Personal Cloud for Photo Storage and Remote Access

When I'm away from home I'd like to be able to have some form of web interface to the photos.

Why not upload them to Flickr or SmugMug? View them from any computer in the world with an Internet connection.

Regards

TD

Owch, this is disappointing news. I'd read about other people who had (seemingly) successfully shared their iphoto library on their home network either hosted on their computer or a nas. Sharing always seemed dangerous to me given the way iLife apps rely on accessing their database. Since I simply wanted single user access to a library stored on some form of network storage I thought this would be easier. Are there other solutions?

Yes sharing on a drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - see this thread for more discussion - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11864941

1 - the iPhoto library must reside on a drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) for proper operation

For the remote option, Smugmug, whilst nice, is 60 bucks a year if I want to store my photos and movies. It'd take an age to upload the 15,000 photos. I'd be better off setting up my own webserver. Cheaper too.

That is fine - sharing photos is different that operating your iPhoto library on an internet connection which you originally ask about

LN

Dont

1 - the iPhoto library must reside on a drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) for proper operation

2 - iPhoto needs to be on a hard wired connection to operate properly when loading photos and editing photos - wireless and/or internet connections are not reliable enough and are far too slow

LN

I'd read about other people who had (seemingly) successfully shared their iphoto library on their home network either hosted on their computer

What you mean by 'share'.

If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.

Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.

Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.

This will also work for folks on a network on different machines, on a wired or wireless connection.

If you want folks to be able to edit the Shared Library:

Attach an external to the Computer, set it to ignore permissions and then hold the option (or alt) key when launching iPhoto and use the resulting menu to point iPhoto at the Library on the external.

Now everyone has the same access to the Library.

Couple of caveats: A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.

And: only one person can access the Library at a time.

or a nas.

iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.

Remember: Averaged out of the cost of iLife you're working with a $16 app aimed squarely at a person with a Mac and a point and shoot camera. iPhoto is not a server app. You can get them but they start at about the $200 mark.

As to Web Sharing: Again, iPhoto has no capability in the area. But there have been efforts by third party developers: check out http://www.globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=265 - though I note it hasn't been updated in a year or so. Other efforts seem to have ceased about v6 of iPhoto or earlier.

Regards

TD

I'm not sure that's the case with either Aperture (there was a recent fix, iirc) or Lightroom. However, they are both concieved as single user apps and have the same limitations as iPhoto from a Sharing point of view. In fact neither has the sharing ability of iPhoto via their preferences.

Regards

TD

You might consider one of the DAM (digital asset management) applications that do allow multi users with one set of "source" files. I use Media Expression as my primary DAM app and iPhoto for special projects like books, calendars, etc. You can find reviews and general discussions about them at The DAM Forum.

OT

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

NOTE: The new rebuild option in iPhoto 09 (v. 8.0.2), Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" makes this tip obsolete.