Q: Photos stored on NAS
I was really hoping that Apple would improve the ability to access photos stored on a NAS, but unless I am missing something it is not recommended/supported. I have been using digital photos for about fifteen years and have accumulated too many to fit on my local hard drive. The price to store these on iCloud is just too expensive.
My question is what is the best method to manage my photos in a stable and useable manner using my brand new macbook pro?
Thanks for any help!
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
Posted on May 8, 2015 9:11 AM
You can store your photos in a Photos Library. The Photos .app can be used with a local library, it is not necessary to use iCloud with Photos.
See: What is Photos?
If the internal drive on your MacBook Pro does not have enough free storage for your photos collection, you can create the System Photos Library on an external drive. See: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht211de786
Or use multiple libraries - a small internal System Photos Library, and a second library with the bulk of your photos on an external drive:
The Apple documents do not say if Photos will work with the library on a NAS, but we have seen many reports from users who tried, where the attempt to work with a Photos Library on a NAS failed.
With iPhoto and Aperture it was not recommended to store the library on NAS:
Posted on May 8, 2015 9:21 AM