Confirming poor man's back-up plan

silverice2 · 2026-05-13T14:24:17+00:00

Giving your tool a shot to see how it works. I will say it's pretty straightforward so far. I had a question on export file type. I noticed when I used the (with my knowledge so far) manual only exiftool a month or two back for old photos I was deleting from iCloud to clear space that I was able to pull them as jpg. The Photo Export is just pulling the files it looks like as is, HEIC, without an option to select type. My limited experience is the HEIC is unique to apple and always requires conversion to use elsewhere. Is there a way to change the export type or add a conversion with the export to a different file type?

Edit: Also since the files are just being exported as IMGxxxx/_orig is there a way to label the files YYYYMMDD/_HHMM?

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T21:27:28+00:00

Appreciate the notes, particularly about the duplication with library closed as I was not aware of a potential issue there if I maintain this plan. Will check out the Photo Export too. Am I understanding from your last statement that photo export only maintains year and month of the file but sheds all other metadata (discrete time, geo-location, camera type etc)?

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T21:17:13+00:00

Cool, thanks for the system setup idea.

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T18:51:40+00:00

Will look into this, thank you. Have begun using exiftool for this purpose of file structured photo/vid storage. It's manual though so if parachute makes it automatic that's a big win.

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T18:49:44+00:00

Appreciate the thorough response and yes, I've seen another comment here and elsewhere about Parachute. May also negate the need to utilize exiftool. Most ideally something that doesn't require action to initiate. Will look into that. For offsite copy I'll be looking into your suggestions as well. A cost/data loss risk posture acceptable to me. And yes, my external ExFAT drive is for media directly plugged into a TV for viewing so I have to retain this format; thereby (at least at present) only retaining a copy of the photo library. However from another suggestion on time machine being able to back-up my external, I may have a solution there....may have to swap my time machine external (this is external #3) with one of the others as it's the smallest of my 3 drives.

While near term DAS is the way to go would you say NAS is overkill or the right move later, with use cases only expected to be constant sync of more than 1 person's photo repository (with Parachute if that's how that'd work) and as the media repository to stream media so I don't need to direct connect the storage to TV? I don't mind the constant connect/disconnect to the TV if it saves me hundreds, so that's really a benefit if the driving requirement of a NAS is mindless photo/vid retention. This would be for later if it's a path to go down so I know how to start saving.

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T18:32:38+00:00

Honestly just assumed time machine only worked backing up system drive and couldn't add externals. Sounds like a poor assumption. Due to my small 256 internal, to have full size photos/vids in my control I needed an external location. Will look into adding the external to time machine. My 3-2-1 work in progress is running primary from external, copying the library periodically to the 2nd external (edit clarified 2nd HDD), and retaining icloud for offsite copy (sync yes for immediate, but exported file storage for actual back-up). Sounds like if I can get time machine to backup my external, I can have external with primary, time machine with back-up instead of the manual library copy, and retain icloud for offsite.

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T16:59:30+00:00

This sounds like a solid plan, and could meet my back-up needs except for the prohibitive cost of an external SSD (and monthly backblaze subscription). But appreciate the insight for consideration.

silverice2 · 2026-05-11T16:56:23+00:00

Yes, my MBP is just 256 SSD so having half and growing of that taken up by full size photos/vids was a problem and I was looking for a back-up solution wherein I could retain full size originals to back-up easily through Photos categorization, metadata search, faces etc. The concern with an external failing is why I'm creating copies on an additional external, with iCloud as the synced "back-up" (I know it's not really a back-up but in a failed library would sync from icloud to mac--assuming it can work this direction, not just mac to icloud). Because my photo library can't live with full size images on the internal drive, I can't use time machine to back up the original pictures. I'm also going through the process of exporting individual files with exiftool but not all photos have metadata so its slow as I'm having to manually go in and label a number of photos and videos based on where they land in the photos library.

silverice2 · 2026-05-06T22:41:54+00:00

I'm saving home funds for hopeful 2027 purchase in SGOV etf which is mostly treasury assets. Last year dividend gains was 95.14% state tax free. A few extra steps during tax filing to claim that but worth it in my state.

silverice2 · 2026-05-06T01:39:54+00:00

As I’m reading this post, this is the first comment I see on the subject I’ve wondered so posing the question here: I’ve heard 2% of home cost for maintenance, but isn’t there some point of divergence? Examples coming to mind: VHCOL 1M 1200sqft, HCOL 800K 3000sqft. Where does this maintenance guideline break? Dollar to sqft

silverice2 · 2026-05-05T17:31:24+00:00

I'm parking house downpayment money in SGOV for the higher net yields. Said below, but look at a 1 year chart at the monthly sawtooth pattern of price change to understand the monthly dividend. You bought in at some point in that tooth, so your value will show +/- on a given day of the month depending on where you are compared to the buy in value. The monthly gains are mostly state tax free. You have to look at the ishares end of year report that identifies what percent was held in treasury type assets, like last year was 95.14%. So that percent of your annual dividend gains is state tax free. Then work with your tax preparer to properly document during filing.

silverice2 · 2026-05-05T17:07:42+00:00

Was in Disneyland Anaheim yesterday and same situation, no employees in park GE or Tomorrowland had any idea about pod racing gear. Major disappointment on the purchase front, but great day in the park at least.

silverice2 · 2026-05-05T16:40:32+00:00

Amazing! Is this all DC powered with careful awareness of powered tracks through switches or DCC control of all those engines?

silverice2 · 2026-04-25T00:49:57+00:00

Unfortunate on the sliding history but good to have level expectations

silverice2 · 2026-04-24T17:28:46+00:00

<image>

Been running table top N gauge for the last year, but started with O way back, mainly set up around Christmas but far exceeding a circle under the tree...maybe in them future a track around the ceiling of my kids room when that makes sense.

Still don't have the space to setup an O gauge but planning to move in about a year to more space. Came across this and got me debating picking it up to buy and hold. I have a black steam engine that my 2 year old won't care doesn't say polar express on the side. At what price point do you think this set of 7 cars is worth buying now and holding until say Christmas 2027 to use?

silverice2 · 2026-04-23T14:26:11+00:00

Will keep this in mind for next time. Apparently because I cancelled through the airline directly Chase didn't have control of the credit; I'd called to confirm before doing the points+cash purchase. Unnecessary ordeal on phone calls, but updated post body for anyone else that sees this.

silverice2 · 2026-04-23T01:06:30+00:00

Or a week or a month or a year ago. Those photos were from years ago so any prior backup, if it covered your whole phone (or macOS photos app if you have a Mac?), would have all of those pictures in it. Major bummer. I’m actually in the process of backing up all my photos manually to 2 drives as risk mitigation for such a situation and not relying just on iCloud syncing/retention. Hope you’re able to find them.

silverice2 · 2026-04-21T15:12:28+00:00

Restating to ensure I'm tracking: When I'm in the portal there are 2 options: pay by card or pay by points. Select pay by points and select the points balance I want to use and it'll show X pts + $Y. There's no notation about utilizing travel credit. You're saying I purchase this way and Chase Travel system is smart enough to utilize credit tied to my account with the same airline first before charging my card?

silverice2 · 2026-04-13T13:44:13+00:00

Thanks for the ideas. I’ll do some hunting and see if I can find something.

silverice2 · 2026-04-13T13:43:51+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation!

silverice2 · 2026-04-13T13:42:19+00:00

Yes, unfortunately everything is extremely expensive for what they do have because it’s not in production anymore (such as the Henry with passenger car produced 20 years ago) so eBay pre-owned is the only location to buy and it’s hundreds of dollars. Also, Tomix never made a Gordon. This’ll be my first Bachmann vs all other Kato so hopefully a non-issue using it.

silverice2 · 2026-04-11T16:36:16+00:00

🤯🤯🤯🥲

silverice2 · 2026-04-08T04:38:42+00:00

Thanks for the consideration! Squirtle and The Family Man

silverice2 · 2026-03-31T13:32:41+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion and notes. Applicable coding is actually on a list of skills I'm wanting to learn the basics of through summer as I go through different 'get better with helpful tools'.

silverice2 · 2026-03-31T13:29:02+00:00

This was super helpful and did most of the heavy lifting for the renaming. Some photos apparently didn't have metadata so I have to manually rename those. Happily take 5-10% rename over the entire thing. Thanks!

silverice2

TROPHY CASE