After moving your Photos Library to an external hard drive, how do you properly back it up using Time Machine?
Hi
Add the external drive to the time machine backup. (or better stated, remove it from the exclude list)
system preferences>time machine>options>click the external drive (currently excluded) that you want to include, and click "-" to remove it from the exclude list.
Thank you Tony! After doing the above, I went into the latest backup copy in Time Machine. When I try to open that copy of the Photos Library (backup of the Photos Library on the external hard drive) it says, "The Library could not be opened. The Library 'Photos Library' is in a Time Machine backup. Open the original library." Does this mean that Time Machine is actually not backing it up?
Hi
No the backup is most likely fine: a library cannot be opened directly from the time machine backup, or even on a drive used for a time machine backup. You must first restore the library to a compatible location (your system drive, or an external directly connected drive - no network location - formatted APFS or MacOS extended). Once in a compatible location, it will be possible to open the library.
Perfect, thank so much!
Creating a backup of external Photos Library
