eldentisto

Q: Base station for photo storage

I have migrated all of my iTunes and iPhoto data from an old iMac onto an airport time capsule with a 4 TB external HD attached. I have bought a brand new Mac with Yosemite and photos app and want to use my time capsule as a home network drive

 

The iTunes has no problem connecting with data on the time capsule and opens with no problems however photos doesn't recognise the old iPhoto data I have tried using it as an iPhoto library and importing the images onto the time capsule as jpegs etc. There is only 35.5 GB of data, which represents 13,500 photos or so. however when I try to connect the photos app to the time capsule it will only retrieve the last 80 or so photos that I have taken with my phone.

 

how do I get photos to link to these images without directly loading them onto my new Mac?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 26, 2015 12:34 PM

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Q: Base station for photo storage

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  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 26, 2015 12:55 PM in response to eldentisto
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 26, 2015 12:55 PM in response to eldentisto

    The Library can't be on a networked connection. It needs to be on a disk directly connected to the Mac and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

  • by LarryHN,Apple recommended

    LarryHN LarryHN May 26, 2015 1:27 PM in response to eldentisto
    Level 10 (85,042 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 26, 2015 1:27 PM in response to eldentisto

    You can not - the iPhoto library (and the Photos library as well) must be on the internal drive or a directly connected hard Drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - no wireless - no network connection - only a fast wired connection like USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt)

     

    LN

  • by Ricky_Bobby,

    Ricky_Bobby Ricky_Bobby May 26, 2015 2:28 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2015 2:28 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Does a Drobo 5D connected by Thunderbolt count as "directly connected?"  The data sheet says it supports Mac OS X HFS+.  Is this the same as MacOS Extended (Journaled).  Do you know if the Drobo BeyondRAID technology is compatible with Photos storage requirements?

     

    I have a lot of photos and would like to subdivide them into smaller libraries.  Can you recommend a white paper or user guide to help me get this set up?

     

    Thank you.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 26, 2015 11:02 PM in response to Ricky_Bobby
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 26, 2015 11:02 PM in response to Ricky_Bobby

    Thunderbolt is a direct connection. HFS+ and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) are the same thing. I have no idea about Drobos.

     

    Photos is at v1 and there is no way to subdivide libraries apart from duplicating one and removing the unwanted elements from each copy. Multiple Libraries are inconvenient as only one can be open and searched at the same time.

  • by Ricky_Bobby,

    Ricky_Bobby Ricky_Bobby May 26, 2015 11:20 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2015 11:20 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks Terence.  If not multiple libraries, what would you recommend?  My current Photos library is 1.3 TB.  Are you advising waiting to see what large library management solutions come in future versions?  Thanks again.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 27, 2015 2:04 AM in response to Ricky_Bobby
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2015 2:04 AM in response to Ricky_Bobby

    I don't think this app is every going to be for very large libraries, as it's designed to work with the Cloud function, and you can't put a library that size up there. There were 3rd party apps to manage multiple iPhoto Libraries but the equivalent apps for Photos haven't reached that stage of capability yet. With a library that size it might be worth considering other, more capable apps.

  • by Ricky_Bobby,

    Ricky_Bobby Ricky_Bobby May 27, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks Terence!

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R May 27, 2015 9:43 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 6 (17,685 points)
    May 27, 2015 9:43 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

    The Library can't be on a networked connection. It needs to be on a disk directly connected to the Mac and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

    Actually, it can be on a networked drive -- I just tested this with both the internal drive on my Time Capsule & with a USB drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) connected to its USB port. Nothing prevented me from using the option key to launch Photos & creating a new managed Photos Library on either one. I tested the functionality of the external one by dragging & dropping a selection of photos into its 'getting started' window, quitting the app, relaunching it with the option key > Other Library choice, dropping more photos into it, adding keywords, noting that preexisting embedded metadata was preserved, importing & exporting a few photos, etc. As best as I can tell, everything works as expected -- I saw no issues at all.

     

    Of course, that does not mean it is a good idea to use a networked drive, particularly for large managed Libraries. My iMac is normally connected to my Time Capsule via Gigabit Ethernet, & there is a perceptible delay when adding or changing anything that for some operations increases with the number of items in the Library. I have not yet tried changing the connection to WiFi, but I expect the delay to be somewhat greater.

     

    As far as the requirement that the drive be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or where it can be located, the only thing I can find in Apple's literature is in the System Photo Library overview help topic:

    By default, your System Photo Library is stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac, but you can move it to another location on your Mac or store it on an external storage device. However, to use iCloud services, the external storage device must be formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, also known as HFS+.

    The only iCloud service I use is iCloud Photo Sharing. I did test the external HFS+ formatted drive connected to the TC with that, which of course required me to set that Library as the System Photo Library, & that also worked as expected. I can't definitively say if the iCloud Photo Library or My Photo Stream services would also work but I expect that they would as well.

     

    One thing worth noting for anyone that wants to verify this is that changing the System Photo Library resulted in rebuilding the original Photos Library when I reopened it, & required resetting it as the system one & then reenabling iCloud Photo Sharing once that lengthy process was complete. I encountered no problems doing this, other than the wait & resets -- my shared libraries & everything else were just as I left them.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 27, 2015 12:39 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2015 12:39 PM in response to R C-R
    One thing worth noting for anyone that wants to verify this is that changing the System Photo Library resulted in rebuilding the original Photos Library when I reopened it, & required resetting it as the system one & then reenabling iCloud Photo Sharing once that lengthy process was complete.

     

    And you trust that to work every time?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad May 27, 2015 1:59 PM in response to Ricky_Bobby
    Level 10 (141,311 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2015 1:59 PM in response to Ricky_Bobby
    If not multiple libraries, what would you recommend?

    You should seriously consider looking into more professions DAM (digital asset management) apps.  Many of them are discuss in  The DAM Forum.

     

    If you use a 3rd party editor more than iPhoto or Photos an excellent app is Media Pro 1. There's a demo version available. 

    OTsig.png

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R May 27, 2015 4:29 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 6 (17,685 points)
    May 27, 2015 4:29 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

    And you trust that to work every time?

    I trust nothing to work every time. That's why I maintain multiple rotating hourly & daily backups, with at least one always offline.

     

    My point is only that networked Photo Libraries do work, at least for Time Capsule connected external drives, & contrary to popular opinion there is nothing (at least that I can find) in Apple's documentation that says that is not supported, including for iCloud services if the drive is formatted as HFS+ journaled.

     

    If you can find something from Apple that says otherwise, or have done tests that contradict my results, I would very much like to know about it. I try hard not to spread misinformation but I realize that even though I tested my answer as thoroughly as I could before posting it, that does not mean I might not have missed something.

  • by Ricky_Bobby,

    Ricky_Bobby Ricky_Bobby May 30, 2015 11:15 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 30, 2015 11:15 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thank you OT!  This is the type of photo library information I was looking for.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 30, 2015 12:50 PM in response to eldentisto
    Level 10 (85,042 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 30, 2015 12:50 PM in response to eldentisto

    .

  • by Sailing Tiger,

    Sailing Tiger Sailing Tiger Jul 12, 2015 8:42 AM in response to eldentisto
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 12, 2015 8:42 AM in response to eldentisto

    Yes you can.  I have a 2TB drive connected to the USB port on my Time Capsule.   My iPhotos Library has lived on that 2TB drive for several years.  Upon upgrading that library to the new Photos.app, I simply followed the instructions at this link: Designate a System Photo Library in Photos - Apple Support.  

     

    As a sidebar, I first attempted to convert the iPhotos.library to the new Photos.library over my wifi network, but it after 24 hours it had only migrated 2% of my 168GB library.   Why was it so slow?  Well, it doesn't matter that the new library is being built on the same external drive as the old library.  What matters is that the Photos app is running on my MacBook Pro, which is accessing that drive over my wifi.  In other words, the logic to convert the files resides on my MacBook, so the performance takes a huge hit over my home wifi network.

     

    So, I started over.  I removed the partially created (2%) Photos.library on the external drive.  Shut everything down.  Then moved the 2TB drive from my Time Capsule to my MacBook, connecting it to the USB port on my MacBook.   Restarted everything, making certain that Finder did in fact now see the newly attached 2TB drive, and then followed the instructions found at the link above again.  That is, 

     

    Follow these steps to designate a System Photo Library:

    1. Quit Photos.
    2. Hold down the Option key, then open Photos. One of the photo libraries is already designated as YourLibraryName (System Photo Library).
    3. Choose the library you want to designate as the System Photo Library.
    4. After Photos opens the library, choose Photos > Preferences from the menu bar.
    5. Click the General tab.
    6. Click the Use as System Photo Library button.

     

    After you have navigated to where on your external drive your original iPhotos.library resides, select it, and then be sure to click the button, "Use as System Photo Library" so that it greys out.   (very bad convention used by Apple, IMO).   The migration will begin, and you will be very pleased with how quickly completes.  For my 168GB iPhoto.libary, the migration to the new Photos.library took about 30 minutes.  

     

    After it finished, I launched Photos and presto, all of my photos/videos were there in the new app. 

     

    But I wasn't finished just yet, because clearly I didn't want to keep this 2TB external drive tethered to my "portable" MacBook, so I shut everything down, discounted it from my MacBook, reconnected it to the USB port on the Time Capsule, restarted everything, launched Photos, and presto, all of my photos/videos popped up.  (note, because the photos/videos are coming from an external drive over my home wifi, it takes a few minutes for the Photos app to populate).  

     

    But still not finished!  Now I turned my attention to the nifty new iCloud Photo Library setting under Photos/Preferences/iCloud tab.  After checking the "iCloud Photo Library" box, I got this message. "iCloud Photo Library is only available on Mac OS Standard and Mac OS Extended formatted volumes. To check the format of a volume, select the volume in the Finder and choose Get Info from the File menu. The type of volume appears in the Format field." 

     

    I know that this drive is formatted as a Mac OS drive, so clearly Yosemite/iCloud do not see it as such, when it is connected to the USB port on Time Capsule.  In fact, I can confirm this because as a drive connected directly to Time Capsule, it does not show up as a "Device" in Finder.  Instead, it shows up as a Folder under Time Capsule, just below my Time Capsule backup volume, called Data.  

     

    In conclusion, you can definitely store your new Photos.library on an external drive, even a network connected drive, just as you've been doing with iPhotos.   However, it appears that if the external drive is network connected, the Apple User Community will not be able to take advantage of  "iCloud Photo Library", because it can't recognize it as a MacOS Standard or Extended formatted volume.  

     

    I have one more thing I plan to try, which is to disconnect the external drive from Time Capsule, and connect it to a network hub, and then try to turn on iCloud Photo Library again.    I just want to take Time Capsule out of the equation completely, before I give up on iCloud Photo Library. 

     

    Good Luck!

    End.