Using OS 12.7.6 (Monterey). How do I back up just photos and just music? Time Machine isn't working and I'd like to try backing up those two most important apps.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Back up only Photos and music
iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.7
Find the Photos Library.photoslibrary and Music Library.musiclibrary files in the Pictures and Music folders respectively and copy them out to an APFS formatted external drive.
If your music library is not consolidated, you will need to consolidate it first, or find the media files and copy them out to the external drive.
click here ➜ Make a split library portable - Apple Community
and here ➜ Move your iTunes library to another computer - Apple Support
and here ➜ Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
With respect to Time Machine, you might want to see if anything here helps: Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac - Apple Support .
If you can't get Time Machine working or you want to make extra backups via other means, you could use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to selectively back up the folders containing photos and music to an external drive. (I have Carbon Copy Cloner, and am assuming that SuperDuper! also has this feature.)
Another possibility would be to copy the folders containing those things to an external drive using the Finder. The question there is whether the Finder might choke on the number of items you are copying and throw up an "Error -36". In the old days, that used to be a possibility with very large Finder-based copies, which is why some people got into the habit of using other tools seen as being more reliable.
Just for clarification, since forgot to point it to point it out, you will need to copy the Media or Music Media folder out to the external drive if it contains all the music files (consolidated library).
It starts a backup then quits. I've been on the phone with Apple about it 2 or 3 times and may try it again. The only things updated since this started are photos and music; everything else is there in an earlier backup or I could live without.
You'll want to use Time Machine (or. similar). You could also copy and paste the music and photos folders to an external drive.
What's the issue you're experiencing with Time Machine?
How do I just back up photos and music on my iMac with macOS 12.7.6?
