This is how I backup my iPhoto stuff. I know that Apple has tools to do this, but I don’t use TimeMachine and keep most of my backups on my NAS.
I also keep my iPhoto Library on an external drive (to save space on my local SSD drive).
This is the simple script that I run in the Terminal:
#!/bin/bash if [ -d /Volumes/Monster/Private/iphoto_pictures ]; then if [ -f lock ]; then exit 1 fi touch lock rsync -av /Volumes/Fujin/iPhoto\ Library.photolibrary/ /Volumes/Monster/Private/iphoto_pictures/iPhoto\ Library rm -rf lock fi;
What I’m doing here is first off, checking to see if the NAS is mounted. In my case, my mount name is “Monster” and the directory were I put my pictures is /Private/iphoto_pictures, so I check to see if the directory exists. If it does, I proceed to check if a lock exists. The reason I create a lock is so that I don’t have more than 1 backup job running at once. I keep this script running in my crontab, so that if the NAS is mounted and there is no lock, it will call rsync to copy all of the files in my iPhoto library into the one on the NAS.
I’ve had no issues with restoring so far – to restore, just need to rsync the other way.
Hope this helps.