iPhoto Over Network

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iPhoto Over Network

I've read a number of threads on this and other forums that warn against putting iPhoto on a network drive. Ok, fair enough. But, like many I don't have capacity on my laptops for iPhoto anymore. I do have a 1 TB Mac Mini that would suffice for quite some time, and a Time Capsule as well. We don't really have a plan to use the Mini as a client per se, at least not easily. The issue is that it's best if we use the laptops as the end user interface, but need to store the iPhoto Library elsewhere.

I'm trying to come up with the best solution for us. I think what I'd like to do is set up iPhoto on the Mini, then enable Remote Management so the Mini can be logged into from the laptops. This, perhaps coupled with a shared file system for photo import/export between the Mini and the laptops probably does the trick. The main disadvantage I see is that when importing photos, we'll have to plug into the Mini rather than the laptop, but that's no big deal. And, I somewhat question the security of Remote Management -- everything would be behind a firewall, but still. I have some experience with remote desktop stuff, but not Apple's: If there are legit security concerns, I'd appreciate knowing that.

Any other issues that people see with this? Or any alternative solutions to propose?

Many thanks for your help!

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Nov 26, 2014 1:53 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

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106,110 points

Nov 26, 2014 2:10 PM in response to User97531

I'm not sure what5 part of do not put the iPhoto library on a network you are finding ambiguous

The iPhoto library MUST be on the boot drive or an external drive connects directly to your Mac with a fast wired connection like FireWire, ThunderBolt or USB 2 or 3 - iPhoto is not suitable for network access

Simply purchase an external hard drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and connect to your Mac unison of the above connections - then more you r library to it -

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)

And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto

And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive

Read the last pragraph of this support artile - again it is very clear - iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users - Apple Support

It's recommended that you store your iPhoto library on a locally mounted hard drive. Storing your iPhoto library on a network share can lead to poor performance, data corruption, or data loss. If you use both iPhoto and Aperture with the same library, using a Mac OS X Extended formatted volume is recommended. For more information, see Aperture: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

.

LN

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Answer 2

User97531 Author

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Nov 26, 2014 2:11 PM in response to LarryHN

"I'm not sure what5 part of do not put the iPhoto library on a network you are finding ambiguous"

If you're going to be snarky, you might want to at least read my post first. 🙂

I'm proposing a remote desktop setup. From iPhoto's perspective, everything is local. There's no remote disk.

I'd love your advice. You seem to know a lot. But would most appreciate a reply to my actual proposal.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 26, 2014 2:12 PM in response to User97531

No - you are using a Network to access it - which s not a good idea - you an do what every you please - but when you have problems, which guy will, remember you were clearly warned and you chose to ignore the warnings

Have a great day!

LN

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Answer 4

Nov 26, 2014 2:15 PM in response to User97531

In the latest version of iPhoto, using a library over Bonjour is indeed not supported anymore.

Your plan sounds feasable at first, but problems will arise as soon as two Macs have that shared iPhoto Library opened at the same time and you're not aware of it. Expect catastrophe.

Barring that, my best advise would be to move the iPhoto Library on an external USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt-drive and plug it in to the computer that needs it at that very moment.

You can also install iPhoto on the Mac Mini and use screensharing instead of remote management. iPhoto and the iPhoto Library will be 100% on that Mac Mini. To use screensharing, first on the Mac Mini go to: "Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sharing" and check the box next to screensharing.

From now on from every Mac in the same network you should see a "share screen" button in the Finder after clicking on your Mac Mini under "shared" in the left column of any Finder-window. This way, you will be manipulating the Mac Mini as if you connected a mouse and keyboard and it's not technically using iPhoto Library on a network drive anymore.

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Answer 5

User97531 Author

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Nov 26, 2014 2:19 PM in response to LarryHN

"No - you are using a Network to access it" -- How is that exactly?

I'm not exactly familiar with how Apple Remote Desktop works, but if this were Windows Remote Desktop, this would work seamlessly. In Windows, there would be little difference between being physically at the machine and logged in via Remote Desktop. The exception being when a session gets dropped, but any reasonably intelligent implementation would have that be no different from the screen locking from the server's perspective. I can't imagine that a screen lock would screw up iPhoto.

This is *not* having iPhoto on one machine accessing a library that sits on a different machine via a network file system. That's totally, totally different.

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Answer 6

User97531 Author

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Nov 26, 2014 2:25 PM in response to bramfrommaastricht

"This way, you will be manipulating the Mac Mini as if you connected a mouse and keyboard and it's not technically using iPhoto Library on a network drive anymore."

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm looking to do. Perhaps "Screen Share" in Apple lingo is the same as "Remote Desktop" in the Windows world? What's the difference in Apple land between "Screen Share" and "Remote Management"?

Incidentally, so long as the iPhoto Library is only owned and accessible by one local user on the Mac Mini (which is easy enough to ensure), and provided that that user can only be logged in once (which I have no idea about), then I wouldn't think there'd be any collision issues. Am I missing something?

Somewhat separately, does Aperture suffer from the same network issues?

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Answer 7

LarryHN

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106,110 points

Nov 26, 2014 2:26 PM in response to User97531

again

you can do what every you please - but when you have problems, which you will, remember you were clearly warned and you chose to ignore the warnings

Have a great day!

LN

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Nov 26, 2014 3:52 PM in response to User97531

If you enable Window Sharing on the Mini and access it that way you can run iPhoto on the Mini and open the library there. There won't be any problem if there are dropouts as you're not sending info to the library from your Mac to be entered into any of the database files there. iPhoto on the Mini is doing the work. If you lose connection iPhoto on the Mini will just stop. This is all done thru Screensharing. I've done it with a G5 desktop unit.

I'm not sure how the Apple Remote Desktop works but if it lets you open the library on the Mini with iPhoto on your laptop you don't want to do it that way. If you and launch and run iPhoto on the Mini from your laptop then that will work. Might be a bit slow however.

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Answer 9

User97531 Author

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Nov 28, 2014 7:11 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks! I've set it up and tested it out a bit. I'm 99.9% sure it will work as expected. It is much slower than I expected given past experiences with Windows Remote Desktop, but even still, it seems like a far superior solution compared to the external hard drive approach.

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Answer 10

Nov 28, 2014 7:18 AM in response to User97531

Great to see you've found this to be a working solution 🙂

You can speed things up in your network by using Ethernet-cables as much as possible, instead of Wi-Fi.

Also, regarding the screen sharing:

- make sure the Mac Mini has only 1 admin user account user can use to log in with, so you won't get two admins manipulating the same iPhoto Library at the same time.

- make sure to communicate that if users want to work with the iPhoto Library they should use screen sharing and not file sharing.

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