Outsourcing Photos Library to TimeCapsule isn't working

Neither iPhoto, Aperture nor Photos support a Library no a network connection.

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.”

It was possible to create Libraries on networks in earlier versions but that was removed in later versions of iPhoto and Aperture. Get a USB disk and format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and use that.

What art of the bit underlined and in bold is not clear? The problem is it's a networked location. It does not "force" you do use your internal disk, as I explain above you need to simply use an appropriate one. Obviously you need to rethink your wall mount and get a more appropriate one, or buy a computer with more storage.

Have you tried enabling iCloud Photo Library when the Photos library is located on an iSCSI volume? I'm curious if that'll work, or if Apple requires the library to be stored on a HD over USB/inside?

Just curious as to whether you have found a solution to this.

Because I used to have a Macbook Air with limited (terrible) storage space I was forced to use TimeCapsule to store my iphoto library. Whilst it was slow to bring up the files from time to time it was really an excellent solution for me as it gave me adequate space on my laptop and I could access my photos from my iMac too. I only used it to store older photos.

So I simply access the Time Capsule library from time to time when I need to grab some older files.

However, now I have the same problem as you, i.e. that Photos won't let me open the library stored on my time capsule. Surely the solution really isn't for me to need to copy ALL my photos onto a plug in drive? This is really frustrating for me (not to mention really time consuming) as I purchased the TimeCapsule instead of a plug in drive so that I have the benefit of additional storage AND wireless networking.

This is quite frustrating.. surely this affects plenty of users?

The article Terence mentioned & quoted from was recently updated (on June 1st of this year) but it still only refers to iPhoto libraries, & does not mention Photos ones at all. I can find no similar document from Apple that says anything like this about Photos libraries, so it remains unclear if it applies to them as well.

I have experimented with storing a Photos library on my Time Capsule, & with some limitations it does work -- specifically, it does not support migrating an iPhotos library stored on that same drive to a Photos one. That isn't too surprising given the iPhoto article.

But whether or not it works, consider this: if you put your Photos library on the TC's internal disk, there is no backup of it there, even if you are using the TC as a Time Machine backup. That isn't a good idea, at least if you care about your photos.

I have the same problem!!! I didnt find any solution!

try reading - the solution is right there

Neither iPhoto, Aperture nor Photos support a Library no a network connection.

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.”

It was possible to create Libraries on networks in earlier versions but that was removed in later versions of iPhoto and Aperture. Get a USB disk and format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and use that.

LN

Another solution is to simply keep using iPhoto instead of Photos. If your version is old enough (like mine, which is iPhoto 09 version 8.1.2), it will likely still be able to store the library on a network volume.

The article below describes how this is possible on newer versions of OS X:

http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/16/use-iphoto-instead-of-mac-photos-app-osx/

Honestly I don't see much of a disadvantage unless you want to use iCloud to store all your Photos, but in this case you wouldn't be reading this thread, right? :-)

no disadvantages except

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

And the inability to use iCLoud PHoto Library

and although not necessary it is often true that the TC is the TimeMachine backup volume location so in that case you have no backup

But other than those there are no disadvantages

Oh and it will not work at all with Photos

But other than those there are no disadvantages

LN

Well, of course, using a local NAS must lead to poor performance, while storing your whole library in the iCloud does not ;-)

But, seriously, of course I would suggest to use the network volume only for ARCHIVED (=old) parts of an iPhoto library; the active, newer part I keep on the local drive. This way, neither performance nor potential data loss are a problem, and still it is MUCH more convenient to browse through old photos on the NAS with having to wait a second for the final image to come up, then having to find and plug in the external drive each time.

Again, a NAS is not a suitable location for an iPhoto Library. The disk format is wrong and there is a high likelihood of library corruption and dataloss. I'm really not sure how many times this needs to be written for you to understand. This is true of both recent and older versions of iPhoto.

There have been some updates since the original post, but I just wanted to share that I have no problems (except for some poor performance maybe) with having my Photos library stored on my Time Capsule share... Maybe I'm doing something "wrong"...