[rgovostes]

I have a 1.2T photo library. Carrying that around on my MacBook requires an $800 upgrade to the SSD.

Time Machine's job is to back up my data, it's not strictly to make a 1:1 copy of local storage. It should back up my cloud data too.

[mrexroad]

My library is large too (roughly a third larger). After years of far more complicated storage/backup solutions, I settled w/ a second Photos library on an external hdd w/ optimize storage disabled. I plug the drive in and open this library every so often to update and then duplicate the drive for an off-site copy. Day to day, I use a Photos library on my primary drive with optimize storage enabled.

I’ve found unreasonable value in being able to search through hundreds of thousands of photos from my phone, so I went all-in on Photos.app. Though one enabling factor is that my photography workflow has drastic simplified in recent years to doing very little post (except for astrophotography, which I try and keep wip out of Photos.app anyway).

[nik_0_0]

I had tried this but found it a little bit weird - switching back and forth on the same device between the 'hard drive w/ full files' library and the 'primary drive optimize storage' didn't really seem easy.

IIRC Photos.app will not even open if the default library you are pointing at is not there (i.e drive was unplugged). Are you able to just open up the library file directly and it will work as expected?

I also recall when changing Photos.app back to the HDD Library it did a ~2h 'rebuild' session before it even started downloading the new photos, but maybe thats acceptable with the 'every so often' approach.