thought this idea through, but what about creating a second appleid with it's own icloud storage plan. Then on your iphone share your photos with this other account? That would give you a second copy.
Appreciate the suggestions but they dont solve the problem . Thanks
I do something similar which you could potentially consider. Speaking specifically about iPhoto photos:
- I import into Photos on Mac and have Optimise Photos setup
- I also use the Image Capture.app to do a secondary manual import to a NAS folder which is also backed up to the cloud (this could be an external disk too)
- I import into Photos on Mac and have Optimise Photos setup
- I also use the Image Capture.app to do a secondary manual import to a NAS folder which is also backed up to the cloud (this could be an external disk too)
Soldato
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This thread makes no sense at all - is there some sort of photos iCloud voodoo magic I don't know ?
I personally have 2 Mac minis and a MBP
The 2 minis are both set to both download original photos and store locally - is this what the OP was aiming for? He seems to mistakenly think that only one original high res image can exist?
My MBP has it set to optimise.
Both mini's use external drives to store the photos library - storing it externally is no more risky than internally, its one giant data base folder you just need your hard drive formatted Mac OS Ext or APFS
All working fine here - I also store all original photos on my iPhone because it has enough memory.
In addition to this - my 2nd back up mini also has directory duplication software running so it sends my photos library to my backup server every 24 hours.
Also my time machine backs up the drive that has the photos library on...lol
I personally have 2 Mac minis and a MBP
The 2 minis are both set to both download original photos and store locally - is this what the OP was aiming for? He seems to mistakenly think that only one original high res image can exist?
My MBP has it set to optimise.
Both mini's use external drives to store the photos library - storing it externally is no more risky than internally, its one giant data base folder you just need your hard drive formatted Mac OS Ext or APFS
All working fine here - I also store all original photos on my iPhone because it has enough memory.
In addition to this - my 2nd back up mini also has directory duplication software running so it sends my photos library to my backup server every 24 hours.
Also my time machine backs up the drive that has the photos library on...lol