how to backup mac photos to icloud drive

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 running macOS Mojave or earlier:Īfter you turn on iCloud Photos, you’ll get access to other options for syncing and sharing your photos. 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. Additional storage can be purchased and is fairly affordable compared to other cloud storages. And that includes not only photos, but also anything else you decide to store on your iCloud drive. The catch, as there always is, is that you only get 5 GB for free. All you have to do is make sure iCloud is turned on on each device, and you’re all set. Using iCloud to backup photos is easy thanks to automatic backups and syncing, built into both iPhone and Mac. iCloud is cloud-based storage made by Apple and available to anyone with an AppleID. The first method is the one that comes standard with your Mac and doesn’t require you to install any additional software. 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. The ones we’re going to go over are:Īfter 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. Some back-up apps will even allow you to sync these subitems as opposed to the entire package.As mentioned earlier, there are a couple ways to go about backing up your photos. I believe the originals are stored in a folder called Master and are organized by date. You will then see a folder with various items including subfolders that contain your photos. This is not a standard file, it is a package, so if you want to copy specific photos you can control click the file then choose 'Show Package Contents'. Users/your-username-here/Pictures/iPhoto Library

If the photos you want are currently on your hard drive:Ĭopy or set your backup software to copy the following item: See below to get specific photos in the iPhoto library.

If you hard drive is full, then before doing this change the location of the iPhoto Library to an external drive.

Click on Download Originals to this Mac.

How to backup mac photos to icloud drive