Projector 002: Image Management
My storage and backup setup.
As promised in the video, here are some additional details about my current setup. One word about off-site backups: I also have another backup drive…at my mother-in-law’s. Pre-pandemic, this would get updated every few weeks or so. Now, it’s been sitting there for a loooong time and is completely outdated. So it doesn’t count anymore.
Synchronization
CLOUD: Backblaze
No affiliation, but it’s a solid service in my experience, and not too expensive either. By default, it uploads everything, including external drives—so it’s important to use the exclusions feature to avoid sending over things like backup drives for instance.
It also requires a good internet connection, especially for the initial backup. We have fast, unlimited service, and it took a good two/three weeks for this to complete if I remember correctly. Once this is done, however, it really is quite invisible. There are scheduling options but in my experience the app doesn’t slow down the computer, so the recommended continuous setting is the one I use.
FYI: Backblaze works by applying an ID to every file that’s uploaded. Which means that if anything moves (to a new external drive for instance) or is renamed even, the system is smart enough to still recognize those files and simply relink them. I looked this one up very recently...(!)
For more info: Backblaze
UPDATE: Mike alerted me to the affiliate link that’s available to users: basically this gives both of us a free month. So why not: Backblaze-free month
LOCAL: Carbon Copy Cloner
If you’re on a Mac and looking for a backup solution, this works very well. It’s also useful if a large copy operation fails, and you don’t want to start over completely: just create a new task and the app will analyze what needs to be copied over.
As the name says, it’s also possible to use this to clone a bootable drive. But I still prefer a Time Machine backup to get me up and running when changing computers.
For more info: Bombich
iCloud: Hazel
This is also Mac-only. Hazel is Automator on steroids—which is a good thing because Apple doesn’t much seem to care about automation on the Mac anymore (1). I’ve set up Hazel to look at my yearly Edited subfolder: as soon as new images are added, it tags them, labels them and sends them to Photos where they get synced via iCloud.
Super simple and I don’t need to think about it. For more info: Noodlesoft
About edited exports
Two things to add about this:
I keep all the original file names but add EDIT as a suffix (plus current date, so I know when they were edited). It makes for long names, but it allows me to quickly identify the original if I need to.
I use an export recipe to do all of this automatically.
And finally, here’s a look at that synchronize option I mention in the video:
Yes, I’ve kept Macintosh HD on my new MacBook Air M1…haven’t done that since my very first Mac :)
Here again is the setup diagram, for reference:
So there you have it. If you have any questions don’t hesitate...
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Although I imagine Shortcuts will eventually be cross-platform? Because right now things are a mess.
