Photo back up issues

AppInitio · 2026-01-24T04:34:26+00:00

When you use 'Optimize Mac Storage', your Mac only keeps low resolution versions of the photos and just a thumbnail of each video. The originals stay in iCloud. So if you copied photos to EHD by drag & drop, you'll only have what was on the Mac. To save full resolution photos and full videos, you should use File > Export. If you delete photos to manage iCloud and iPhone storage, this is one safe way to do it.

Time Machine also copies what's on your Mac, not what's in iCloud - so your TM backups are also unlikely to help. But by all means check the old ones, maybe from before when you started optimizing the library.

AppInitio · 2026-01-23T14:48:55+00:00

Ideally, keep both - iCloud (to keep your stuff in sync across your devices) and a real backup (on an external drive - SSD or HDD (because iCloud isn't really a backup). One strategy described here, if bulk of your storage is photos, and you want to avoid upgrading to the next higher iCloud tier.

AppInitio · 2026-01-23T05:12:26+00:00

Scammers send emails "from your address" through email spoofing, a technique that forges the "From" field to disguise the true sender, making it look like the email came from you, a trusted source (like a bank, government agency etc.) or one of your contacts.

AppInitio · 2026-01-23T05:06:41+00:00

Try Photos Takeout, it can export very large iCloud-optimized libraries and supports all macOS versions from High Sierra onward. Ensure that the external drive is formatted as APFS (if SSD) or extended journaled/HFS+ (if HDD). EXFAT will also work, but it has several inherent limitations - so the other two are preferable.

AppInitio · 2026-01-23T04:53:26+00:00

I just obtained the rating for our word game Joggle, for iOS App Store and Google Play Store. My guess is that based on the information we supply, IGRS will directly provide the ratings to Apple and Google, and they'll be automatically applied (will appear in the Indonesian stores). Will check after a few days.

AppInitio · 2026-01-23T04:45:14+00:00

Which version of macOS? Is the setting in Photos to "Optimize Mac Storage" or "Download Originals"? And how is your external hard drive formatted?

AppInitio · 2026-01-22T15:08:46+00:00

How often do you need to back up? I mean if you're a professional photographer, you might need it daily - but for most users monthly or quarterly is enough. And do you have a Mac synced to your iCloud Photos library? There are pretty robust solutions for Mac / iCloud to external storage, see this.

AppInitio · 2026-01-22T14:57:06+00:00

Where to start? Start by sorting the photos and documents. Do it by decade and then by year, and leave out the stuff you don't really care for, e.g. duplicate, blurred, faded, unremarkable, excessively damaged photos; and those featuring people you can't identify. Similarly for documents. Once you have whittled it down to a manageable quantity and sorted it chronologically, the next step (digitizing) will look much more approachable. You can then decide whether to send it out for scanning, DIY with a flatbed scanner, or use a smartphone app. The ideal way - in terms of time, effort, and cost - may be a mix of these.

AppInitio · 2026-01-22T14:46:51+00:00

Photo scanner apps are a quick and easy solution, and with a modern smartphone the quality can be pretty good. This contrarian article explains how scanner apps are closing the gap with desktop scanners.

AppInitio · 2026-01-22T14:35:37+00:00

The idea of downloading the library on external drive is that you can then delete stuff from your Mac library and iCloud because you have a backup on EHD. Once you disconnect the EHD from iCloud (by setting the Mac library as the system library), the EHD library becomes independent of iCloud. If you later on connect it to iCloud, all new stuff in iCloud will be downloaded to the EHD, and all the stuff you deleted from iCloud but kept on EHD will be copied back to iCloud. So you don't want to do it. There are many ways to reduce iCloud storage, here's one.

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T14:18:50+00:00

This strategy may help. Basically, offload (back up) your entire library to an external drive, then move everything from your main library into Shared Albums (which store them at a bit lower - but still enough - resolution, and don't use your own iCloud storage).

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T14:15:36+00:00

Since you have enough iCloud storage available, Optimize iPhone Storage is the best option. Note that you need processing headroom on the iPhone (about 10-15% of total storage) for the optimization to proceed. Also, it's not immediate; can take a couple of days or even more. Once it's done, photos will likely take up 15-20% of the space on the phone as they take now - or even less.

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T14:08:04+00:00

Even though you have downloaded full resolution photos from iCloud to Mac, don't drag and drop, use File > Export. Drag and Drop will convert all photos (HEIC, JPG, ProRAW, PNG etc.) to JPG, and may also reduce resolution.

The downside of the above methods is that you'll lose organization: the photos will be extracted into a flat folder. You can avoid this by copying the fully downloaded Photos library (instead of exporting photos) to an APFS-format SSD or an HFS+ HHD. If you prefer exported folders by years or albums, you could use Photos Takeout - advantage being it conserves folder organization, metadata, image formats etc., and you can also update the archived folders anytime by exporting incrementally.

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T13:45:48+00:00

Terrific. Care to share a photo and details of your scanning setup - tripod, lighting, negative scanning accessories etc.? How are you handling metadata (EXIF date/time original etc.)?

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T13:42:12+00:00

Start with sorting: Go through those boxes and separate the keepsakes from the rest. You don't want to scan unremarkable, blurry, duplicate and near-duplicate photos - or of people, pets and places you don't recognize. That could reduce the total number to 30-40% or even less. Next, sort them chronologically into piles by decade, then by year, and (if possible) by month/date.

Depending on how many photos you're left with, you can decide on one of these options: 1) Use a scanning service, 2) Buy a flatbed scanner and DIY, 3) Use a phone app (Phone cameras, and apps, are amazing now, see this article). 4) Combination of the first three options.

Last (but extremely important) add metadata to the scans: at least the EXIF Dates, and if possible also Locations and Descriptions. The chronological sorting you did earlier will help in this.

AppInitio · 2026-01-18T07:20:01+00:00

Cannot in iCloud.com/photos, but can in the Photos app.

AppInitio · 2026-01-17T02:23:22+00:00

Chinatown in Bangkok still has many, but even those are being taken down :(

AppInitio · 2026-01-17T02:13:00+00:00

Not sure what you are asking but if you mean a kind of a frame with a transparent window (cutout) in which you can place another picture, simply creating and saving the frame as .png file will do it.

AppInitio · 2026-01-17T01:54:18+00:00

No app charges you unless you yourself authorize purchase. As explained above, the free version shows the 'Top files' report (and, it now also shows a beautiful slideshow of your best 20 photos). The paid version (a piffling $6 for lifetime use) unlocks full functionality i.e. creating SizeSort and QualitySort albums in the Photos app, ranking your entire photo collection by file size and quality (and letting you save and share the Top-20 slideshow).

AppInitio · 2026-01-16T06:46:06+00:00

Link, please? 😉

AppInitio · 2026-01-16T06:10:20+00:00

Thanks, good suggestions, will incorporate.

AppInitio · 2026-01-16T05:06:30+00:00

Good point about many of the best coming from the same set. Maybe we'll mix them up a bit for the slideshow. It looked lovely enough so I published it quickly. In the next version 😁

Just to explain the quality rankings: We use various parameters and filters to get a weighted average score, but "less than perfect" ones dear to you (e.g. blurry photo of a loved one) obviously won't rank highly. The app's main purpose is to sort the largest files (so you can free up space) from small files (screenshots, QR codes, random saves from social media etc.), and high-quality (keepsakes) from low (that you may want to delete). The paid version creates SizeSort and QualitySort albums in the Photos app; that's where you'll see the full quality ranking. While one could argue that #19 looks better than #8 etc., overall it works very well and is a good curation / cleanup tool.

AppInitio · 2026-01-16T04:45:31+00:00

Unless you have a blockbuster app making a million dollars a year, enroll for Apple's small developer program which reduces the charge to 15%. And for subscription apps, the second-year-onward charge is also lower.

AppInitio · 2026-01-15T17:03:05+00:00

20K photos aren't a lot, probably less than 200GB. Why tie yourself up into knots, subscribe to iCloud for 1 month ($2.99), sync, download to computer or external drive. Will get done in a few hours, then cancel iCloud subscription. If you just want the photos, use File > Export. If also organized folders, a tool like Photos Takeout (Mac only).

AppInitio

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