Photo Library vs NAS

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Photo Library vs NAS

Hi,

I read posts in the community that the Mac Photo library should not be stored in NAS because of possible file corruption due to shared access and non-Apple partition type (Journaled or APFS).

I do like how Photos manage my pictures and displays it, but it is very disappointing it cannot be stored in NAS. At the same time I am reluctant to keep it in a external hard disk because I have fault redundancy in my backup system, which makes safer to have my photos there.

I want to check the experience of this community about keeping the Photo library in the NAS. My librarieS are not shared with other uses and I would be the only one accessing it. I would not edit them after I finish organizing. Then I will change the user privileges to read-only to the library and all files stored in it, so I can keep some layer of protection to my files.

Is anyone doing it similarly? Any damage to the file or losses? If the files are ready-only, can the library still get corrupted? I am already testing this option and so far it has worked well.

I hope Apple comes with an option to let us backup our library wherever we see need...

Thanks.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.5

Posted on Sep 5, 2023 10:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,511 points

Sep 5, 2023 10:46 AM in response to snifferbrazil

The Photos.app will need read/write access to the library, even if you just want to browse the library. You will not be able to work with your Photos Library, if you change the permissions to read-only.

Even if you are the only user working with your Photos Library it must not be stored on a volume, that is accessed over the local network. The Photos Library has not been designed to support network access. The database transaction would need to be properly synchronized for network access. Apple does not guarantee, that it is safe to access the library remotely, and you would risk dataloss. You need a drive with a wired connection, see: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

"You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service."

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Answer 2

Sep 7, 2023 6:38 AM in response to léonie

Hi,

There is a way to backup the photolibrary in the NAS, use Apple file system and keep it as backup. I would not keep the file in the NAS using this method if the file is updated and edited. Then I would keep it in my computer.

The way is to create a container, for example, DMG file. Use Disk Util to create it, setup its size slightly bigger than your photo library file. You can create the DMG file as READ/WRITE.

Copy the library content to it. Every time, to access it, one needs to mount and unmount it.

Then copy the DMG container to your NAS (or external non-Apple-FS disk) and you are done.

DMG files can be resized as needed, which requires the use of hdiutil to resize it (Disk Util) doesn't do it. You can increase or decrease the file. Yesterday I tested it: I had my DMG file in my computer first and resized it. Then I copied the DMG file to my NAS and did the same procedure, BUT this time, I got few errors but in the end it worked. Need to have stable and reliable connection. For example:

hdiutil resize -size 25G /PATH/TO/DISK/IMAGE.dmg

change the 25G to the size you want to grow or shrink the file. Lastly, replace the /PATH... with your DMG file name and folder.

There you go! Your photo library is backed up in your NAS!

Happy life! :)

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Photo Library vs NAS

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