Best method for exporting entire library for archival of highest resolution, easily accessible images.

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Best method for exporting entire library for archival of highest resolution, easily accessible images.

Having been subject to the slings and arrows of changing formats and applications over the past 40 years (wow I'm getting old), I want to future-proof myself as best as possible for when Apple decides the xxxxx.photoslibrary format won't be supported (like iPhoto is now). With that in mind, what is the best method to export my entire Photos library into individual files that are both at the highest quality available and in format that will allow me to access at a much later date, even if technology has evolved?

For example (and this may not be the right answer), would exporting to jpg in "High" and "Most Compatible" be a good choice?

And, what exactly does "Export Unmodified Original" produce? Are the other exports "modified"?

Posted on Sep 8, 2022 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 8, 2022 3:22 PM in response to Kirk Carver

If you use export, then any edits you've made are applied to the image, and the result is exported as a new file. Even if you've not made any edits, a new (and re-compressed file is exported)

If you use export unmodified original - then regardless of any edits you may have made, an exact copy of the file as it was when imported is exported. This is what I use for my archive.

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Answer 2

Sep 9, 2022 9:34 AM in response to Kirk Carver

I go nuts.

I have a copy of all my photos in year/month folders on a network drive. (I actually use this for editing in On1PhotoRaw.

The network drive is backed up to one of a rotating set of three hard drives every night. Once a month I rotate the drives. (Latest backup gets put in a shed away from the house in case of fire. Oldest backup becomes current backup.

Oh - and I also have a copy of my photos library on a time machine backup.

😁

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Answer 3

Kirk Carver Author

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Sep 9, 2022 9:10 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Tony

Thanks for the response.

Once exported how do you archive your images? Do you use a separate disk drive and then store that drive somewhere? Do you export on a periodic basis (e.g. 1/month)? Do you leave the images in your Photos library or do you remove them after export?

Kirk

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Answer 4

Kirk Carver Author

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Sep 9, 2022 1:28 PM in response to TonyCollinet

And I thought I was risk averse by having two Time Machine backups and a CCC backup for each computer!

So, when you take a picture with your iPhone/iPad, and it gets saved to iCloud (and one of your Macs in Photos that is set as the System library), then each month you export to the network drive, correct?

How is you network drive set up? NAS or attached to another Mac?

What do you use to back up to your rotating set of 3 drives? CCC? Other?

Kirk

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Answer 5

Sep 9, 2022 2:48 PM in response to Kirk Carver

Network drive is a NAS - but it could just as easily be attached to a mac.

It could even be a directly attached drive. The important thing is you have a copy, and that you are able to back that copy up regularly at least once :-)

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

215,382 points

Sep 10, 2022 9:33 AM in response to Kirk Carver

Here's what I've done:

1 - I exported the originals to an external SSD using these options:

2 - I have a Time Machine HDD that's large enough to backup my internal boot drive and a couple of external drives, one with the original image files on it, previous systems, beta system and various active storage..

I use this setup with bare 1TB SSDs as they are easy to swap out as they fill up and I need more or different space to store. I have cloned systems, previous systems and beta systems as well as various active storage.

Just some food for thought.

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Answer 7

Kirk Carver Author

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Sep 12, 2022 11:39 AM in response to Old Toad

Toad

Thanks. For clarity, are the swappable 1TB drives in those two external OWC enclosures used as the data drives for the Mac, and that single 6TB drive you have labeled backs up the 1TB drives (and the Mac internal drive) ?

Kirk

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

215,382 points

Sep 12, 2022 12:13 PM in response to Kirk Carver

Tw==

Kirk Carver wrote:

Toad

Thanks. For clarity, are the swappable 1TB drives in those two external OWC enclosures used as the data drives for the Mac, and that single 6TB drive you have labeled backs up the 1TB drives (and the Mac internal drive) ?

Kirk

Yes. The TM drive has enough space to handle the internal boot drive and two of the 4 SSDs in the docks. One of 4 SSDs is a redundant backup of certain folders with Carbon Copy Cloner and one is a clone of my internal boot drive. So there's only 3 SSDs getting backed up with Time Machine.

The TM drives has 59 backups going back to. 03/09/2022 and there's still 189 GB available. Many of the backups are only a couple hundred MBs in size as only new or changed files are added.

I also have a couple of these adaptors for booting into older systems to use older software:

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Best method for exporting entire library for archival of highest resolution, easily accessible images.

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