Best way to "backup" your iCloud Photo Library?

Yer_Man -- Thanks.

1. Understood on the "library" backup - but I do think you can (with proper precautions) backup the .photoslibrary package that Photos uses on the Mini (with originals downloaded in that version). That file contains the relationships locally at least, so if iCloud was down you can still "recover" the library.
2. I do plan to do this locally - the idea is to have the images and library in various forms - the idea being that if for some reason something went really wrong with the "sync'd" library that is iCloud Photos, I would have a way to get to the images.
3. Agree on the Backblaze comment - I haven't actually tested that process, but to your point, the Backblaze backup would have the original images in it, just not in a very user friendly way to get to them since you would essentially be looking through the .photoslibrary package to get to the images.

To try to clarify what I'm looking for...

1) I want a backup of the .photoslibrary - in case it gets corrupted, it would be easy to recover (and not start from scratch with a full download from iCloud) - also helps with if the sync system goes wrong in iCloud, I have a way to get back to the library easily.

2) I want a copy of the original images stored outside of iCloud library. Think about a DSLR image - take with a camera (not connected to iCloud, download the images from the SD card, store those somewhere permanent as a backup of last resort, import into photo library). In the case of an iPhone photo (where the local iPhone Photos is set to optimize), it gets loaded to iCloud (essentially right away) and the original image on the phone gets optimized for storage (eventually anyway). That image basically now only exists in iCloud, and gets downloaded as an original to the Mini. It doesn't exist outside the iCloud Photos umbrella. Back before I started using iCloud, I would use Image Capture to download the images from the iPhone, basically following the same process as the DSLR example. That became such a mess since I didn't have all my images available, etc. Hence the switch to iCloud and the "new problem".

Totally agree on the image name issue inside the .photoslibrary package. Exporting is the only way to really manage that.

Thanks again for the input. Definitely is helping me formulate the way forward.

Scott-he-him -- Thanks for the idea - I have a decently large library - about 17,000 images and videos - so doing a fresh export each time from the cloud side would be a bit cumbersome. I am also looking to keep the device library as "optimize" so I wouldn't have the full resolution images. I could do the export process from the Mini where I have "download originals" setup.

But it is a good idea maybe once a year or something. Thanks for the feedback.

Old Toad -- Thanks!

I was wrong in my original post - my .photoslibrary file is on an external hard drive on the Mini. I do use Time Machine, but since the library is on an external drive, it wouldn't be in Time Machine.

On the Mini, I do have the external drives backup to alternative storage devices to protect against physical drive failure, so I have a copy of the library. That library on the Mini does have "download originals" turned on so the originals are stored in that local file.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yer_Man -- Thanks for the extra detail. I agree totally on not relying on Time Machine as the sole backup - that is why I use Carbon Copy to have both onsite and offsite disk backups. I use Carbon Copy on an automated schedule as well.

Agree on the Backblaze comments you made - I just checked the backup there - the .photoslibrary shows up as a folder to drill into, so technically you could get a single original file from that backup, but as you said, the file names are randomized codes, not the file name of the original image (which is stored in the library).

The Flickr idea is a new thought for me. I'll think about that one as it would give you a "cloud" backup of the originals that my current disk based system doesn't.

Your point about using that type of site before importing them or exporting makes sense and really is the crux of one of my issues. iPhone photos (where my device settings are "optimize storage") exist only in the library and need to be exported from iCloud or my Mini (where I have "download originals" set) in order to be stored or accessed to be backed up somewhere else.

Thanks again for the ideas.

Richard.Taylor -- Thanks.

I too am awash in external hard drives!

Totally agree on the what to save issue. I'd lean towards the originals since this is meant to be a "last resort" backup. But since I'm also looking to backup the library with all my work (edits, keywords, etc.) I'm hoping to never NEED those originals. Back when I used Aperture and then Lightroom and now Photos, I exported the "edited" versions to the next library manager program since you can't really ever edit the same way twice between programs, so I totally feel that pain and tend to err on the side of retaining the various iterations of images.

Same on the export images for electronic frames. They are a copy of the image (in my case, reduced resolution for the frame or use case), but not what I'm trying to do long term.

Correction to my earlier statement on Time Machine - I DO NOT have Time Machine on the photos library since the .photoslibrary file is on an external hard drive. I DO use Carbon Copy to have offsite copies (on hard drives that I rotate frequently offsite) as well as an on-prem replica (on a NAS device with a disk image to keep the permissions, etc.).

Thanks for sharing (and I feel better knowing I'm not the only one with way too many hard drives here)! :-)

Cool setup! I'll take a look at my configuration to see if I have enough storage for the Time Machine option.