Azivault

Feature

Apple Photos backup for Mac

Azivault backs up photo and video resources available through your Mac’s System Photo Library. It also preserves supported metadata and user-created album organization in an encrypted repository on storage that you control.

Published and technically reviewed: .

Scope and disclosure. Azivault uses Apple’s PhotoKit and Photos Automation interfaces. It doesn’t copy or modify the .photoslibrary package, and it can’t recreate every Apple-managed feature.

What a Photos backup includes

The following table separates the backed-up data from what Apple Photos can recreate during restore.

Area Backed up Restored into Apple Photos
Photo and video resources Every resource that PhotoKit exposes for each selected asset, including original, paired, and adjusted resources when available Supported resource combinations become new Photos assets
Core metadata Media type, dimensions, duration, dates, location, favorite state, hidden state, and burst fields Creation date, location, favorite state, and hidden state
Descriptive metadata Titles, captions, and keywords when separate Photos Automation access returns complete coverage Titles, captions, and keywords when the snapshot has complete coverage and Automation access is available during restore
Organization User-created folder hierarchy, albums, membership, and asset order User-created folders, albums, membership, and asset order
Apple-managed features Stable exclusion records for the features that public APIs can’t recreate People and Pets, Memories, smart albums, shared-album activity, and Recently Deleted state aren’t recreated

Azivault records the limits with each snapshot. A missing Apple-managed feature is a fidelity limitation, while a missing or unreadable encrypted resource is an integrity failure.

Back up the whole library or selected albums

Choose the System Photo Library as the source when you create a plan. You can include the whole library or choose user-created albums. A selected-album plan backs up the union of the assets in those albums, without storing duplicate resource bytes for an asset that appears in several albums.

Album selection controls scope, not ownership. Photos remains the working library, while the Azivault repository holds independent encrypted snapshots.

Back up originals available through iCloud Photos

PhotoKit can provide a resource even when Optimize Mac Storage has removed its full bytes from the Mac. Azivault enables network access for those requests and streams the resource into authenticated encrypted chunks.

The first backup can require substantial time, bandwidth, and destination capacity. The Mac must be online, signed in to the correct Apple Account, and permitted to retrieve the selected resources. Azivault commits the snapshot only after every selected resource and the encrypted manifest are durable.

An interrupted or failed run doesn’t become a restore point. An all-assets plan can use Photos change history to carry unchanged records forward and avoid requesting unchanged iCloud resources. If that history is unavailable, Azivault falls back to a conservative scan.

Preserve metadata without promising a replica

PhotoKit provides the resources and core fields used for backup and restore. Titles, captions, and keywords use a separate Photos Automation permission because PhotoKit doesn’t expose the required write path.

If Automation access is denied or incomplete, Azivault still protects the resources and records a coverage warning. It doesn’t claim that the snapshot contains descriptive metadata that it couldn’t read.

Some Photos state belongs to Apple-managed systems rather than portable assets. Azivault doesn’t promise to recreate People and Pets, Memories, smart albums, shared-album activity, or Recently Deleted state. It also doesn’t treat source identifiers as portable IDs on another Mac.

Store Photos backups on your storage

Photos plans use the same destination choices as folder plans:

Resource bytes and sensitive manifest data are encrypted before storage. The public Photos index contains counts and coverage flags, but it doesn’t expose filenames, Photos identifiers, album names, locations, or user metadata.

Run Photos backups manually or on a schedule

Manual backups and restores are free. Automatic scheduled backups use the Azivault Scheduler helper during the trial or with monthly, yearly, or lifetime access.

The main app and scheduler are separate signed processes, so macOS can ask each one for Photos access. Titles, captions, and keywords also require separate Automation access. A denied permission produces a visible failure or coverage warning instead of a silent success.

Restore a snapshot into Apple Photos

Choose a committed Photos snapshot in Azivault, then select Restore. Azivault creates new assets inside a dated top-level Photos folder. It doesn’t overwrite, merge with, or delete the original assets.

If a restore stops, the journal lets you resume without importing completed assets again. You can also choose Restore New Copy to create another complete set. Before reporting success, Azivault checks the recreated resource types, supported metadata, folders, albums, membership, and asset order that Photos exposes for verification.

For a step-by-step recovery workflow, see Restore an Apple Photos backup.

Test the Photos recovery path

  1. Create a small Photos plan for a user-created test album.
  2. Run the plan and confirm that it reports a committed snapshot.
  3. Review any metadata-coverage warnings.
  4. Restore the snapshot into Apple Photos.
  5. Check the resources, dates, locations, favorite state, hidden state, and album organization.
  6. Review the restored asset and album counts before treating the plan as tested.

This test covers both recovery paths without putting the original Photos assets at risk.

FAQs

Does Azivault back up iCloud Photos originals?

Azivault asks PhotoKit to download selected resources that are available through the Mac’s System Photo Library, including iCloud-only originals. The Mac must be online, signed in, and able to retrieve them.

Does a Photos backup preserve albums?

Yes. Azivault preserves user-created folders, albums, membership, and asset order. Apple-managed smart albums and shared-album activity can’t be recreated.

Does Azivault preserve every Photos metadata field?

No. It restores supported dates, locations, favorite state, hidden state, and user-created album organization. Titles, captions, and keywords require separate Photos Automation permission. Apple-managed People and Pets, Memories, smart albums, shared-album activity, and Recently Deleted state can’t be recreated.