I keep "optimized storage" turned off for Photos and back up directly from the filesystem. The photo library sits in $HOME/Pictures with all originals and the S

I keep "optimized storage" turned off for Photos and back up directly from the filesystem. The photo library sits in $HOME/Pictures with all originals and the SQLite database intact - any regular backup solution works fine with this. For Notes, I've migrated to Obsidian since I couldn't find a reliable backup method for Apple Notes. Messages is tricky - I just screenshot anything important since it's so tightly integrated with Apple's ecosystem. Most of my important conversations happen on WhatsApp anyway, which lets me export anything I need to preserve.