Recovery guide

How to restore an Apple Photos backup on Mac

Q: Are albums and metadata restored?

Azivault restores supported dates, locations, favorite and hidden state, plus user-created folders, albums, membership, and asset order. Titles, captions, and keywords require complete snapshot coverage and Photos Automation access.

To restore a Photos backup with Azivault, open the plan’s Restore view, choose a committed snapshot, and select Restore. Azivault imports new assets into a dated top-level folder in Apple Photos, rebuilds supported album organization, and verifies the result.

Published and technically reviewed: September 4, 2026.

Scope and disclosure. A Photos restore creates a new copy. It doesn’t roll back, merge with, overwrite, or delete assets in the working library.

Prepare the recovery environment

Before you start, confirm the following requirements:

The Mac can access the local repository or a hydrated copy of the S3-compatible repository.
Azivault can unlock the repository through Keychain or the recovery password.
Apple Photos opens the intended library.
The Mac has enough capacity for temporary decrypted resources and imported assets.
macOS grants Azivault full Photos access.
Photos Automation access is available if the snapshot contains titles, captions, or keywords that you want to restore.

If the repository exists only in S3-compatible storage, hydrate it to a local folder before importing it on a replacement Mac.

Choose a committed Photos snapshot

Open the Photos plan’s Restore view. Azivault lists committed snapshots with their date, asset count, resource count, and original-data size.

Choose a snapshot from before the unwanted deletion or change. Review its details before restoring. The coverage record identifies the supported metadata and album organization in the snapshot, along with the Apple-managed features that public APIs can’t recreate.

Failed, cancelled, or interrupted backup runs don’t appear as restorable Photos snapshots.

Restore a new copy into Photos

Select the snapshot in Azivault.
Choose Restore.
Approve Photos access if macOS requests it.
Approve Photos Automation access if you want to apply covered titles, captions, and keywords.
Keep the repository and Photos library available until verification completes.
In Photos, find the dated Azivault Restore folder in the sidebar.

Azivault creates new Photos identifiers for the imported assets. Source-library identifiers aren’t portable and aren’t used as identity on the destination Mac.

Resume an interrupted restore

Azivault writes a restore journal after each imported asset. If the process stops, choose the same snapshot again. Then choose Resume Restore to continue without importing completed assets again.

Choose Restore New Copy when you intentionally want another complete import. Azivault creates another destination folder instead of reusing the earlier restore journal.

Don’t remove already imported assets while a restore is paused. The journal expects those assets to remain available for album reconstruction and verification.

Check what Azivault recreates

Azivault restores the following portable state when the snapshot contains it and Photos accepts it:

Supported original, paired, and adjusted resource combinations.
Creation date, location, favorite state, and hidden state.
User-created folders and albums.
Album membership and asset order.
Titles, captions, and keywords when coverage is complete and Automation access is available.

Azivault doesn’t recreate People and Pets, Memories, smart albums, shared-album activity, or Recently Deleted state. Modification date, date added, burst grouping, and source identifiers can be recorded for reference but aren’t applied as restored Photos state.

Understand restore verification

Before Azivault reports success, it checks the recreated resource-type sets, supported metadata, folder relationships, album relationships, membership, and asset order that Photos exposes.

Photos doesn’t provide a byte-for-byte readback API for every imported resource. Repository verification authenticates the backed-up encrypted bytes. Restore verification checks the observable Photos result. Use both checks when the library matters.

Test recovery before an emergency

Create a small test album with a photo, video, edit, location, favorite state, and caption. Back it up and restore it. Check the visible Photos result against the snapshot’s coverage details.

Repeat the test after changing the destination, recovery password storage, Photos permissions, Automation permissions, or the Mac that performs the restore.

FAQs

Does a Photos restore overwrite my library?

No. Azivault creates new assets inside a dated top-level folder in Apple Photos. It doesn’t replace or delete the original assets.

Can I resume an interrupted Photos restore?

Yes. Azivault keeps a restore journal so you can resume without importing completed assets again. You can also create a new complete copy.

Are albums and metadata restored?

Azivault restores supported dates, locations, favorite state, and hidden state, plus user-created folders, albums, membership, and asset order. Titles, captions, and keywords require complete snapshot coverage and Photos Automation access.