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Q: Bad performance of iPhoto when storing pictures on NAS

I am storing all my pictures on my home NAS server (Western Digital My Book Live Duo). But the performance of iPhoto is very bad (very long loading time). The iPhoto Library is also stored on the home server. How can I improve the performance?

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 25, 2014 11:47 AM

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Q: Bad performance of iPhoto when storing pictures on NAS

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  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Sep 25, 2014 11:52 AM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (106,799 points)
    iLife
    Sep 25, 2014 11:52 AM in response to iPero
    The iPhoto Library is also stored on the home server. How can I improve the performance?

    By moving the iPhoto library to a directly connected drive.

    Network access will make iPhoto slow, and an iPhoto library needs to be on a locally mounted volume.

    See:  Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library (the same holds for iPhoto, since aperture and iPhoto are using the same library format).

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 25, 2014 12:29 PM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (84,540 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 25, 2014 12:29 PM in response to iPero

    Really simple - that is not supported

     

    The iPhoto library can not be on a NAS

     

    and

     

    The iPhoto library must be on a directly connected (fast wired connection) local hard drive

     

    Not only is what you are doing not supported and slow - it will damage your library over time and totally stop working instead of being really slow

     

    LN

  • by Terence Devlin,Helpful

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 25, 2014 12:32 PM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (139,532 points)
    iLife
    Sep 25, 2014 12:32 PM in response to iPero

    If I understand you correctly, you have the library on a server and the photos referenced from a NAS?

     

    As Léonie says, the Library needs to be on a locally mounted disk, not on a server.  See this article

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168

     

    for more. Note also the comment:

     

    “Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

     

    Secondly, if I am correct that the photos are referenced from the NAS you're really working beyond iPhoto's comfort zone and storing up issues for yourself in the long run. Should the path to the photos change for any reason then you're going to be either taking ac rah course in editing SQL databases or reattaching each file, one by one for every photo.

     

    For more on iPhoto and file management see this User Tip:

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361

  • by iPero,

    iPero iPero Sep 27, 2014 6:30 AM in response to iPero
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2014 6:30 AM in response to iPero

    Thanks to all of you for quick reply. Now it's clear to me that iPhoto can't be used if the pictures are stored on a NAS. If I understand correctly it also doesn't matter if I use a NAS from another provider or the Time Capsule from Apple. NAS is not working at all.


    To be honest this are really bad news for me! I am using at home following devices to access to my files (such as picture) which are stored only on my NAS:

    • Mac Book Air with 128 GB hard drive
    • iPad Retina (gen. 3)
    • iPhone 4S
    • Samsung Smart TV

    The NAS is running in mirroring mode (RAID 1). This was for me always the best solution with very low need for maintenance from my side. So it looks like that I need to do some significant change. I can't store all my pictures on my Mac Book internal drive as I have on 128 GB.


    If I understand correctly iPhoto and Aperture are both the developed to work with NAS. Do you have any other recommendation for me how I can still keep all my pictures on my NAS and using a powerful tool for picture management? But this tool should support also the iCloud Photo stream.

  • by LarryHN,Helpful

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 27, 2014 7:13 AM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (84,540 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 27, 2014 7:13 AM in response to iPero

    Your post is not clear

     

    iPads do not access photos from any disk nor does an iPhone - do your photos on disk are only being used by the MBA and possibly the Samsung TV although most TVs do not access external disks either - maybe your does

     

    and this statement is not at all clear

     

    If I understand correctly iPhoto and Aperture are both the developed to work with NAS.

    Both iPhoto and Aperture require that the library be on a locally connected hard drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - Aperture can run in a referenced mode with the original photos on any drive including your NAS and the library on a correctly formatted drive (iPhoto can too but it is a really bad idea and creates many problems)

     

    There is no photo software that supports iCloud and PhotoStream and Shared PhotoStreams except Aperture and iPhoto

     

    LN

  • by iPero,

    iPero iPero Sep 27, 2014 7:27 AM in response to iPero
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2014 7:27 AM in response to iPero

    @LarryHN:

    I am using an App from Western Digital to access the photos which are stored on my NAS. The name of the App is WD Photos. This is really a great tool as I can access 24/7 to all my pictures by using my iPhone or iPad. For example if I visit some friends in other countries I can show them all my photos if I want. The WD Photo App is also supporting iPhoto Libraries.

     

    Regarding the Samsung TV. This TV is working without any problems with my NAS. My TV and the NAS is supporting DLNA streaming.

     

    You mentioned that there is no photo software that supports iCloud and Photo Stream. Is there any other photo software (which doesn't support iCloud and Photo Stream) which you would recommend me to use instead of iPhoto? Or is iPhoto really the best?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 27, 2014 7:45 AM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (84,540 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 27, 2014 7:45 AM in response to iPero

    There are lots of photo programs - I do not use any of them because I like iPhoto (and I use Aperture a bit) - since the volunteers here are here because they use and like iPhoto this is not a good place for recommendations on other programs - Google can tell you about them and there is a DAM forum (Digital Asset Management) forum when users discuss many different products

     

    Using Aperture in a referenced mode with your originals on the NAS sounds like a potential solution letting you access your original photos exactly as you do not while having your library on a properly formatted drive so iPhoto and Aperture (they can share the same library) both work well too

     

    LN

  • by iPero,

    iPero iPero Sep 29, 2014 5:53 AM in response to iPero
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2014 5:53 AM in response to iPero

    Hello all, Thanks for your post and support. Finally I have created an iPhoto library on my local hard drive of my Mac Book air. I have uploaded all my pictures and movies from 2014 (around 29 GB data in total, 134 movies and 1185 pictures). Based on this data I tested the iPhoto software a lot last 2 days. The performance is really great when pictures are stored on directly mounted hard drive. It is very fast and iPhoto is a powerful and easy to use tool.

     

    The only issue which I have that I only have now around 18 GB free space on my hard disc but I still have a lot of other pictures and movies. But I will check now if I can replace the 120 GB hard drive with a 480 GB hard drive. This should be enough to store all my photos and movies.

     

    In summary I would say that I have now a work around solution. But I still would prefer to store everything on a NAS. But in the meanwhile I have realized that Apple will stop to support the iPhoto and Aperture Apps soon. After going life with OS X Yosemite they will develop a new photo App which will replace iPhoto and Aperture. But this new app will also support a new Photo Cloud where all pictures can be stored. Let's see what will be finally developed by Apple.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 29, 2014 6:00 AM in response to iPero
    Level 10 (139,532 points)
    iLife
    Sep 29, 2014 6:00 AM in response to iPero
    The only issue which I have that I only have now around 18 GB free space on my hard disc but I still have a lot of other pictures and movies. But I will check now if I can replace the 120 GB hard drive with a 480 GB hard drive.

     

    Easier solution: a locally mounted USB/Thunderbolt hard drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). There will be no performance hit.

     

    . But this new app will also support a new Photo Cloud where all pictures can be stored.

     

    Couple of things to remember here:

     

    1. There is a cost to Cloud storage.

    2. If you ever change brand of computer then it will not be easy to migrate.

    3. The photos will only be available if you have internet access.

  • by iPero,

    iPero iPero Sep 29, 2014 6:09 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2014 6:09 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    I already have a locally mounted USB 3.0 hard drive available. But I don't want to plugin all the time the external hard drive before I can open my pictures and movies. The internal SSD is the most comfortable for me.

     

    Alle your comments regarding the new Photo Cloud are 100% correct. I personally prefer to have all my documents stored locally at home on a physical hard drive and not only in a cloud.