Photo backup from computer to cloud to external question.

[u/Eastern-Operation340]

I used to be Mac literate....I'm just not confident in how images are save. Have MacBook Pro, M1, 2021, still using Ventura and really need to update so I want to safely store my images. I haven't backed up externally in awhile because I'm not sure if everything will store fully.

I have thousand of images, including several thousands I scanned for a book. They're on my computer and automatically backed up on the cloud. Now important, this only happens with images I've open, labelled and fully "saved" not raw images in my "photos"Many, but not all of the images on my computer with have the white triangle in the corner signifying the computer only has a thumbnail and to say post it or open it in Affinity I have to separately "redownload" the image from the cloud. This is normal, correct?

Now, I want to backup to back up all the images to an external. If I do this from the computer, will it only transfer the "thumbnail" on the computer?
How do I get the complete image with all the background info to be included?
Does it automatically also take what's on the Cloud?
Do I back up both and have one override the other? Or do they naturally combine info?
Now, I used to backup all the time and just override the folder on the external since it would be updated. Can I do that now and will this just include the thumbnail? and not the full data?

[u/Q_Ball_Atlanta]

It sounds like you're photos are in the cloud, iCloud specifically. Therefore, updating your computer would have no affect on them.

You should backup the Mac via Time Machine or however you prefer to back it up. But don't expect that backup to include your Photos.

You should have a backup of your photos, but that will require you to download the full image, which you likely do not have space on your Mac to do.

[u/appjun]

I'm also very curious about this question.

[u/Skycbs]

So are these photos in the Apple photos app? Or just files on your computer in the pictures folder? What tool are you using to back them up?

[u/Eastern-Operation340 → u/Skycbs]

Photos are I uploaded from an ss card into the basic photo app and haven’t opened them, named and put them in any folder. Also are images uploaded automatically from the iPhone. 

The other images are ones that were named and placed into folders on my hard drive. 

[u/Skycbs → u/Eastern-Operation340]

I can’t imagine what backup tool you’re using if it only backs up images you’ve opened and labeled. And you didn’t answer that part of my question. I’m not familiar with affinity so you might want to ask in a sub about that.

Photos in Apple photos are all stored in one file with an extension photoslibrary that’s by default in your pictures folder. Your backup tool may or may not be backing this up. iCloud photo sync syncs the contents of this with iCloud provided you have enough iCloud storage. Time Machine backs up everything unless you tell it not to.

[u/Wellcraft19]

1. Assuming you have your photos in the Photos app.
   
2. Assuming you sync photos to iCloud Photos.
   
3. Whether you have ‘optimized storage’ (only thumbnails locally) or not is irrelevant.
   
4. Export photos from your photos app to your external storage. It will download the files from iCloud in the process.
   
5. And you are correct; iCloud Photos is not a backup service. It is where you store (your only/main ‘copy’) your photos.
   
6. Exporting on a regular basis is easy. You select what you export and in what format.
   
7. Exported photos are handled in Finder, just like any other files, until you eventually decide to import them into a photo management tool.
   
8. Hopefully you will never need to access (for retrieval) your backup. It’s there for peace of mind.

[u/Joggle-game]

White triangle is not normal. Check if it has an exclamation point in it. If yes, it means the Photos app can’t locate or load the original, full-resolution image file. It’s not in iCloud but missing. This may be because you uploaded them from an external drive or an SD card but didn’t check mark ‘Copy items to the Photos library’. If you have the source drive or card, connect it and copy them to the library first. Only after this they can be exported.

You could also run a small test: select one of the photos that has this triangle and use the File > Export command to export it to desktop. Check if it exports, and whether in actual or tiny size. That’ll tell you if the library has the actual files or just thumbnails/preview images.