iCloud & iCloud Photos · iCloud Photos and the Photos library

Does Time Machine back up photos that are only in iCloud?

Short answer: No. Time Machine backs up what's on your Mac, and with Optimize Mac Storage some originals live only in iCloud. Choose Download Originals and let it finish before backing up if you want every original locally.

No. Time Machine backs up what's stored on your Mac. With Optimize Mac Storage on in Photos, some full-resolution originals live only in iCloud, so a backup of the Mac only contains the smaller versions of those.

If you want every original in your local backup:

  1. Make sure you have the space — free some first if needed, for example by moving other big folders to your fast drive with Storage Studio.
  2. In Photos → Settings → iCloud, choose Download Originals to this Mac and let it finish.
  3. Let Time Machine run.

The same idea applies to online-only iCloud Drive files: download what you want backed up locally.

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