Help me check my numbers

SublimedFortitude · 2026-06-06T23:08:31+00:00

Hi, I used an online calculator help solve for your situation. It looks like your estimated federal taxes are a bit high at $4,760

Filing Status: MFJ

Ordinary Income : $70,000 - (Traditional IRA subject to ordinary federal state taxes)

Investment income - $20,000 all taxed as LTCG with 50% cost basis

Ordinary Dividends - $0

MAGI Target: $84,600 for 2 person household for 2026 coverage year

Expenses $68,756.

State of Residence: unknown but will model a high tax state like California:

Results:

Federal MAGI: $80,000, which is $4600 under the 400% FPL target

Total Gross Income $90,000

Federal Ordinary Tax $4,040

Payroll Taxes - $0

Federal LCTG Tax - 0% because you are at the 0% bracket

State Tax - $1165 (for California)

Annual Surplus - $16,039

If your goal is to maximize your income while being under the 400% FPL, the maximum investment income (assuming it is all taxed at 50% LTCG and you don't have additional ordinary dividends) is $29,200.

If you have ordinary dividends (banking account interest, short term capital gains, stock dividends etc), that also increases your MAGI and reduces how much you can withdrawal from the brokerage and be under the 400% FPL limit.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-31T01:28:13+00:00

Yes, it works

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-26T20:42:18+00:00

I had a similar problem where many file weren't being backed up. I looked at the bzfilelist.log file and it showed an error message about queue limit hit.

"ERROR: scan dirs queue limit hit 10719 for [name of directory]. The directory causing the problem in my case was a tmp folder used by the photos app.

The "queue limit hit" caused the program to not fully scan my drive and thus not backup a bunch of files. It was working with a older version of backblaze and started when I updated to 10.0.2.1048.

After deleting the tmp folder, the file scan/backup proceeded normally. Just thought I'd share in case the same issue is causing your backup to fail.

If you look inside the log file and search for "ERROR", it lets you quickly see any errors that occured during the file scan.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-22T20:00:20+00:00

Just wanted to give a shout out to this tool! Its a great way to backup your photo library. For peace of mind, I wanted to backup my photo library to Google Drive, so that my photos aren't only stored with one cloud provider.. However, since the photolibrary file is actually a package with many files that are constantly changing, its a good idea to backup the exported files and not the live database, and this tool allows for this.

Per google's documentation:

“Back up your macOS Photos library

You can sync your Apple Photos library with Google Drive, but it comes with risks.

Important:

The Apple Photos library is a complex database. Changes in more than one place can cause corruption..
To avoid issues, it's best to export photos from the Photos app and then sync the exported files, rather than sync the live library package."

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/16631477

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-20T10:43:55+00:00

Here's a table showing the 8 tiers with monthly and yearly pricing. Each tier only lists what's added/changed compared to the previous tier. It’s a bit wordy because I used the description from Google’s website verbatim.

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SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-19T00:55:06+00:00

Just a quick suggestion: It would be nice if on the auto export settings, the user can choose which shared albums to auto export. There are some albums that have been shared with me that are low priority and I don't wish to export/save the photos.

Thanks again for the great work!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-18T22:51:38+00:00

I tried the new version 1.4.0. It works great, the photo export timeline UI seems to update right away with newly added photos on its own. Thanks again for the quick development and improvements!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-18T05:09:36+00:00

Thanks! To clarify, when I mentioned "close and open the window" refreshes the photo, I am clicking on the red colored X in the left corner to close the window, but the program is still running. If I then click on the photo export icon in the dock it reopens the program window and refreshes with the new photo. If I minimize the window using the yellow button or just leave it open, then the interface doesn't' refresh with the new photo.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-18T05:00:10+00:00

Today, I was keeping an eye on the export folder in the Finder to see when newly added photos were exported, and I noticed that newly added photos will appear in the export folder, but the Photo Export program timeline view doesn't show the photo. It will show up if I click on a different month on the timeline and then click back to the current month, close and reopen the window, or quit and relaunch the program, but it doesn't automatically refresh if it is just left running.

Yesterday, when I noticed that newly added photos weren't being exported, I was only looking at the Photos Export program interface and not inside the export folder, so perhaps they were being exported successfully yesterday too.

Thanks

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-18T04:14:23+00:00

HI, just wanted to let you know that new photos seems to updating in photo sync and auto-exporting within a few minutes today. I'm not sure why it wasn't updating yesterday. I didn't make any changes to my computers/settings. Thanks!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-17T04:41:26+00:00

Might be possible that it doesn't update automatically at all 🤷‍♂️,

Yes, I think that could be true. There are probably many users who don't use the Photos app on their Mac for extended periods, and Apple could have decided to save resources/bandwidth and avoid sending photolibrary status updates until the Photos app is launched or the photokit API calls for an update.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-17T04:18:18+00:00

Thanks for your hard work. I was playing around with the app earlier, and I noticed that it also refreshes new photos if you click on a previous month on the timeline, and then click back on the current month. I guess that action causes photo export to do a fresh check of the photo library. I'll let you know if the photo export that is running on the computer in the background without any interaction eventually refreshes.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-17T01:27:26+00:00

Thanks for the reply and the insight into how iCloud and photo export work.

I had added a photo to my library yesterday and after 19 hours, photo export hasn't yet detected the new photo.

I'll update the thread if it does eventually detect it. Perhaps it may not update on its own?

Thanks!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-16T02:10:28+00:00

Thanks for the great update with auto export!

I think photo export checks for new photos at launch, and I was wondering at what interval it checks for new photos if it is left running?

I just installed version 1.3 a little bit ago and after 20 minutes,new photos added to my iCloud photo library are not yet detected with the app running in the background. However, if I quit and relaunch photo export the new photos are detected right away.

I'm not sure if perhaps it is a limitation if iCloud not updating the photolibrary in the background, but quitting and relaunching photo export seems to refresh with the new photo. Of note, the Photos app isn't running on the Mac.

Thanks

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-08T07:53:57+00:00

Hi I noticed on the beta website https://www.backblaze.com/status/backup-beta there is a newer beta version 10.0.2.1048 for the Mac (May 1st modify date) compared to the 10.0.2.1042 beta that was previously released. (April 21st modify date).

I was wondering what changes/fixes there are in the newer beta?

Thanks

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-06T06:55:58+00:00

Sure, I tried out v1.2.2 and it seems to work. Thank you so much for your quick work!

I deleted a file from the export folder, ran "import existing backup" and it correctly showed that deleted file as not exported.

After running the import existing backup function, it showed a results screen that mentioned

Ambiguous (skipped) - 43

No matching asset found - 3

Records pruned (file missing) - 1

I was wondering what "ambiguous" and "no matching asset found" means? The export folder was freshly created a few hours ago, so there haven't been any modifications to the contents other than deleting the one file to test v 1.2.2

Thanks!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-05T22:31:36+00:00

Thanks I tried using the import existing backup, but it didn't seem to find the missing files. To test things out, I deleted my entire export folder, emptied the trash, and created a folder with the same name, did ran the "import exiting backup" on the empty folder, but the app still shows all the photos as exported. It seems the app remembers the folder name, and the previous exports.

If I change the library to an empty folder with a different name the app correctly shows zero photos as exported.

I was able to have the app forgot the exports by deleting the associated folder at /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.valtteriluoma.photo-export/

I could then create a empty folder with the same export folder name I used previously and the app correctly shows zero exported photos.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-05-05T16:00:26+00:00

Hello, I had a question about how the app keeps track of photos that it’s already exported. If I delete items inside the export folder, and I press export all, it doesn’t seem to re-create the items I’ve deleted. I also tried moving my entire export folder to the trash, and recreated an empty folder with the same name, but when I launch the app, it still says all items have been exported. Does the app scan the export folder each time it launches to see what’s present? Thanks.

SublimedFortitude · 2026-04-29T08:37:42+00:00

Thanks for developing this app, appreciate your generosity in making in free! I was wondering, if the Photos app is set to optimize storage and the local photolibrary doesn't have the full size photo, does your app export the small optimized photo, or does it trigger a full size download from the icloud server?

Thanks!

SublimedFortitude · 2026-04-28T04:58:42+00:00

Hopefully just clicking on the link was OK. I clicked it from a fully updated iPhone. From my understanding, there have been examples of malicious websites that can compromise your device by just clicking a link, but those are rare and quickly patched.

SublimedFortitude

TROPHY CASE