iPhoto Backup

By Dan Hinckley

18688 responsesiPhoto+Backup2009-10-03+12%3A49%3A46Dan+Hinckley. »

One of the most used and loved applications on the Mac is the photo application that comes with iLife and each new computer, iPhoto. Mac owners use iPhoto to store, share, edit, and group their pictures.

Since iPhoto is the central location for all the digital memories and collection of photographs taken for an individual or family, it becomes incredible important that the pictures and photos in iPhoto are protected from damage to a computer or software corruption.

Essentially, everyone should make sure to implement iPhoto backup measures to keep their digital photos protected.

iPhoto Backup Measures

There are a number of different ways to make sure that iPhoto is backed up. One way to complete iPhoto Backup is to ensure that the library that stores all your photos is being saved to Time Machine, the backup software available to Mac owners. Time Machine back’s up your data to an external hard drive and can include all your files, or as few as the files you select, such as the iPhoto library.

To check to see if Time Machine is keeping your iPhoto library backed up:

Open Time Machine
After entering Time Machine, Navigate to Pictures on the left Finder window
Verify that the iPhoto Library appears in the window to the right

Screen shot 2009-10-03 at 8.24.52 AM.jpg

iPhoto Backup Online

While you may feel comfortable enough with your pictures backed up on an external drive, it may be a good idea to utilize Mac online Backup options to secure your data.

Recently, a friend of mine went to restore from Time Machine a previous version of their iPhoto library after they were having trouble with their computer only to find out that the external hard drive connected to the computer had failed. At first he didn’t think he had any other iPhoto Backup options to restore from.

But Luckily he had his data backed up online and could restore their iPhoto library. If you don’t already backup your data online you should consider it so that you can keep your photos safe when your other backup methods fail.

Since iPhoto keeps a copy of all your files in one library, you essentially can keep those pictures safe by just copying the library. If you have computer problems and loose your original data, restoring an iPhoto library is as easy as downloading it from your backup method and holding down the option key when you click to open iPhoto. A window will appear and ask you which library you’d like to open, and you can select your restored library.

About Dan Hinckley

Dan Hinckley is an experienced Mac user who converted to Apple products when they introduced them on Intel Processors. He loves helping others get more out of their devices! Subscribe to Maciverse.com to get the latest from Dan and the Maciverse Team!! Find out more about Dan: Dan's Google Profile

18688 ResponsesiPhoto+Backup2009-10-03+12%3A49%3A46Dan+Hinckley so far.

Darren Kopp
October 3, 2009 at 7:23 am
ahem. just use mozy.
nomad
September 7, 2010 at 8:15 am
stop pushing your online backup snake oil, mac users don't need any of that crap time machine does just fine
Dan
September 7, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Hey nomad, As I mentioned in the article Time Machine Hard Drives fail.. in fact, they fail often. I personally backup online all my data. Easy, secure, and supported by a team dedicated to make sure no data is lost. A lot more than just software provided by Apple.
Neil
October 5, 2010 at 1:55 pm
When is backup ever snake oil??
Backup is backup.
As Dan just said, Time Machine is all nice and dandy until your HD craps out on you. HDs are hideously unreliable and unless you have a solid backup plan you WILL lose data.
DocHolliday
October 27, 2010 at 4:58 pm
There is no such thing as to much, or to many, backups. However, beware of one pitfall. File Vault. I had a beautiful Mac Titanium, backed to a Time Capsule, but had File Vault on. The hard drive failed. New hard drive was much cheaper than a new machine. Best Buy destroyed by Titanium by dropping it. A week of negotiations resulted in a substantial price deduction on a new MacBook. Everything was all backed up via Time Machine so I was fine, right? No…..
It seems that File Vault will not open, or allow a restore, to a new machine. It has to be the original hard drive, the original computer, that File Vault encoded.
Fortunately, I had Mac's Backup program, auto saving my files to my .Mac (now MobileMe) account. I also had an old DVD that was not File Vault encoded (I saved my files prior to utilizing File Vault, just in case).
Whatever your thoughts, there is a Law founded by Murphy. Whatever can go wrong, will.
Again, whatever files you cannot, or will not, want to lose, have backed up via several different methods.
DocHolliday
October 27, 2010 at 5:06 pm
As a follow up, my 500 gb Time Capsule, then 4 years old, crashed. There was no way to get my data off the TC. Fortunately, I was ok.
I bought the newer TC, and a portable HD. Time Machine will only back up to one hard drive, so I use Backup to backup my cannot-lose files to the portable HD as well. As Dan noted, hardware will fail.
David H Goldstein
December 29, 2010 at 4:01 pm
In the newest versions of iPhoto, the iPhoto folder is NOT located in the Pictures folder, and is in fact quite well hidden. The only way I've found to even locate it is by selecting "show in finder" from within iPhoto after selecting a photo, and then navigating back within the resultant finder winder (but not too far back; if you navigate back to the folder containing the iPhoto folder, you lose access to it!) Therefore, I cannot even TELL if TimeMachine is backing it up or not. Anyone have a clue or suggestion about this?
- David H Goldstein
  December 29, 2010 at 8:27 pm
  Update/Correction:
  [sheepishly] Ok, so my iphoto library is not in the pictures folder because…it's on my second external hard drive, where I put it. Duh. But, therefore, TimeMachine was not backing it up. So, I learned this which may help someone here.
  With the external HD connected, when you invoke TimeMachine, under preferences, you are given the option to back up the external as well (more precisely, you are given the option to un-exclude it from backup, which is how it is set by default.) Now, I do not want TM backing up my entire 2nd external drive, so I opened the drive within the TM preference panel, selected everything on it and then deselected my iTunes folder and my iPhoto Library. Now, as long as both externals are connected (the 1st which contains the TM backup folder, and the second which contains iPhoto and iTunes) when I run TM, it does in fact backup those 2 folders from the external!
  In learning this, I also learned this: If iPhoto is the foremost open window when you "enter" TM, then what you are shown is all the previous iPhoto backups, any one of which, or any PART of which you may then restore. Likewise, if you have Mail as the active window when you enter TM, you are shown all your mail backups and are given the easy option of restoring any mailbox or any subfolders or messages you desire from the backups!
  Yay!