Time Machine is Apple's backup solution, included in OS X. An external drive is required. It backs up changed files every hour, and stores as many 'snapshots' as it can hold. After the initial full backup, it only stores changes to files, which makes things more efficient, and allows for more granular snapshots. The advantage of cloned backups is that it overcomes the disadvantage of incremental ones. That is, with a bootable clone of your system drive, you can boot up your Mac from the clone and use your Mac almost immediately. You can also use the clone to restore your Mac when you finally have the opportunity to replace the failed drive.
If you’re like me, then you probably store a lot of precious data on your digital devices: family photos, videos, music, fun projects, work projects, notes, and the like. When(it’s definitely when, not if) we experience a device failure/loss, the last thing we want to worry about is whether the data we’ve accumuated over the years, our digital life, is safe or not. Here is the backup strategy I use to make sure that when a computer fails it’s a minor inconvenience instead of a major headache(or heartache).
The 3-2-1 Rule
There is a rule for reliable digital backups called The 3-2-1 Rule and it goes like this: for our data to be properly backed up it needs to exist in three places, on two seperate mediums, and with at least one backup offsite. So if we have a copy of our data on our laptop, an external hard drive, and in the cloud we can be pretty confident that our data is safe. Let’s dig into the tools to get this done!
Local Versioned Backups
The first, and perhaps easiest to implement, backup we should make is a local versioned backup of our data. The “local” in local versioned backup means that the data exists locally, physically near us, and not offsite on some remote server or cloud service(Dropbox, iCloud, etc.). The “versioned” part means that our data is backed up incrementally and different versions of our data are maintained. A good use case for this would be if we have a project we’re working on and the files get corrupted, or we make a change that we’re not happy with and want to restore the project to an earlier version. With local versioned backups, we can do this!
One of the easiest ways to maintain local versioned backups of our data on a Mac is to use Apple’s own Time Machine software, which is included with every Mac. We open up System Preferences, select Time Machine, check the box labeled Back Up Automatically, and click on Select Disk to choose which disk we would like to use with Time Machine. It’s important to note that the disk we choose should NOT be our Mac’s startup disk - it should be a seperate disk. This is so that if our Mac were to fail or get lost our local versioned backup would remain intact, keeping our data safe. It’s worth mentioning that Time Machine only backs up our data(photos, videos, music, notes, etc.), not our applications or settings, which is where our second backup comes in.
Local Bootable Backups
A local bootable backup is like the previous backup, except with two major differences: it backs up our entire hard drive including data, apps, and settings, and we can use it to boot up our computer. The “bootable” in local bootable backup means that we can take the drive that contains our backup, plug it into another computer, and boot from it. It is a clone of our system in its entirety. One of the shortcomings of this type of backup is that if we make a change to a project that we don’t like or a file gets messed up, those changes will get backed up to the local bootable backup as well. That is exactly why we keep a versioned backup in addition to a bootable backup.
For a bootable backup I use and highly recommend the application Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich Software. After installing Carbon Copy Cloner, we select which disk we would like the application to use as a backup(again, one that is seperate from our startup disk), the schedule for our backup(I recommend daily), and click on the clone button.
Offsite Backups
An offsite backup of our data is data that is literally offsite - it is located far away from our devices and backup drives. This is typically used as a worst case scenario backup, like if our house were subject to flood, fire, or theft. It would be nice to know that if we were unfortunate enough to lose everything that all of our data would be safe somewhere, and with an offsite backup this is possible.
For most people, one of the easiest ways to maintain an offsite backup is to use a service who’s mission is to keep our data backed up safely. Services like Backblaze can back up our entire computer to their servers(the cloud) and restore those files at our request.
For the more technically inclined, I use and recommend Arq configured to back up our data to AWS Glacier servers, which have relatively low storage fees. Arq is essentially Time Machine for the cloud - it creates versioned backups of our data stored on a server of our choosing. As long as we have an internet connection our files are constantly being backed up to the cloud. However, unlike local backups, we will need to be connected to the internet to restore our files.
Have you ever had trouble finding a photo and feared the worst — that you accidentally deleted it? Or maybe you’ve heard a friend bemoan of how their hard drive failed and they lost everything from pictures of their firstborn to that once-in-a-lifetime selfie with Michael Jordan?
After taking a moment to realize how fortunate you’ve been to have not lost any pics yourself, you probably think, “I should start backing up my photos.” Well, you’ve found the right article. We’re going to go through a few solutions for backing up your Mac and, more specifically, your photo collection. Because while losing an important piece of work is tragic, it’s usually replaceable. The moments that your pictures represent are fleeting, and there’s no way to recreate them.
There’s truth in the phrase 'garbage in, garbage out'. So before you even ask yourself, “How do I back up my photos?” you’ll want to make sure your photo library is cleaned up. Space is precious, so backing up duplicate and almost-duplicate pictures will be a waste.
Thankfully, a Mac app like Gemini 2 can help you unclutter your photos before you back them up. And the best part is, you can download it for free to give it a try.
Best ways to back up your photos on Mac
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple ways to go about backing up your photos. The ones we’re going to go over are:
- iCloud
- Time Machine
- Google Photos
- External hard drive
After reading this article, you’ll be able to weigh out the cost versus convenience for each of these options and see which one works best for you. At the end of the day, the best way to backup photos is the one that’s easy for you to use on a regular basis.
1. How to backup photos to iCloud
The first method is the one that comes standard with your Mac and doesn’t require you to install any additional software. iCloud is cloud-based storage made by Apple and available to anyone with an AppleID. Using iCloud to backup photos is easy thanks to automatic backups and syncing, built into both iPhone and Mac. All you have to do is make sure iCloud is turned on on each device, and you’re all set.
The catch, as there always is, is that you only get 5 GB for free. And that includes not only photos, but also anything else you decide to store on your iCloud drive. Additional storage can be purchased and is fairly affordable compared to other cloud storages.
Setup iCloud Photos backup
When you backup your photos to iCloud, not only does it save your pictures to the cloud, but it also saves them on all of your devices. Since we’re talking mainly about your Mac in this article, you can follow the steps below to see how to save iCloud Photos to your Mac:
- Go to System Preferences > iCloud.
- Click Options next to Photos.
- Select iCloud Photos.
After you turn on iCloud Photos, you’ll get access to other options for syncing and sharing your photos.
This might be helpful: The beginner’s guide to iCloud Photo Sharing
Mac Os Backup Software
2. How to backup photos to Time Machine
The next type of backup veers away from the cloud-based model. Time Machine is the built-in Mac application that will automatically backup your Mac to an external hard drive. Which means you will have to buy an external drive or use a network drive, but the bright side is as long as you have the hard drive plugged in your Mac will be backed up.
One of the major benefits to Time Machine is that it’s a differential backup. That means that after the initial backup it will only back up the files that are new and/or changed. So every backup after the first one will be faster because, in theory, it’s backing up fewer files.
Does Time Machine back up my photo library?
There can be some confusion as to what Time Machine backs up once it’s configured. Simply put, it backs up everything, including any photos stored on your Mac.
That being said the easiest way to search for photos and/or restore things from your backup is to ensure you’re using the Photos app on your computer. If you just have random photos scattered throughout your Mac it can be harder to track those down, whereas Photos helps you keep your library organized.
Setup Time Machine backup
Backup Strategy For Mac Os
Because Time Machine backs up everything on your computer, any duplicates you have taking up space on your computer’s hard drive will also waste space in your backup. The Mac app, Gemini 2, can scan your hard drive to help you quickly find and remove duplicate files.
Once you plug an external hard drive into your Mac, you should be automatically prompted to use the drive with Time Machine. If you’re not, you can do it manually:
- Go to Apple > System Preferences > Time Machine.
- Click Select Disk.
- In the Time Machine preferences window, select your external drive from the list of available disks.
- Then click Use Disk.
If the hard drive is not formatted properly to be used with Time Machine, you’ll be prompted to format it. You’ll also notice an option to encrypt the hard drive and your backup, which adds an extra level of security in case you misplace the external drive.
3. How to backup photos to Google Photos
The next option is another cloud-based backup solution, Google Photos. While not as well-integrated into iPhone and Mac as iCloud, Google Photos offers equally easy setup and ongoing backups.
The biggest difference between Google Photos and iCloud though is that with Google Photos you can store an unlimited amount of pictures — as long as you agree to have those photos compressed. While most people won’t notice the difference between compressed and uncompressed photos, it’s still something worth noting. If you choose to upload your images at full quality, you’ll be using your Google Drive space, of which you get 15GB for free. Additional storage can be purchased.
Setup Google Photos to backup pictures
Like iCloud, Google handles backups on a per-device basis, but in this case we’ll be covering how to set up a Google Photos backup on Mac:
- Download and install the Google Backup and Sync app on your Mac
- Sign in with your Google Account
- Select whether to back up only photos or videos or all files
- Select all folders you want to back up
- Under “Photo & video upload size,” select your upload quality
- Click Start
This might be helpful: Best photo sharing sites you can use for free
4. Backup photos to an External hard drive
This last option will definitely take the most manual labor. On the other hand, using an external hard drive will give you the most control over what you’re backing up, and many prefer to have it the old-fashioned way. Whether you’re using Photos, another photo manager, or just have pictures scattered around your Mac, you’ll be able to back them up. It’ll just take you a little bit of time to do it yourself.
Of course, if you have iCloud turned on your Mac, you can also backup your iCloud photos to an external hard drive as a secondary back up.
How to back up Photos Library to an external hard drive
- Open Finder > Pictures (or wherever your images are)
- Select your Photos Library, the folder you want to back up, or individual files
- Drag and drop the file onto your external hard drive in the left column.
While this method gives you the most freedom and assurance that you’re backing up exactly what you want, if you make any changes to your Photo Library on Mac, you’ll have to back it up all over again.
As you back up and re-back up photos to an external drive, eventually you might find it riddled with duplicates. Gemini 2, the Mac app we mentioned earlier, can also scan your external HDD for duplicate photos, making it easy to delete them.
Now that you’ve got some idea on how to back up your photos, it’s time to get started. The most important thing to keep in mind is that a backup is only as good as the last time it was done. So back up your pictures early, and back them up often. And if you’re truly worried about it — why only have just one photo backup? Combine a cloud-based option with an external HDD and sleep well knowing your memories are safe.