Step 3: Open a File Explorer window and go to the iCloud Photos folder the Shared folder. Then you can choose the photos you want and save them to another folder on your computer. 2 How to Back up iCloud Photo Library to Mac. You can easily create a backup of all the photos and videos in your iCloud photo Library to your Mac. Here’s how to. Jul 25, 2017 Creating A Secondary Local Backup Of iCloud Photo Library. Though it is good enough to have a local iCloud Photo Library backup, but it is even better to have another one just to be safe. When taking backup of your Mac through Time Machine, clone or some cloud service, you have the option of checking a checkbox for keeping copy of your videos. Jun 04, 2018 The iCloud Photo Library is a great first backup. But as we consistently recommend here at Apple ToolBox, please backup in more than one place. Do not ONLY have an iCloud Photo Library backup of your photos. An additional backup for iCloud photo library is necessary. Follow our guide to backup iCloud photos to Mac/PC computer, or external hard drive, USB drive, or make. I trust iCloud Photos to be my one, true photo library over all other systems, and the iPhone, iPad, and Mac integration is unbeatable. 9to5Mac is brought to you by CleanMyMac X. Find hidden junk. Open System Preferences iCloud Photos Options and Select iCloud Photo Library. Once you are happy that all is working properly, you can delete your original library from your Mac.
Apple's iCloud Photo Library service works seamlessly to sync and back up your images and video across all of your Apple devices to iCloud — but if you're serious about keeping your irreplaceable photos and video safe, you'll want a redundant (second) backup. Because as they always say, you can never have too many backups! And it's better to be safe than sorry, honestly.
Backing up your photos can take the form of a local backup on your own drive or an external source, a secondary online backup, or both. Here's how to do it all.
How to back up iCloud Photo Library to your Mac's hard drive
The best way to back up the images and video in iCloud Photo Library is to make sure you're downloading all your content onto your Mac.
Note: If you plan to back up your entire digital library to your Mac's hard drive, you'll likely want to do it on a desktop Mac with a 1TB drive or higher. Otherwise, consider backing up to an external drive.
Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
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- Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
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- Click the iCloud tab.
Click Download Originals to this Mac.
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Your Mac will now download full-resolution copies of all your images to your Mac's hard drive, stored inside your Photos app library.
How to back up your iCloud Photo Library content to an external drive
There are two ways to back up your iCloud Photo Library to an external drive: by backing up your Photos library automatically, or manually. (You can also export sections of your library if you don't want to back up the whole thing.)
Back up your Photos library automatically
If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library, you can back up your Photos library as part of your regular backup routine. Whether you use Time Machine or clone your hard drive using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy, your Photos library (and all images and video automatically downloaded from iCloud) will be backed up as well. (And if you don't currently use a backup service, well.. now's a good time to start!)
Back up your Photos library manually
If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library but don't want to back it up automatically, you can always copy your Photos library to an external drive at regular intervals.
- Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open a new Finder window on your Mac.
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Click on Pictures in the sidebar.
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Drag your Photos Library to your external drive.
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- Wait for it to copy.
Create an external library for backing up iCloud Photo Library
I recommend setting a bi-weekly reminder for these steps, so you keep your Photos library regularly backed up.
How to back up portions of your iCloud Photo Library
Don't want to back up your entire library? You can export individual images and videos to your external drive.
- Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open the Photos app.
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- Select the photos and video you want to back up.
- Go to the File menu.
Hover over the Export option.
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Select either Export # Photos or Video or Export Unmodified Original for # Photos or Videos.
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Select an option for File Name and Subfolder Format, and then input your text as desired.
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Press Export.
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- Choose your external drive.
- Press Export Originals.
How to make an online backup of your iCloud Photo Library
Even though your entire iCloud Photo Library is (as the name implies) stored online in iCloud, it's worth considering a second online backup as one of your redundancies. Mac os x system library displays overrides.
If you store your entire iCloud Photo Library on your Mac
Good news: If you already use a service to back up your hard drive and you've synced your full iCloud Photo Library to your Mac, it's easy to back it all up. (If not, consider it a good time to start!)
If you don't store your iCloud Photo Library on your Mac
If you don't store your iCloud images locally, this is a bit trickier: you can use the external drive method to export portions of your library to an external drive, then sync that drive to your preferred online backup service, but it's a bit more labor-intensive. In general, this is why I tend to recommend backing up your full library to your Mac or storing a library on an external drive.
Any iCloud Photo Library backup questions?
Have any questions about how to back up your iCloud Photo Library, or about backups or iCloud Photo Library in general? Drop them in the comments below!
March 2020: These are still the proper steps to back up your iCloud Photo Library
Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.
iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide
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