Which is not to say there aren’t really cool things happening in AI. And certainly there have been a number of moments when I have been floored by AI releases.
Come for the trenchant tech analysis, stay for the surprise marine biology.
Blind ranking bad Apple products, hope for a cheaper MacBook, the perils of Siri automation, and apparently Tim Cook took a trip to Washington D.C. for some sort of meeting?
I recently wrote about duplicating iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos to a network-attached storage (NAS) system. This struck a nerve for folks who want to keep full-resolution backups of their Photos Library when they don’t have enough local storage. (That column was focused on not needing to keep your Mac powered up to handle these iCloud offline backups when the Mac was otherwise not in use.)
Readers wrote in or replied via social media with strategies and workarounds, as well as suggesting three software options that can let you sync iCloud Photos outside of Apple’s limitations. Meanwhile, a developer dropped a line to Jason about his new app, which can sync and archive iCloud Photos and files from iCloud Drive.
This feels like it shouldn’t work, but it does
Six Colors reader Mark has a rather elaborate process of keeping a local backup of his Photo Library without enabling full-resolution downloads for his primary account and startup volume.
He started by creating a Photos Backup macOS user. While logged into Photos Backup, he logged into his primary iCloud account, the same one he uses in his main macOS account. On that backup account, he set up an external 2 TB drive and, holding down Option while launching Photos, created his Photos Library on that drive.
You can choose a library that isn’t currently the system library for a given macOS account and then click Use as System Photo Library to allow it to sync with iCloud.
He then used Photos > Settings > General to click Use as System Photo Library, which is required for iCloud Photos syncing. He also enabled Download Originals to this Mac in Photos > Settings > iCloud. Because he also has a Backblaze subscription, he enabled that service to back up his external 2 TB volume as an additional off-site protection.1
This was all a one-time setup. Now, whenever he wants to perform his on-demand backups, Mark:
Attaches the 2 TB drive.
Logs into Photos Backup, which effectively starts the background syncing.
Uses Fast User Switching to return to his main account.
When he needs to leave his current location, he swaps back to the Photos Backup account, logs out of it (Apple Menu > Logout Account Name), unmounts the external volume, and he’s all set. I have not tested this, but Mark says it works, despite the complexity.2
Mark asked, “Am I crazy, or is this an OK solution?”
You’re not making an irrational decision, Mark! This is a perfectly reasonable way to achieve results with limited options.
The only failure point I can see is very unlikely:
You’re on the road.
You create, modify, or capture new images on devices you carry with you.
Those devices are lost or destroyed after syncing.
And your iCloud.com account becomes inaccessible, or the data stored there is corrupted.
Losing your device or having it damaged beyond recovery before syncing is a scenario you can’t avoid in the above method, anyway.
Image Capture and offloading
Reader Jonathan wrote in with a strategy he was using for media management because his family opted to pay for just 200 GB of iCloud+ storage. He also has a Backblaze subscription. Instead of keeping everything in the cloud, he would offload images from time to time:
Normally, I would log into iCloud on my Mac, go to Photos, and then download the latest files to my external hard drive that gets backed up to Backblaze. Is that the best method?
As we corresponded, I found that Jonathan was also curious about how he would copy files that were not downloaded locally if optimization were enabled.
I had not thought of this strategy, either, which can work:
If optimization is off: You can move media from your Mac’s Photo Library at any time without preparation. The size of your library on your drive is within about 20% of the storage it takes up on iCloud.
If optimization is on: You have to stay more on top of adding images and videos so you don’t accidentally fill up your iCloud storage.
To remove media from a Photos Library for an archiving operation like Jonathan employs:
Select the media in Photos for Mac.
Choose File > Export and one of the options described below.
This moves media to the Recently Deleted folder. After ensuring you have an additional backed-up copy, such as through Backblaze, Time Machine, or other methods, go to the Recently Deleted folder, click Delete All, and confirm deletion.
Which of the two Export submenu items should you opt for?
Export X Photos: The export includes any modifications made in Photos and any metadata changes. The photo is converted to the format (Photo Kind) with any quality, color profile, and size options set. (Set to Full Size to preserve the original dimensions.)
Export Unmodified Originals for X Photos: The original photo as imported or created will be exported, including in any supported RAW format, with all modifications ignored.
This export dialog lets you choose the quality and format of the exported media file.
You can also make life easier on yourself by springing for PowerPhotos 3 ($40), a robust Photos Library management app. It can move items between libraries, split and merge libraries, and much more. The operation above would be far simpler: just hold down the Command key and drag the media from one library to another within the app.4
Jonathan has used Image Capture in the past to copy media from his iPhone to the external drive, although he had optimization turned on for the phone, so he wasn’t sure if he was copying full-resolution images or low-resolution thumbnails.
Apple will never copy low-resolution images through sharing or copying from the Photos app or using Image Capture. However, with optimization enabled, Image Capture shows only images and videos that are downloaded to that device. On my iPhone, for instance, Image Capture showed about 7,000 items available for copying; my Photos Library has nearly 70,000.
I command you to download and sync
There are four software solutions—two fully developed apps, two Python command-line packages—to back up an iCloud-linked Photos Library, even when optimization is enabled. Each has unique elements, including one of the Python tools working via a web connection. (I have not tried any of these packages or apps yet! And using Python for this is definitely on the edge of my personal geekiness level.) I also shout out Carbon Copy Cloner for iCloud Drive backups.
Here are the details. The three Mac apps are:
Photos Backup Anywhere (App Store, $10): Allows simple background backup of the Photos Library to any local destination, including NAS. The app temporarily downloads any newly synced images that aren’t stored locally. (Referral via reader Ted)
Parachute Backup (App Store, $5): A slightly more elaborate background Mac tool that lets you choose to backup either or both the Photos Library, including iCloud-stored images and iCloud Drive. (Newly released, referral via the developer, Eric Mann)
Parachute is a new option for set-it-and-forget-it backups to any local destination of iCloud-linked files and media.
Carbon Copy Cloner ($50): If you’re looking just for iCloud Drive file backups, CCC can download iCloud-stored files and then dismiss the local copy after backup—usually. There are oceans of provisos, as Bombich Software explains in this support note.
If you’re into command lines, installing packages, reading documentation, and tweaking results, you may find that either of the two options above will let you back up or create different kinds of archived copies that hit the sweet spot for you:
iCloud Photos Downloader: Adam Bodner pointed me on Mastodon to iCloud Photos Downloader, a Python-based system that lets you perform various syncing and download operations, including copying media out of your library and then deleting it from iCloud Photos. The app communicates with Apple’s servers directly via a web connection. I’m not sure how they have made this all work, but it apparently does!5
OSXPhotos: Another Python-based option, also from a Mastodon colleague, comes via geraint, who pointed me to OSXPhotos. Rather than talking to iCloud.com, OSXPhotos routes its requests through the Photos app. However, it also has a remarkable range of capabilities, including detecting if an optimized image is in place and forcing a download with the correct options selected.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use/glennin our subscriber-only Discord community.]
That gets him the classic formulation of a 3-2-1 backup: have a minimum of three copies on two distinct kinds of media with at least one offsite copy. The “distinct media” element is a bit outdated, but I think “on more than one storage device” is a reasonable replacement. ↩
You can’t have two different iCloud users on the same or different Macs sync the same Photo Library, and you can’t have the same iCloud user logged into two different macOS accounts on the same computer access the same Photos Library file. However, it appears Mark’s case of two accounts, each with their own Photos Library file, is working. ↩
The Photos label is contextual and will say Photo for 1 image, Photos for multiple, Video(s) for videos, and Item(s) for a mix of photos and videos. ↩
Adding Command to a copy turns it into a move across volumes in the Finder and other apps—something I learned about only a decade or so ago. Within a volume, adding Command turns a move into a copy. ↩
Because of its approach, iCloud Photos Downloader won’t work if you have disabled using a web browser to access iCloud data or have enabled iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP). You can find those settings at System Settings/Settings > Account Name > iCloud as Advanced Data Protection and Access iCloud Data on the Web. Both have to be turned off. ↩
Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 and one of three men to have gone around the moon twice, died on Thursday:
The plight of Apollo 13 in 1970 transfixed Americans. The capsule was nearly 56 hours into its flight and some 200,000 miles from Earth when the astronauts heard that ominous bang. Red lights signaling system failures glowed on their console. Captain Lovell, along with Mr. Swigert and Mr. Haise, civilians but also former test pilots who were making their first spaceflight, joined the scientists and technical experts on the ground to improvise a plan that might bring the crew home safely.
“Apollo 13” is one of my favorite films and Jim Lovell was always one of my favorite astronauts. He always seemed genial and enthusiastic and didn’t seem to wear too heavily the burden of never making it to the surface of the moon.
One of my favorite movie add-ons of all time is the commentary track Jim and Marilyn Lovell recorded for the DVD (and subsequent disc) releases of “Apollo 13.” It’s not every day that you get to listen to people who participated in history comment on how accurate, or inaccurate, the film depiction of that event is. His book (with Jeffery Kluger) Lost Moon, rebranded as a film tie-in, is also excellent.
The film ends with Tom Hanks as Lovell musing, “I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?” Sadly, Lovell never got to find out. But Mount Marilyn stands forever on the moon.
You will forgive me if I first read that as “Tim Cook grifts Trump”. The fun thing is, you can also read it as “graft”! Ha-ha! This is how we have fun in the hellscape that is this timeline.…
Back in May on MacBreak Weekly, Andy Ihnatko recommended an incredibly clever project called pico-mac-nano, a seemingly impossible complete emulation of the original Mac in a case only 2.4 inches/62mm high.
I bought it while we were still on the air, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It’s slightly wonky (sometimes the display thinks it’s wider than it is, and though it’s preloaded with MacPaint it won’t actually launch it), but the fact remains: I can attach a USB mouse to this tiny thing and click around and run Mac software. It’s a miracle!
Unfortunately, it was also too good to last. Apple contacted pico-mac-nano creator Nick Gillard, who emailed me and others who ordered the preassembled pico-mac-nano:
…an email from Apple’s Trademark and Copyright Group has put a big question mark over the future of pre-assembled units. I will continue dialog with Apple but their current position is that I should stop selling the pre-assembled Macs…
Look, I understand why this is happening. Apple’s trademarks and intellectual property are being infringed upon, and no hobby project is going to be worth the time to negotiate some sort of licensing agreement. Apple is absolutely in its rights to target Gillard, even though it knows that it’s being a killjoy. Even Gillard gets it:
In fairness to Apple, not only are they perfectly within their rights to issue a cease and desist… but they have been super-nice and polite about the project saying things like “…it’s clear you’ve poured a great deal of care and passion into your work. We genuinely appreciate your enthusiasm for—and admiration of—the original Macintosh.”. They could have requested that the whole open source project be taken down from GitHub but are currently only requesting we stop selling the assembled units. So anyone can still build one themselves for their own use.
What’s it good for? Absolutely nothing, of course — I have to take off my glasses and squint with one eye to even see what’s on the screen — but it’s such a feat of engineering that I really don’t care. It’s one of the most clever and interesting feats of retro computing I’ve ever seen. I love it.
Our approach to cable management at home, the tech we pack for inflight entertainment, the devices and chargers we bring on quick trips, and our go-to strategy for international phone data plans.
In time for Apple’s 50th anniversary, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue tells the iconic company’s entire life story: how it was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, one of the most valuable companies in the world.
The 600-page book features 360 full-color photos, new facts that correct the record and illuminate Apple’s subversive culture, and 150 fresh interviews with the legendary figures who shaped Apple into what it is today.
I’m one of David’s many former editors and upon reflection, he seems like just about the best person around to write a book like this. I look forward to reading it when it’s published next March.
What’s that jingling sound? It might be the cash in Apple’s pockets after its record financial quarter. Also: Apple responds to the DoJ, and Tim Cook gives an AI pep talk.
I released an audiobook a few weeks ago, the first time I had done so. This was the counterpart to the print and ebook editions of Six Centuries of Type & Printing, a work that explores the evolution of printing technology. I used Adobe Audition to record and edit, as well as insert markers that would be exported to serve as chapters. Steven Schapansky, a beloved member of The Incomparable team and excellent audio engineer, took on the audio clean-up and production for me.
Audition lets you create markers which can be exported and used as audiobook chapters.
This is where we hit the first snag. Steven exported the audio as MP3, and Apple’s Books app for Mac read the chapter markers but seemed to think they were zero seconds long. A little research on my part found that “chapterized” audio files, ones with chapter breaks, can work with MP3, but most apps handle this better with the newer-but-not-at-all-new AAC format (part of MP4). So I exported to AAC, which uses the .m4a extension by default, tested it with Books, and thought all was good.
But there I hit several snags, after a reader let me know they couldn’t get the audiobook loaded and synced to their iPhone:
Books for Mac didn’t allow importing the file in all the ways that Books allow.
Importing the file into Books with iCloud syncing enabled for Books (on all my devices) didn’t make it accessible on my iPhone or iPad in the Books app.
Opening the File in the Files app on an iPhone or iPad only lets me play it within Files as a native audio file. I was unable to import it into Books.
Through some trial and error, as well as more careful reading, I uncovered some useful tidbits that helped me solve the problem, and I think they will be useful if you’re ever faced with an audiobook you want to load.
The right format
For starters, I should have read slightly more deeply about audiobook formats. The sucker that I am, I thought audio was a solved problem, and it just works. D’oh! If I had, I would have discovered that the .m4a (with an ‘a’) and the .m4b (with a ‘b’) formats are absolutely identical except for the file extension, yet .m4a is treated like an audio file and .m4b like an audiobook with chapters.
Simply changing the extension with no other conversion allowed me to double-click the file and have it open in Books. I could drag the file onto the Books icon in the Dock or into the Books app to the same effect.
Books can properly read an m4b file as an audiobook and import it with chapter timings intact.
That solved one problem, but the file still didn’t sync to iOS/iPadOS Books. That required a journey into the wilderness of Finder-based synchronization, something I thought we’d mostly shed except for very particular purposes. Turns out, audiobooks are one of those.
Weird-ass Finder audiobook sync
Before iCloud sync, we had to do a lot of messing about in iTunes and later the Finder to synchronize our various desktop and mobile data. iCloud took the fuss out, even though it could be frustrating to troubleshoot when something went wrong. I have rarely touched Finder-based sync in years.
iCloud sync does not apply to audiobooks you import into Books for Mac, only ebooks, generally in EPUB or PDF format. Audiobooks you purchased from Apple’s Bookstore sync just fine, as do all other pieces of purchased or rented digital media.
So you have to use the Finder interface—that’s where Apple directed me to go. For as little as Apple likes the idea of sideloading apps, it loves sideloading media: the iTunes/Finder iPhone/iPad interface is mostly about choosing what media files from a Mac (or a Windows system) get synced for access by the appropriate iOS/iPadOS app. Audiobooks is one of them.
Be warned, however: Overriding the current sync settings will sever your connection with any previous choice you’ve made for syncing local media for Apple’s categories of Movies, TV, Podcasts, and Books. Music, Books, and Info can be affected if you aren’t using iCloud syncing.
To sync your audiobooks, follow these steps:
Connect your iPhone or iPad to a Mac1 unless you’ve already connected and enabled Wi-Fi syncing in the past, in which case you can skip this step.
Select your device in the Finder sidebar.
Click the Audiobooks tab.
Check the “Sync audiobooks onto [device name]” box.
If you had previously synced with another library, you’re warned this will break the sync. Click Remove & Sync.
Apple wants you to really understand that overriding the current settings for media sync will replace your chosen synced items library. Left: a warning about removing the current library; right, a warning reminding you what will happen should you proceed.
6. Make your selection of audiobooks.
7. Click Apply.
8. You’re warned again with more specifics about the library replacement: which library that’s in use will be replaced with the one from this Mac (or Windows device). Click Sync and Replace to proceed.
The Audiobooks tab of the Finder-sync window is where you control which audiobooks are on your iPhone.
Your audiobooks finally show up on your iPhone or iPad. You must repeat this operation every time you load more audiobooks onto your Mac. Seems rather outdated.
Podcast apps might be superior in this regard
You can easily add audiobooks with chapters to Overcast.
You know where else you find sideloading? In podcast apps. Because not all podcasts or audio files you want to listen to in a podcast app can be retrieved via an RSS feed, many apps allow you to import episodes and audiobooks. That’s often a premium feature.
In Overcast, for instance, you need a subscription ($10/year, removes ads and offers 48-hour undelete among other features) and gain access to 10 GB of file upload space, 1 GB maximum per file. Castro‘s Castro Plus subscription ($24.99/year, many extra features) lets you drag files into the iCloud Drive > Castro > Sideloads and have them appear as soon as they sync within the app.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use/glennin our subscriber-only Discord community.]
Another Apple employee is careless with an iPhone, Tim Cook answers questions, and some former Apple AI employees need new business cards. Maybe AI can design them for them.
iPhones gone wild
Move those renders to the Trash because a soon-to-be-fired Apple employee may have been photographed with a real live iPhone 17 Pro in the wild!
While not definitive, the device looks much like what the rumors and renders of said rumors have been indicating, with a larger camera bump that has the LiDAR sensor and flash further to the right.
Naturally, innovation like moving camera thingies doesn’t come for free.
On our YouTube reaction video, Dan suggested that this quarter, which was essentially “boring” and yet generated $95 billion in revenue, means that Apple is about to enter an era where it breaks $100 billion in revenue in its dull quarters.
I think he’s right. Apple is so big and has so many customers that it just slowly gets larger and larger. Every quarter, Apple trumpets the increase in its global installed base of devices, and this quarter was no different. Every quarter, Apple cherry-picks some specific stats about new buyers that boggle the mind—over half of this quarter’s iPad and Apple Watch buyers were buying their first one of those products?! But that’s how you grow the installed base and keep that revenue line going up.
One of the advantages of Apple having a range of different products is that there are so many opportunities to convert people to other parts of the ecosystem. If we assume that for most people the iPhone is the entry point, then selling them AirPods is a logical next step, followed perhaps by an Apple Watch. But when it comes time to buy a new computer, or give a tablet a spin, why wouldn’t the Mac or iPad be at the top of the list? And of course, services revenue is a part of the story too.
For all the hand-wringing about Apple’s long-term fate in the Chinese market, Cook took time out to point out that “the MacBook Air was the top-selling laptop model in all of China, and the Mac Mini was the top-selling desktop model in all of China.” That’s a market undoubtedly driven by iPhone, but some of those iPhone customers are now becoming Mac customers. The revenue ratchet continues.
Apple doesn’t have a lot of one-time customers, is what I’m saying. And that’s why the boring quarters are soon going to be in the triple digits of billions.
Mentioning the unmentionable
Apple always has to disclaim itself when it discusses the future, because all of these disclosures are tightly regulated, and it opens itself up to pain and legal penalty if it’s found to be fibbing. This quarter’s disclaimer, given by CFO Kevan Parekh at the start of the call, was a little different. See if you can spot it:
As we move into the September quarter, I’d like to review our outlook, which includes the types of forward-looking information that Suhasini referred to. Importantly, the color we’re providing assumes that the global tariff rates, policies, and application remain in effect as of this call, the global macroeconomic outlook does not worsen from today, and the current revenue-share agreement with Google continues.
I believe this is the first time Apple has directly referred to the threat of losing Google search revenue in the context of its financial results. It’s an enormous source of profit for the company, and if a court orders that the deal with Google be voided, it will hurt, no matter what fallback Apple figures out.
It’s also worth noting the wording around tariff rates, given that those seem to change at the drop of a hat. Apple’s trying to project the future based on today, but so far as we know, all the rules could change tomorrow. It’s that kind of world.
(This is why, by the way, Apple ascribes some of its stronger sales this quarter to “pull-ahead”—namely, in April a bunch of people in the U.S. rushed out and bought new iPhones or Macs a little earlier than they might otherwise have done because they were concerned that all the prices were about to go up due to tariffs.)
Watch Tim pivot
There was a two-sentence sequence in the analyst call that provided a really clear look into Tim Cook’s worldview—both his personal inclinations and the realities of being a tech CEO in 2025. Answering a question about tariffs from Amit Daryanani of Evercore, Cook said:
In terms of what we do to mitigate, we obviously try to optimize our supply chain. And ultimately, we will do more in the United States.
Step one: Always be optimizing your supply chain! The most Tim Cook thing one could ever say. But step two: Do more in the United States, because it’s what the government demands. I’ve thought for a while now that Tim Cook is not actually a cheerleader for Chinese manufacturing, but he is always going to make optimal and expedient decisions that give Apple the best deal. In the current environment, the calculus has shifted toward doing more in the United States.
AI investment and acquisition
When you want to ask Apple why it’s seemingly struggling with AI, but you’re a financial analyst and you want to try and get some sort of serviceable answer, you ask about capital and R&D investments. Which nets you a response like this from Tim Cook:
We are significantly growing our investment. We did during the June quarter, we will again in the September quarter. I’m not putting specific numbers behind that at this point, but you can probably tell in the guidance that things are moving up. We are also reallocating a fair number of people to focus on AI features within the company. We have a great team and we’re putting all of our energy behind it.
In other words, Apple is “significantly” increasing what it spends on AI, as well as taking people internally and re-tasking them. This sends a signal to the market that Apple’s taking the threat seriously, which is what Apple feels that it needs to do.
There’s also the subject of whether Apple should buy an AI company. Analyst Atif Malik of Citi approached this topic by asking generally about whether Apple needed to do a spot of Mergers & Acquisitions to speed things up, or if it could just focus organically? And Tim Cook took that personally, I think, because his response was direct (okay, direct for an analyst call) and to the point:
We’ve acquired around seven companies this year, and that’s companies from all walks of life, not all AI oriented, and so we’re doing one—think of it as one every several weeks. We’re very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature. But we basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap.
Leaving aside the utterly broken metaphor of accelerating a roadmap, you can see Cook proudly pointing out that Apple does buy companies all the time, actually, before elaborating on why Apple tends to buy companies: not to figure out where to go, but to acquire a company that will help it get to its desired destination. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but this isn’t a bad snapshot of Apple’s overall attitude. Apple might feel it needs to acquire companies to get what it needs, but it’s the one setting the agenda. Unfolding the roadmap? I don’t even know anymore.
