How to BACKUP iCLOUD PHOTOS! Options for your Mac, iPhone and iPad! Cloud or No Cloud!

What is really considered a backup?! In this video I walk through my process of how I backup my iCloud Photos by using a computer and having it automatically download all of the original photos to an external hard drive and copied to my Time Machine. I also talk about a few cloud options as alternatives in addition to flash drives made by Sandisk that are specifically designed to backup your photos from your iPhone or iPad without the need to have a computer at all!
00:00 | Welcome Back!
01:44 | What is considered a “Backup”?
01:52 | Scenario 1 reason for Backup
02:28 | Scenario 2 reason for Backup
03:25 | If you don’t use iCloud Photos Scenario 3
03:51 | How I backup my Apple iCloud Photos
04:33 | IMPORTANT Setting to Optimize Mac for Original Photos
06:51 | Alternative Cloud “Backup” options
09:06 | Backup options with No Computer using Sandisk iXpand
11:57 | iPhone and iPad settings for Optimizing Storage for iCloud Photos
15:00 | Plugging in Sandisk iXpand Drive into Mac
#joelfeld #learnwithjoel #backblaze #idrive #iCloud #icloudphotos #Sandisk #backup
Backblaze
www.backblaze.com
iDrive
www.idrive.com/photos/
Amazon Photos
www.amazon.com/Amazon-Photos/...
Sandisk Flash Drives and other Goodies!
www.amazon.com/shop/joelfeld
Sandisk iCloud Photos Backup Support Article
kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/de...
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If you have a video suggestion, let's chat!
/ learnwithjoel
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[@PorkChopJones]

I like the way you talk. Finally a video in clear plain english that's is easy to understand, eliminating the need to keep replaying the audio over and over again. But what I like the most is that you don't begin your video with a history lesson about electronics, like others do and you just get right to the point.

[@johnplainsong9769]

By far the best explanations of Mac stuff, especially iCloud photo strategies. I'm redoing my whole system because it got so danged confusing! Thanks. Subscribed!

[@Learnwithjoel]

WOW! Thank you so much @johnplainsong9769! I appreciate you and your kind words! Thank you for your continued support! I appreciate you more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you!

[@TODOenelCelular]

You are awesome!!! Please keep explaining things like this, you make it so easily to understand, is like if you get into my mind and answer all those confusion things and questions I got. I've been looking for an explanation like this for almost 1 week and your are the best one!!! Please keep making this videos! Greetings

[@charlesb.2585]

Joel - Another great video - thanks! A couple notes: 1. I have been an iXpand user with my iPad for years - great product. But as you mentioned, the iPad has no “Eject” or “Safely Remove” feature for external storage. Many people, including me, have had problems with file corruption after removing the iXpand (or other external storage) from the uPad. (I think it is because of write caching.). It seems that the safest thing you can do when removing an external drive is to close the app that was using it, and also power off the iPad completely, before removing the external storage. 2. I agree that the iXpand naming scheme for backed up photos is not the best, and it also does not preserve any albums or folders you have in your Camera Roll on the iPad. But, as you said, something is better than nothing, and combined with my other photo backups, it provides another layer of protection. Thanks!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Charles B. I agree 100% with everything you've said. That would be a good practice to exit the app before pulling the plug on the flash drive. Hopefully with newer version and updated software the issue you and others have had will iron that out, but at the end of the day something is better than nothing! Thanks for adding your points. The more contributions, the more helpful for everyone! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@georgiaagw1618]

That was awesome, thanks!

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @georgiaagw1618! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@Salestore980]

Tnx a lot…big help!

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Sale Crni! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@herohour6496]

That Sandisk is pretty awesome. I never knew such a stick existed. LOL. I've been downloading and saving by 1000 photos like a sucker.

[@Learnwithjoel]

The Sandisk isn't 100% perfect, but it does work pretty well and it's great for getting content off the devices directly! Thanks so much for watching @Hero Hour! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already and use SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@johnselzer2804]

Joel, I love your videos they are super useful. I wanted to bring your attention to something new on the iPhone and iPad. If you upgrade to the latest iOS version and go to iCloud settings on the iPhone and iPad you will see that there are now 2 toggles for both PHOTOS and MESSAGES. If you search on the internet you will see that many people have this(me included)while others claim they do not have it(I suspect they simply have not upgraded to the latest software). The speculation is that the first set of toggles for both apps turns off/on including Photos and Messages into iCloud in general; while the second set of toggles turns off/on whether Photos and Messages get included in the BACKUP. I would really appreciate it if you could investigate this issue and perhaps put out an updated video with respect to this issue. It seems like a major change. I would include a link for a image of what I am discussing here but you probably do not want to be clicking on links from someone you do not know:). Regards, John

[@luxton43]

Hi Joel, I am just starting to learn to consolidate and back-up all devices, specially their Photos content. I am trying to create a workflow for this process so that any member of my family will be able to continue this when I'm gone. I am so glad I stumbled on your video. Among all the questions and ideas that pop up, the pressing for right now is How often would you change your Time Machine and other physical drives as it does have a finite number of years of usefulness? Thanks!

[@digiratimax]

Clear & concise in providing a solution/tips/trick. Thank you for your help Joel!

[@nlw5651]

Hi Joel.... just learning from you on this awesome video info you did here.... I have come up with a question...so if I back up contacts from my iphone on that handy little sandisk stick you show in this video then can I use that backup to put it in my new phone.?

[@Guru09728]

Thank you Joel. 1 question, if I put my photo album in external hard drive because I want to free up the space from my Mac, how would my time machine serve as an additional back up as it won't be able to save it from the external hard drive right?

[@jonathangarcia9617]

Nice video of the day.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you for the continued support @Jonathan Garcia! I’m glad this video was helpful! If you learned something new and want to support my channel, click SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@Lim1986]

Very good video Joel the scan disk drive seems good to back up from your iPhone

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks @Discover by travel! Sandisk is pretty decent. There are some improvements that could be made to it, but overall, if you need to copy files and back them up and you don't use a cloud system or have a computer, it seems like a pretty good option to me!

[@JimCirilli]

At 6:34 you mention that all your photos on the external HD gets backed up to your time machine? I was unaware that you can set an external to be added to the TM back up. I’d be interested in your TM settings that accomplish this. Thanks.

[@1jammy]

Thanks for the info. As I have all the gear and no idea this really helped me picking my next step going forward on storage. In the past I would normally just buy multiple software/hardware etc but now I'm trying to work smarter glad I seen this vid.

[@robertrobert2820]

I've been using Apple products throughout many many years and I'm amazed at the capacity that Joel has to explain and give excellent contento. Keep up the great work

[@lindak6669]

Years ago, I would drag my photos library to an external hard drive a few times a year, but especially before a Mac OS update. I stopped doing that since I always do a Time Machine backup every two weeks. I’ve never needed to do a restore from Time Machine but I keep doing it. Ya never know. Right now my 2020 MacBook Pro is at an Apple repair center for an entire top case replacement so we’ll see if I need that when I get it back.

[@boilerheath2396]

Thanks for the video! Do you know, if I have backed up into google photos and iCloud.. if I go to “download” them both to the sandisk drive will it notice that there are duplicates and not put them both on the external drive? I hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance!

[@carlosprovyrivera8522]

Hey Joel - another excellent tutorial. Well done! You do cover using time machine for backups but you didn’t mention the process for restoring deleted photos / videos. When you do a TM restore is it only on the entire library or can you open the backed up photo library and select the specific photos / video you want resorted? Thx and keep up the excellent work!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks as always @Carlos & Provy Rivera! Good point, I did not mention in this particular video on how to restore deleted photos from a Time Machine. Even though Time Machine is simple to use, there are limitations to it that I wish Apple would address. A long time ago, you used to be able to restore singular photos from an Apple Photos Library that was on a Time Machine Backup. Now they make you do the whole entire library, which in my opinion is just a terrible experience. It's also unfortunate that in order to sync photos into iCloud Photos, you need to have the files imported into the Photos library. If they were able to be referenced, then at least you could have an organizational structure of photos/files outside of Apple Photo Library that when then backed up with Time Machine would be much easier to isolate and recover a single photo. Apple just sometimes doesn't make it easy!

[@julierussell5129]

Thanks!

[@Learnwithjoel]

THANK YOU so much your contribution @Julie Russell! It is appreciated more than you know! Make sure to Subscribe too, or better yet, SHARE this video with a friend on social media and say how it helped you!

[@ahoodchemist]

will the expand save Live Photos?

[@ronaldrathbun807]

Wonderful video. I am a senior and very slow to learn these things. If I am listening correctly, If i have my library on an external hard drive and sync the hard drive to the cloud, then the pictures I take-on my I phone will automatically sync with the eternal hard drive when that hard drive is available . Also if I delete a photo on my i phone then it will be deleted on the external hard drive. I should not worry about an accidental delete since I am also using time machine and when I realize the photo is gone I should be able to recover it from time machine. Please advise me if I am correctly understanding you. Thank you and God bless.

[@genniegidney]

Does the sandisk ixpand drive also back up files from the files app? What about procreate files? Can they be saved?

[@newbie0156]

Please help Joel, I love the iexpand, but the largest on I can find is 256, and I am a pc user, what do I do in this case, I would like to backup my all of my pictures and videos to external hard drives.

[@JAG777]

Your content is GREAT. Awesome job. Keep it up. I am an engineer and Apple makes me feel stupid with all these options and marketing trickery. Thanks!

[@shereecollins7569]

I completely agree with you. It doesn't really have to be this complicated. 😊

[@stevemyers1071]

Hi Joel. Great video and very helpful - thanks! On the subject of photos… I have a MacBook, iPad and iPhone and the number of photos is different on each device - 16,526, 16,552 and 16,546 photos respectively. Any suggestions why this number is different? (The videos on each of my three devices is the same = 104). Thanks. Steve

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Steve Myers! So are you use iCloud Photos among all of your devices? If you are, if you visit iCloud.com and login with your Apple ID, what number of photos does it show there? I may need a little bit more information to help! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@katetx2001]

How to back up 22,000 photos to external hard drive without a computer? Sandisk can’t handle it. Great videos. Thx.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @katetx2001! Is the only device you have an iPhone? The easiest way to "backup" / save photos from a device would be a cloud service, but then you would need to copy those photos via a computer to an external drive or something and also need to pay for the storage to accommodate that amount of photos. However, you could connect a larger external hard drive to an iPhone or iPad. I personally love these SanDisk SSD's. They're small, fast, and work really well. I'll link it below: SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD amzn.to/43q9iK9 For an iPhone, you would need a Lightning adapter: Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter amzn.to/43NtXI5 This adapter allows you to plug that SSD from above directly into this adapter and this adapter also as the port to plug power into the adapter. This is needed as I just tested it. Keep in mind you would also need the correct USB cable to plug into the newer USB-C on the SSD to the older USB port. After you connect the SSD to the iPhone/iPad, it would show up in the Files app. I do have another video on using the Files app on the iOS devices, which I'll link below, but keep in mind this could also be a very tedious manual process. UNDERSTANDING Apple's FILES App and HOW TO ORGANIZE DOCUMENTS in iCLOUD DRIVE on an iPhone and iPad! kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4rZdY2nbcl3a68 I hope this helps! Thank you for your continued support! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@__ink__]

I can’t turn on “download all original photos” at the iCoud preferences in Photos. It just wants me to buy a subscription to more iCloud storage. I want my Photos Library on an external HD to just include everything. Any suggestions? Is there also a way to efficiently download and empty all of my iCloud storage? Thanks 🙏

[@hemangisingh]

BEST VIDEO

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate the kind words @The Happy Studio! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and use the THANKS button! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@gilbrook]

Periodically I upload large number of photos & videos from my iPhone to my iMac. Last time I did this it did NOT ask me if I wanted to delete them from the iPhone once they had been uploaded to iMac - always had previously. How to rid them from my iPhone? ThankU.

[@asbestosflake5749]

Is there a hard drive that saves the meta data from apple photos? E.g tags, quality etc. I was told external hard drives or other could services (that are not apple) don’t save the quality or full data from the photos/videos?

[@salvadorcrespin4845]

Does it keep the Live Photos that you have?

[@AztecVirtual]

Hi. As we know when I delete a photo from iCloud and/or from Macbook/Iphone it will disappear from iCloud/device (sync). But let's say I have hard drive failure and I must recover or install fresh MacOS (I was logged in Apple ID on the old drive). I'll log in into my Apple ID on the new system (new drive) and what then? All photos will be recovered from iCloud? Nothing will be lost/deleted?

[@clairem730]

Thanks for this helpful video. I have a question about using an external hard drive as the location for the MacBook photo library - what happens when the external drive is not plugged in but iCloud is trying to send a copy of a photo you’ve just taken on another device to the Mac?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Claire M! So unless you have that external hard drive plugged in, it's not going to send any Photos/Videos to your Mac. iCloud Photos will specifically look for the Apple Photos Library that's designated as the "System Library" (this is found in the preferences of Apple Photos) and you can only have one photo library as the system library to sync with iCloud Photos. So long story short, next time you plug in the external drive and open up the library on that drive, it will then start to update your download files from iCloud. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@clairem730]

@@Learnwithjoel thanks!

[@lkr_master]

Do I need to login with my Apple ID to access the photos from my Photo library? Because if the account is blocked for some reason, the backup is useless...

[@lawful73]

Hello Joel, regards from Argentina... I have an iPad Pro M1 and external SSD, how can I backup my entire Photo Library to an External SSD. I want to start using my iPad Pro as my main device (no Mac). My entire Photo Library (400 GB) is downloaded on my iPad Pro. Look forward to your help. Thank you!.

[@ol1guy2]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. If I add all my photos to Scan Disk will I then be able to free up storage space on my phone without having to purchase more from Apple?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Bob Seeman! So yes, if you copied all the photos to the San Disk, you would then be able to delete the photos from your iPhone and recover some space. Just keep in mind that then your photos only live on that flash drive. Also if you use iCloud, and if you're syncing Photos, it will remove those photos from any other apple device you have, assuming you're syncing. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@georgekraus9357]

I noticed that my iPhone 7s is not backing up very large video files ( greater than 3 mins) to iCloud. These files are from my dash cam.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @George Kraus! So when you say it's not backing up, to what location? Are the video files in your Photos app and they're just not showing on other devices or in iCloud Photos? Did it work before and now it's not? Do you have enough iCloud storage for all of the files? Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@rostamtoos76]

@learn with Joel feld Hi Joel , I got a new iPhone but I don’t want to synchronize the photos from the old phone which was synced to iCloud , so what I did was using the “photos” app on my MacBook and drag and drop it from there to an external hard drive. I want to sync only the new phones photos I’ll be taking to synchronize with iCloud My question is : is that what I did correct and all my photos drag and drop th the external are highest quality ? My 2nd question is I also dragged and dropped the photo library “app” from my MacBook to another external hard drive too . Thanks a lot . I also subscribed to your channel as it’s pretty easy to understand and follow . 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@SLEEKspOOk]

Hey Joel, A BIG Thank you for your explanatory Videos. I am a new subscriber :) I appreciate this is one of your old videos but I have a question relating to this and possibly something you have Covered (but dont know where it is)!! would you clarify something first. 1. if you delete a photo from iCloud it deletes from everywhere except your TimeMachine back up right ? Secondly (This could be a video idea!! for you?) 2. I have 1 macbook, just me as a user on it (therefore just my iCloud is visible) can I get my wife logged onto the mac say as another user?. and have her icloud folder visible in the finder for both accounts? with a view to doing the same with her photos: iCloud - external back up + timemachined backed up.

[@klavr]

Hey Joel, thanks for the explanation. Just what I needed to know. I wanted to ask one thing though, and maybe you know: if I download 100 originals in my iCloud Photo Library to my Mac, I backup to Time Machine, then I remove the 100 original’s downloads, and backup again, will it keep or remove those 100 originals? Because if it keeps them, that might be a way to get all my originals backed up on a smaller internal HD?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Tom K! So a few things... If Time Machine backed up the 100 originals that were downloaded, and then you removed the 100 original downloads and backed up again, yes the photos would still be in the Time Machine Backup. Food for thought though...if you delete or remove them after Time Machine backups them up, it's really no longer a backup as it only lives in one place; Time Machine. It kinda defeats the whole purpose of Time Machine being a backup. Plus Apple makes it really hard to restore individual photos from Apple Photos. It's pretty much the whole library. I would recommend to turn on the "Optimize Photo Storage" in the Apple Photos preferences on your Mac. This will help with smaller internal hard drives, but the downfall is, it doesn't keep the originals of your photos locally on that internal hard drive because it's optimizing it. I have another video that covers Time Machine that may be helpful. BACKUP YOUR MAC! - IN-DEPTH look at Apple Time Machine and many ways to save and recover your files! kzbin.info/www/bejne/gonPZYShp9irfrM I hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!

[@Geowebbie]

Hi Joel and greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪. Is it possible to download my Google photos library to the ixpand as I’m looking to move over to apple photos then transfer them to my camera roll for syncing to iCloud? Keep up the great work, just moved across from android to iOS for the first time so your videos are invaluable to be.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Cheers to you @George Websdale! Hope all is well on the other side of the globe! From my understanding you should be able to sign into Google Photos within the iXpand app and it would prompt to backup your Google Photos. I'll link what their steps say below. Another option, if you have a computer would be to use the Google TakeOut feature. takeout.google.com If you wanted to export all of your data from Google (files from Google Drive, contacts, calendars, email, etc) it gives you options to archive it all out to download. From this you could then upload into Apple iCloud eco-system. Below is what iXpand says about using and backing up Google Photos: kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/18905/~/backup-and-restore-files-using-the-app-ixpand-flash-drive The iXpand Flash Drive can be used to backup the photos you have uploaded to Google Photos. 1. Connect the iXpand Flash Drive to your iPhone or ipad, and open the iXpand Drive App 2. Choose the Backup and Restore selection from the home screen 3. Select the Back Up Google Photos 4. You will be prompted to sign into the Google Photos account using your username and password specific to that account. NOTE: You must authorize the iXpand Drive app to access your Google Photos account. The App will backup the photos you have uploaded to your Google Photos account. 5. The iXpand Drive App will find all the photos stored on the Google Photos account and ask to back them up 6. Once you have connected to the Google Photos account, you can easily back it up by clicking the backup icon I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@ny6901]

HiJoel Thanks again I tried the link to Sandusky support article, it took me to a forum. Maybe I missed something, is there a more direct link to an article or instructions for using the ixpand? Just ordered through your link to amazon!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@stepkycopky9354]

Mate, I am a computer idiot and your vids are great.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate you and your kind words @stepkycopky9354! You're not an idiot though, it's just a lot to consume! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@doubledark2]

Hi Joel; great video but I'm still stumped. My wife has iMac / iPad / iPhone and iCloud enabled on all those devices. She mentioned that not all her photo's are showing across all devices. When I go into her iMac -> iCloud, I notice that "iCloud Photo Library" is not checked. If I check that box, it then says to open Photo's but that's where I get a bit lost - can you help? cheers

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @doubledark2! So it's more than just having iCloud enabled on all the devices. iCloud includes many different elements to it and Photos is just one of them. You would need to have iCloud Photos turned on and syncing within all settings of each device. I have an older video that talks about this. It's a year or so old, but should still show the settings you need to find. I need to update this topic! You'll find in a lot of my videos that discuss iCloud Photos that I mention these settings. I will link below for reference: Understanding iCLOUD PHOTOS - Syncing iPhones, iPads, and Apple Computers IN-DEPTH kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2q8m5eYnZaEbpo I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@m5z9]

Hi Joel - thanks for the video. Is your photo library hard drive always plugged into your laptop? What happens if you open Apple Photos and it’s not plugged in? I am considering getting a MacBook Air with a 1TB storage so I can keep all the original photos there. Use Time Machine with a separate external drive for backup. What do you think?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @m5z9! No, my external drive is not always plugged in. When I take photos on my iPhone, they still sync to iCloud, my iPad and any other device and then the Mac with the external drive connected, when I plug that in, it just plays catch up and starts to download the photos/videos that it doesn't have. It will eventually catch up and be synchronized with what is reflected on iCloud.com and other devices. I think your plan is a good one. I for sure recommend minimum 1TB of internal storage and then also dedicate an external drive for Time Machine and the other external for photos. You can always have your Time Machine drive backup a separate external drive. I hope that helps! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@m5z9]

Thanks Joel! An internal drive with sufficient capacity would always be better than an external drive, correct? Also, do you have an additional backup for your photos besides using the Time Machine?

[@miguelskaff]

Hi Joel, interesting video and thanks! Right now is have an issue with iCloud, I pay for 200gb capacity but I want to downgrade my plan to 50gb. Is there a way to back up my library from iCloud to my iPad Pro? I don’t have a Mac

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Miguel Skaff! So by downgrading, if you have more than 50GB in iCloud, it will most likely prompt you to download the files to your device. You should be able to do this on your iPad Pro as long as you have enough local storage to accommodate all the photos/videos/files from iCloud. If you were to turn off certain features of iCloud, that too would prompt a similar message. I have another video that I'll link below for reference that is somewhat related to turning How to STOP using iCLOUD! - Guide to TURNING OFF iCloud syncing on your Apple device! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYipXmaOiNaMr80 I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@gchamaa]

Thank you Joel for a very informative and clear video. I am setting up a very similar setup to yours. I use iCloud, I moved my PhotosLibrary to my external USB drive and I backup everything to another external drive. BUT, I am having one major issue. I moved my PhotosLibrary over to an external drive because I was running out of space on my mac. I deleted the photos library from my mac and so now I have some free space which is nice. But when I open the Photos app, and I choose the iCloud setting of "Download originals to this mac", I get an error saying "Your full-resolution photos and videos stored in iCloud may not fit on this Mac." and it asks me to optimize storage. Note that I did mark my photos library on my external drive as the System Photo Library. How can I have my iCloud downloads directly to my external drive? It seems like it wants me to keep them on my local hard drive which defeats the purpose of the entire effort. Thoughts or solutions on this?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Happy to help @Gilbert Chamaa! So let me clarify to make sure we're on the same page. You copied/moved your entire Apple Photos Library to an external hard drive and after it was finished you deleted from your Mac. And now when you open up Apple Photos it's saying you don't have enough storage? So it is true that you can have your entire library on an external for iCloud Photos. How big is your external drive and how much free space is there? Is this hard drive dedicated for just your photos? If you have this external hard drive plugged in, have you emptied the trash on your Mac while it's plugged in to make sure that there's no ghost files on there that actually haven't been deleted? How big is your Photos Library? If you look at your iCloud Storage, how much storage is being taken up by "Photos"? It sounds like you've done everything correctly. After you copied the Photo Library to your external, you open the library from the external and then you've made sure it's the System Library. Something is not right with the storage sizes... Is this hard drive formatted for Mac, or has it been used right out of the box? I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@gchamaa]

@@Learnwithjoel Hi Joel, thank you for your long reply. I actually did submit the same question to Apple support and i got the answer. I did everything right just as you found. And I got the answer that seems to be missed. And you were onto it regarding something not being right with the storage sizes. My photo library is 250 gigs. The external drive that I put that on had about 490 gigs. So 490 - 250 = 240 gigs remaining. And I thought that that was enough extra space. BUT it appears that iCloud assumes the worst case scenario where all of the pictures that are on my iCloud or different from the ones that are on my local external drive, therefore it calculates the space required for both of these combined. 250 on iCloud plus 250 on local is 500 required. And since I had 490, i did not meet that minimum requirement. As such all i needed to do was delete 10 more gigs from my external drive and BAM everything worked. It then took about 2.5 days for that library to re-sync with iCloud. Please check out the detailed answer on this thread: discussions.apple.com/thread/253906779 Thanks again for your response. You were on the right track. I have subscribed to your channel.

[@MiguelDOrtiz-bj3nt]

@@Learnwithjoelhello Joel and thank you for the video. I have my 500gb laptop and all my photos from my iPhone stored and optimized and all in iCloud. I have like you the 2Teras but I wanted to know if I could add additional pictures from old hd’s into the iCloud Photo Library directly via the website? Without going through my old laptops? Can I do this? Can I upload directly there to have visibility on all my devices w/o the need to get a 2 tb new laptop and upload there for then to iCloud and then to all my iPad/iPhone etc? Thank you in advance!!!!

[@MiguelDOrtiz-bj3nt]

Actually. I just try and I am able to upload in the iCloud website pictures, however I can’t upload videos…. Would anyone know why? Appreciate the help!

[@barrywood7322]

My photos are on my iCloud account but They don’t sync to my MacBook but do to iPhone and iPad, can anybody help sort this out.

[@garydrago]

I'm not 100% sure but I think if you turn iCloud Photos sync OFF and backup your phone, it will backup your Photos to iCloud. However, I think the problem is that you need to have enough storage (the physical capacity that you buy it with) on your iPhone to store all of the Photos. It's a good option if your Photos library is relatively small and you don't want to pay extra for an third party/external solution.

[@dadsh85]

Thanks for the video. I have 500 GB of photos and videos. My Mac does not have enough space to keep all originals in its hard drive, so I optimize storage with iCloud. What is the best way to back up the whole library to an external drive?

[@Jason_Hall]

This is also what I'm wondering. I currently use a 1TB MacBook Pro and have 1.4 TB of photos in iCloud. I use "optimize photo storage" to have access to the full library. I want to backup everything to a 2TB SSD and put it in a safe incase something happens to iCloud. Is there a way to download the full iCloud backup to the SSD, permanently disconnect it, then go back to using my MacBook as I do right now with optimized storage.

[@vildeeide7134]

Is there also a video on how to set up the system described, with the two external hard disks? Once you have MacPhoto app on external disk, can you only access MacPhoto app on Mac while that external disk is plugged in? And in TimeMachine, are then the original size photos stored, independently from iCloud?

[@Buyitforwife]

Did you happen to find your answer?

[@dadsh85]

@@Buyitforwife Nope, still waiting for the answer 😢

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @dadsh85! Comments and support for my content has been beyond what I expected, so definitely playing catchup on responses! This is a scenario that happens all too often. The optimize feature for photos and iCloud drive works great, but Time Machine and other backups may not backup the photo library for the optimized photo/video files. One option is to have a larger hard drive in your Mac. Obviously not the most ideal and sometimes not possible, but could be a possibility depending on what Mac you have. My best solution/recommendation would be the following: Move and store the Apple Photo Library (System Library) on an external hard drive. I have a whole separate video on this that I will link below. How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXLVnICojsqbiJo When the Apple Photos library is there, keep in mind that you need to tell it to be the System Library after moving. I would also make sure your external is a large one so that you can change the Apple Photo Library setting to download all originals. Remember also that when you have your main Apple Photos library on an external drive, that drive needs to be plugged into that Mac in order to receive any new photos/videos or any changes. Also keep in mind that if you want a backup of that external drive that keeps your Apple Photos library, you would need a second external hard drive that you would use to back the first external hard drive with all your downloaded photos/videos. I hope that helps and makes sense. Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@ziza043]

Man I need your help I have ( unavailable iPhone) I want do backup my photos before I restore my phone, how ? 😭

[@ny6901]

Hi Joel Received ixpand and have transferred most photos from iPhone. Easier than expected! Took some time and I had to recharge my phone a couple of times. Just to be safe I closed the app and shut down phone before removing drive. It continued where it left off when I plugged it back in. Reading the instructions regarding transferring photos to Mac book says photos will show in the camera roll. ? My goal is to import the m into the photo program while keeping the original date and data. Is that possible? I vaguely remember camera roll but don’t use it as far as I know I don’t want to create a mess, so I thought I should get your advice before proceeding. Love the Sandisk ixpand drive you linked in your description Thank you

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much for watching @N Y! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@W47MIR]

Hi Joel, really informative videos you have. So I have a scenario - I have my iPhone which shows I have 14,500 in my recent which I assume is a combination of video and images, however on my iCloud it only shows 12,000 plus. On my iPhone it also shows I've used 7GBs of storage out of the 64BGs on the iPhone. however I don't know how I can access those. On my Mac, I do not have iCloud, turned on, as I didn't want to have all the images on the Mac, as the Macs have limited storage. (maybe a lack of knowledge on my behalf) I am now at a point where I want to download all the images from my iCloud and iPhone, and then delete them from the iCloud and phone - clearing this space - my method for iCloud has been going to iCloud - selecting 1000 images at a time and saving it to the external 1TB hard drive which works fine...... but..... this does not appear to hold the image data - i.e the time, date, location the photo was taken... and only shows the date and time the images were downloaded. am I missing a step or just not understanding iCloud. please could you help me understand.

[@lutefan3795]

Hi Joel, I'm trying to back up my photos on iCloud to an external hard drive (I'm on a Windows PC). However, when I go to my iCloud account and I attempt to download a photo, there's no way to select my external drive (or anywhere else) as the download destination--the photo just downloads. How do I select my external hard drive? Also, how do I select all photos in iCloud? It seems I can only select individual photos for download. Thanks for any help you can offer. Please point me to one of your videos if you've covered these topics.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @lutefan3795! It sounds like you need the software installed on your PC for iCloud....If you don't have it already, I do have a video that I'll link below for reference: iCloud for Windows 11 - How to INSTALL & SYNC your APPLE DEVICES to your WINDOWS PC WIRELESSLY! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKqXZ515btqhsMk THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@kingraisin]

Thank you so much for this excellent video! I just subscribed to your channel now :)

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you for your continued support @KING RAISIN! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@rachelm2880]

So if I purchase a San disk external hard drive I can use it to copy my photos and then can I transfer them to PC or external hard drive?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Rachel M! Yes, that San Disk flash drives allows you to copy photos from an iPhone to a PC computer. SanDisk 128GB iXpand Flash Drive Go for iPhone and iPad amzn.to/3CNqgrs Other Tech Gizmos and Gadgets www.amazon.com/shop/joelfeld Thank you for the continued support! If you learned something new and want to support my channel, click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!

[@adriankap2978]

Great teaching video! Although all of them have privacy issues I’m especially leery about anything Google and storing photos etc on their devices. Is LaCie as good as Time Machine? Or is that apples to oranges? Ty again and I’m now a new sub.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Adrian Kap! I agree, it's a double edged sword. All big tech have way too much information on everyone in one way or another. There are lots of good hard drives out there. Many hard drive brands are often apart of the same parent company. For example, SanDisk is owned by Western Digital and LaCie is owned by Seagate. I pretty much base my decision based off size, speed and price. I have a lot of my gear linked to my Amazon Affiliate page, so check that out if you want. I'll link below for reference: www.amazon.com/shop/joelfeld Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@adriankap2978]

@@Learnwithjoel Well, aren’t you a sweetheart (I’m an old person so I can say that) to not only answer but in great length. Very useful info to consider. I have an iPad Air 2 that I need to import pics & vids before it dies. I have almost 80gb & just found out yesterday that not all external hard drives are compatible to transfer so i have to send them to iCloud then our Apple computer which I HATE the idea then to the hard drive as per the Apple rep said. My worry is that the more transfers I make, the more likely I can lose pics in the process. If you have any other options or ideas that would be great. I also know I have a special case & probably won’t help very many others. You have a great store and saw a few things I’d like to get. Thank you for your great videos!

[@adriankap2978]

@@Learnwithjoel Hey Joel, what about one of the flash drives in your store.

[@rachelm2880]

So once you uploaded all your pictures and videos from your phone onto the Sandisk drive can you plug that into your PC and copy everything to an external hard drive using the USB-C port?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Rachel M! Once you copy the files to the San Disk flash drive, you would copy to the PC and then your external drive. You wouldn't be able to plug it directly into an external hard drive. SanDisk 128GB iXpand Flash Drive Go for iPhone amzn.to/3CNqgrs If it's an iPad that uses USB-C, almost any USB-C hard drive could work Thank you for the continued support! I hope that helps! If you learned something new and want to support my channel, click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!

[@AgWhatsUp]

I want to take a large chunk of my photos and videos off iCloud Photos and onto an external SSD. I’m reaching my iCloud storage limit and don’t want to pay for more. Is there any way to view those photos stored on the SSD in the photos app or on iPhoto on a Mac?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @AgWhatsUp! I would use a Mac to accomplish this. I would move/create your iCloud Photo Library to an external SSD (make sure it's the system library so it syncs with iCloud). Then within the settings of Apple Photos, you tell it to download the originals. By doing this you know for a fact that 100% off all your content is downloaded and stored on that external SSD connected to your Mac. When that is finished, you can turn off iCloud Photos and not use it anymore. I do have a video that talks about moving the iCloud Photo Library to an external hard drive that I will link below for reference: How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXLVnICojsqbiJo THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@paganguy77]

Apple + Photos is maddening. In fact, I once had an Apple genius on the phone due to a photo problem. I asked him if I have all my photos on iPhoto (iCloud Photos back in the day) are they also stored on my computer? He did not know the answer. In years past, I used Time Machine. Never had to use it to restore anything, but I had it connected to my iMac. But since I used iCloud photos, & had optimize my photos selected, it was not backing up photos, because there no photos actually on my iMac to back up. Is that correct? So if I am living in the cloud, using iCloud photos & iCloud Drive, Time Machine is not backing up any of that. Is that correct?

[@ksero1000]

🙏Hi! If my old iphone photos are stored in icloud rather than the phone itself, will it still be able to extract them without necessarily downloading them back onto my phone? Is it easy to only download photos rather than all the junk on my phone? Does it take long? My battery is super weak. I can maybe get an hour out of it to transfer the photos before it dies, and since I have to use my CHARGER PORT as the transfer port...its a race against time. So... if the transferring gets interrupted by my phone dying, is it easy to figure out where I need to resume transferring or will it try to make me start ALL OVER? This is SUPER important to me because the years to the last days of me and my best friend 🐶 together are on here. I can't even upload these memories onto shutterfly because the photos are on icloud. There's no storage space, home button is busted, and the battery is shot.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Rambler Rose! So if photos are in iCloud, that means you can access those photos from other devices. If your main goal is download and save those photos, and your current phone is having lots of issues, your best bet is to find. a friends/family/library computer to log into iCloud.com and download all photos. You can access all photos/videos from that website, from any computer. You just need to sign in with your iCloud Apple ID account. As far as does it take long...? Well that's a loaded question. If you have 10 photos, no it won't take long. If you have 10,000 photos, yes it may take long. I would highly recommend to find a computer to borrow to access this content as it sounds like your phone is on it's last leg. I hope that helps, and I wish you the best of luck! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@ammq23]

AT&T have an app AT&T Photos Storage backup what do you know about it?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @AnaMaria Marrero! Honestly I don't know a lot about AT&T's Photo storage backup option. I did look at their website to see what they offer though. I will link the main page below. AT&T Messages Backup & Sync www.att.com/features/backup-sync/ Based off my first impression, it looks like they only backup text messages and photos. Also looks like they keep content for 90 days and then it's removed from their cloud. I didn't see anything about the storage size at all. I think your best bet would be to visit a local AT&T store and get some more information! I do have another few videos related to iCloud Backup's if you're deciding what to use. I'll link a good one below for you: iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZbTaqOIetWfepo I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@ammq23]

@@Learnwithjoel thanks. I am already subscribed and you are one of my favorites.

[@DesaiPlasticSurgery]

Amazing explanation!!!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much for watching @Desai Plastic Surgery of Beverly Hills! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@ricwestdoesitwork]

Hey Joel, you can get 50GB of free storage with MEGA. You can also build on that storage by inviting friends and family to join.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks for the tip @Ric West! I have not heard of MEGA before yet. There seems to be a new cloud service every day popping up! I'll have to check it out! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@antonistheodosiou1941]

Hi Joel. So what happens if you back up every photo on SanDisk, eject it, and then delete one photo in Apple photos and plug the SanDisk back in? Will SanDisk go ahead and delete that same photo from the backed up file?

[@jhawk3910]

Yes, the SanDisk is going to sync with your iCloud. Assuming you also backed up the library before deleting that one photo, your backup will have the one photo since it is not syncing with your SanDisk.

[@pjos11]

You said that you can only have one system library? I’ve two. Do you mean you can only have one that’s on the cloud?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Pjos11 So you can have multiple Photo Libraries on a Mac, but the Photo Library that syncs with Apple iCloud Photos is referred to as the "System Library". You can only designate one library to be the System Library as this is the one that syncs photos from all your other devices. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@pjos11]

@@Learnwithjoel Thanks for replying. Have you ever did a video on how to store/organise your photos? I really struggle with how to keep my images. The originals. The edits and how to know where they are in the future.

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@pjos11 I have a bunch of videos that relates to Photos and Apple in general. Check out this playlist of videos on everything related to Apple Photos: kzbin.info/aero/PLfKIWTYhy-JkLMyP4UzgCTHWqD-Nj-Akh Then here's a link to all my videos on my Channel kzbin.infovideos Hope these help!

[@universeunknown1880]

External hard drive is 10 times more likely to fail than you’re friend deleting your photos and you noticing in 30 days lol Great video but I think for most ppl if only they had their iCloud stuff figured out would be close to ideal solution.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I agree @UniverseUnknown! Understanding any cloud system is most ideal and important! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@Yadazay]

I have search the web high and low for for a video that will tell me how to back up my photos that are on iCloud onto my external hard drive you kind of talk about it a little bit in this video but you get off topic with the sound desk thing is there any video you could recommend that tells me how I exactly to download my iCloud photos onto my external hard drive everybody who has a video on this doesn’t actually show how are you get your photos from the iCloud onto the external hard drive I am so confused and my whole life sucks now

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Yadazay! Do you have a Mac? Unfortunately there is no way to "backup" your iCloud Photo Library to an external drive by only having an iPhone or iPad. You would need a Mac, or a PC that is syncing iCloud Photos locally. I do have another video that covers this topic that I will link below for reference: How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXLVnICojsqbiJo THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@tailzzzzz]

How do I get EVERYTHING out of iCloud and store it on my computer and external hard drive (so I can cancel iCloud?) Photos, Documents, Pictures, etc... I want original quality photos and videos, and I'm not sure if I have enough room on my computer or not, but I do have a 2TB external hard drive. And once moved out of the cloud, is all of this still accessible as long as the external drive is plugged in? Will documents still be under documents, pictures under pictures, photos under photos? I have an older Mac Mini and thought that everything I could see on my computer, even what was 'in the cloud', was being backed up on my external drive. I'm confused when you say in the comments I have to make it the system drive once it is there. Could you please go step by step. Tell me click on this, that, how to recognize where the external drive is, everything. I know NOTHING about computers. I'm so scared I'm going to lose memories. Please help.

[@rzorrilla52]

Some type of backups are always necessary and fail to understand why so many people don’t backup, but for me, there are some logistics issues with the presented techniques… Have used Sandisk iXpand but the way it organizes and RENAMES the files is a deal breaker for me and the drives are too small for my collection of pictures. SSD and TM backup method mentioned does not seem to follow the often suggested ‘3/2/1’ backup technique. I have my pictures in three different storage devices (one rotated every 3 months in a bank safe deposit box) and like to organize and batch rename pictures my way (mirror sync between the different storage devices). I think that using TM for pictures backup does not lend itself to extract specific pictures easily because the way it stores the continuously running backups and does not meet the often suggested ‘3/2/1’ backup technique.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I hear ya @Rafael Zorrilla, I don't get why some users don't have backups either! I won't disagree that the naming convention that Sandisk uses could certainly use improvement. For the auto backup it does seem to add a strange naming convention, but when you manually copy files, it's not as bad. However something is better than nothing for mobile users if they don't use a cloud system or can't afford it. Other option for users could be to use a hard drive and copy manually within the Files App too, but depending on the connections, there are still limits. 3-2-1 Rule methodology for backing up is certainly something to strive to if users are able. I guess it depends on how valuable the content is to each individual and if it were to get lost. And yes, as simple as Time Machine is, it for sure isn't perfect when it comes to Apple Photos. A long time ago, you used to be able to restore singular photos from an Apple Photos Library that was on a Time Machine Backup. Now they make you do the whole entire library, which in my opinion is just a terrible experience. It's also unfortunate that in order to sync photos into iCloud Photos, you need to have the files imported into the Photos library. If they were able to be referenced, then at least you could have an organizational structure of photos/files outside of Apple Photo Library that when then backed up with Time Machine would be much easier to isolate and recover a single photo. I guess my biggest point would be to encourage users to have something. Because anything is better than nothing! Thanks for the conversation and thanks so much for watching!

[@rzorrilla52]

@@Learnwithjoel You suggestions work and are a step in the right direction encouraging people at least have some backup. I’ve never liked the way Apple handles photos storage. Yes, the MAC library automates a lot of things, but it ‘hides’ location of photos. Maybe I have some OCD with location of files (photos) because I want to know exact location of them (Folder, Directory…) Currently I use the Mac Apps ‘Image Capture’ (comes with Mac OS) to Lighting-USB-connect iPhone to download original photos to a MAC Folder (not to the photo library) then use ‘PhotoMill’ to batch process (renaming and convert -if needed-) to other formats (like HEIC to JPEG). Once I batch process (rename and convert), I place photos in my own Folder/Directory structure (using date-driven/Event naming conventions). Then use Adobe’s Lightroom to post process and locate/filter photos. That was my iOS photos integrate with my other DSLR photography work. Photo Library Folders/Directories are then backed up 3/2/1 using Mirror-Synching techniques. Before I delete the photos form iPhone/iCloud I use Amazon Photos to save them to the Amazon Cloud (unlimited storage for photos at this time) so I have access to them is necessary, but my own 3/2/1 will always be under my own physical OCD control and structure.

[@ChristineSky05]

I use Google Photos to back up my photos/videos. Easier to manage

[@Learnwithjoel]

Google Photos is pretty decent @Christine Sky! As long as it works for you, there's no right or wrong answer! Just make sure you'e not paying for both iCloud and Google then! My most recent video actually compares photos in these different cloud environments. Check it out if you haven't already! iCloud vs Google vs Microsoft - PHOTO CLOUD COMPARISON - How your PHOTOS interact in "THE CLOUD" kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3epZ4mtpZZlnrM Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@rickmitchell6735]

Hi Joel. I'm a new subscriber and really enjoy your style videos. I need help desperately with saving my emails (147 sub-folders) from my old iPhone 6 to an iPhone 11 that I just got. Can you please help me? Thank you in advance for your response. Rick

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Rick Mitchell! I appreciate your kind words! So what type of email do you have on your old iPhone6? Depending on what type of email it is, it can be a very easy process, or difficult one. As an example, with popular email services like iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, the emails are often stored in the cloud, so no matter where you access your email from, it's the same across the board. iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac or through a web browser, it's all the same. This would then allow you to just simply add the email account to your new device like an iPhone 11 and it would automatically download everything for you. Now there are some exceptions that you can create different folders locally that would not sync, but by default for the majority of these accounts it syncs everywhere making your task mute. Now if you have an email account from an internet provider or one that's not as popular it gets more challenging. Let me know! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@universeunknown1880]

You’re friend deleted pictures and you didn’t know they had your phone and didn’t know they were deleting photos and suddenly you found out about it in 30 days….. 😮😅

[@Learnwithjoel]

LOL...If you knew some of my friends @UniverseUnknown, you wouldn't be surprised or put it past them! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@BuddyBearCreator]

it's actually just a sneaky way for Apple to get you to pay for more storage too bad Apple isn't more transparent about that fact. Bad Apples :(

[@user-vn3bx5pq2i]

J

[@karolinaassi8926]

I find iCloud so unnecessarily confusing

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Karolina Assi! I can relate! The cloud concept in general can be very confusing. This particular video would not be a good start to watch and learn what iCloud is and how to use it. If you have interest in learning iCloud in general, I'll link a few videos below that may be helpful. Understanding iCloud Syncing - BEGINNERS GUIDE 101 kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4PcmYuDq9psb6M What is iCLOUD?! - Complete UNDERSTANDING of what Apple iCloud's service actually is! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pauZoGOwhbd4fNE Understanding iCLOUD PHOTOS - Syncing iPhones, iPads, and Apple Computers IN-DEPTH kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2q8m5eYnZaEbpo UNDERSTANDING Apple's FILES App and HOW TO ORGANIZE DOCUMENTS in iCLOUD DRIVE on an iPhone and iPad! kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4rZdY2nbcl3a68 I hope that helps! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@captaintruth3219]

Five years worth of knowledge in 14 minutes? i’m no Joe Biden, but could you repeat that please?🙉

[@marz6243]

Better to be a Joe Biden than a Don Trump!

[@wahaajkhattak1332]

watching this video is waste of time, no really tip how to take back up from icloud

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @wahaaj khattak! What to you mean by take back up from iCloud? Are you looking for how to backup a device to iCloud? If so, I have a video related to that. I'll link below for reference: iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZbTaqOIetWfepo Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@JimTHX]

I am sorry, but as far as I can tell this video did NOT answer a simple question! How do is download ALL of the photos on iCloud to a local external drive! I am NOT interested in saving the library! I want to save the individual photos to the external drive. How about a SIMPLE straightforward step by step procedure. [And stop adding so much irrelevant information! Drives me crazy!]

[@Ankur71284]

Can you please make a video about how to transfer Google photos to iCloud I’m paying for both service right now I see no point of doing it .or should I use both service .

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great suggestion @@MrGurv2009! I will add that to my future list! I've played a lot with both Google Photos and iCloud Photos on an Apple Device and although there are some pros and cons to both, I personally don't see a reason to use both. And the only reason I say that is Apple only gives you 5GB for free and Google only gives you 15GB for free. Most users will cross over that threshold with the amount of photos/videos they take and therefore you would need to pay for cloud storage with either of them. My best advice would be to utilize one cloud service to sync your content. I would say it's based off what devices you have and how intuitive the software is for the individual user. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!