Shared Photo Library - Mac Backup

Question

Level 1

4 points

Shared Photo Library - Mac Backup

Hello,

My wife and I have our own iPads and iPhones, but share a Mac with our own user accounts. I understand that if we enable the shared photo library feature then the iCloud storage is not impacted (i.e. it doesn't double account), but I can't figure out what will happen on the Mac.

At present I have both accounts set to "download originals to Mac" and then backup both profiles using Time Machine. Will enabling shared photo library mean that all the photos I choose to share with my wife will be downloaded to her profile and vice versa? We each have a lot of photos - so this would be quite a big impact to our Mac and TimeMachine storage availability. Or does it not download the "shared" photos on the non-originating account?

Thanks.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 28, 2022 12:57 PM

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Answer 1

kamote0628

Community Specialist

Oct 31, 2022 08:45 AM in response to krisbourne

Hi krisbourne,

We appreciate you reaching out to us. We understand that you are looking to use the iCloud Shared Photo Library, and you are concerned that it may affect your Mac's storage.

Using the iCloud Shared Photo Library will not affect your Mac's storage and your Time Machine.

As mentioned in the article below, "when you contribute photos and videos to iCloud Shared Photo Library, they move out of your Personal Library and into the Shared Library."

Also, "the person who set up the Shared Library, the library creator, provides iCloud storage for all of the content."

How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library - Apple Support

Take care!

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Answer 2

krisbourne Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2022 12:52 AM in response to kamote0628

Thanks - I appreciate you taking time to respond.

But I am not sure this is correct. I understand the way it works with iCloud storage - this isn't my concern though.

On my Mac I download a physical copy of all my photos and back them up to Time Machine. My wife also does the same - but crucially we use the same Mac. My concern is that we both end up downloading a copy of the shared library on our individual profiles. What I was hoping for was someway to manage this on the Mac - i.e. only download a copy of the photos the individual has taken.

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Answer 3

Nov 1, 2022 01:03 AM in response to krisbourne

I think your only solution for this is to enable "optimise mac storage" for one of the two accounts. That will dramatically reduce the space needed for the local library. However that account will have to live with the reduced performance, and backups will have to be done on the other account.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Nov 1, 2022 02:35 AM in response to krisbourne

Think of it as an added security. Surely you will not share all your photos but only the interesting and important photos. And for your most important photos it will be very good to have two independent backups and also local copies, that you can access even offline or if there should be problems with the internet connection. I have always made two independent Time Machine backups and occasionally I needed the second one, if the first one has not been readable.

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Answer 5

krisbourne Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2022 05:25 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks - This was the assumption I was heading towards too.

With large libraries, and shared Mac usage it does feel like there is a neat solution. We probably wouldn't have shared "everything" - so this would potentially leave some backup gaps. I will just make a call on what is more important (sharing vs backing-up). Hopefully Shared libraries 2.0 will have finer controls on the Mac.

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Answer 6

krisbourne Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2022 07:29 AM in response to krisbourne

"..there isn't a neat solution"...important clarification!

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Shared Photo Library - Mac Backup

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