Keep photos library on a network shared drive?

Thanks Terence.

I am looking around for a multi user DAM. I am thinking PhaseOne may fit the bill. Not sure if Adobe Lightroom is multi user over networks.

I think as of Catalina Apple may want to state that it's no longer compatible on network shares- it literally doesn't work at all. There are many things Apple doesn't recommend yet people still do them and have functionality, as this did up until Catalina was released. I've never lost a photo doing it that way, but now I am definitely put off on that strategy. There have been many users with similar issues this month.

In the end it works to keep regular photo libraries. It does not work as a "System Photo Library".

Here is what Apple Says:

"Prepare your drive

You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

1 Find out how to check the format of your external storage device. 

To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network."

"Learn more

If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.

1. You can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.

2. If the volume isn't formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase and reformat the drive for this option to be available.

Published Date: January 28, 2019"

Thanks. I don’t think it’s a NAS... It’s a shared external drive that’s connected via thunderbolt to another iMac. The drive has no OS running on it. I am not using the same library for all users. Each user has their own library. The drive has ignore ownership turned on.

Yeah language is a funny thing. I thought I was being careful to explain that it wasn't a "NAS" by not using that acronym. It's literally a drive that's shared on my wifi and ethernet network, a shared network drive, not Network Attached Storage.

It's difficult because I only updated one of my iMacs to Catalina. The one that is still running Mojave is directly connected via thunderbolt to the RAID5 drive. The RAID5 has Ignore Ownership checked.

I have learned from 27 years of getting burned with "upgrades" to start small.

I am thinking that we've outgrown Photos for asset management and need to move on.

Just adding to this in case it helps diagnose the issue. I found this in crash logs:

An unrelated issue. For some reason searching for this very thread under my user name reveals nothing. I am not subscribed to it, and I could not find it searching for my name. I had to dig up the email from Apple to get back to it.

2019-11-11 15:56:07 photolibraryd - Crash (2 times)
        Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoLibraryServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/photolibraryd
        Details: 
            dyld3 mode
            LPhotoLibrary transaction: -[PLJournalManager _transientPhotoLibrary]
            *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistency
            Exception', reason: 'Rebuild: (non-assets) failed to save context <PLM
            anagedObjectContext: 0x7f94007b7900>: -[PLModelMigrator photoLibrary] 
            (/Volumes/Godzilla/Saraswoti Photos Library.photoslibrary): Error Doma
            in=com.apple.photos.error Code=46012 "(null)" UserInfo={NSURL=file:/Vo
            lumes/Godzilla/Saraswoti%20Photos%20Library.photoslibrary/}'
            terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
            abort() called

 2019-11-11 13:44:30 photoanalysisd - Crash (3 times)
        Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoAnalysis.framework/Versions/A/Support/photoanalysisd
        Details: 
            dyld3 mode
            *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistency
            Exception', reason: 'An instance 0x7f9ab241e4f0 of class PLFileSystemV
            olume_FileSystemVolume_ was deallocated while key value observers were
             still registered with it. Current observation info: <NSKeyValueObserv
            ationInfo 0x7f9ab243fdf0> (
            <NSKeyValueObservance 0x7f9ab243fd00: Observer: 0x7f9ab26055e0, Key pa
            th: isOffline, Options: <New: NO, Old: NO, Prior: NO> Context: 0x7fff4
            254f2d5, Property: 0x7f9ab243f6c0>
            )'
            terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
            abort() called