How to use Seagate Personal Cloud to store iPhoto library?

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Level 1

1 points

How to use Seagate Personal Cloud to store iPhoto library?

I have a MBP w/Retina that has a 256GB solid state drive. My iPhoto library was approaching 100GB and so I bought a 6TB Seagate Personal Cloud external hard drive to house my iPhoto library and Time Machine backups. The Personal Cloud promises fast accessibility via wifi and access while not on the same network via their S Drive feature.

I moved my iPhoto library to the Personal Cloud device and when I open iPhoto on my MBP, I hold down the Option key while clicking on the iPhoto icon. This prompts me to select my library and I select the library located on the Personal Cloud drive. At that point I wait... and wait, and wait, and wait. It takes forever to load and usually crashes a handful of times. Is anyone successfully doing what I'm attempting? Any help is appreciated.

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 11:49 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,408 points

Aug 4, 2015 12:06 PM in response to money_mil

You bought the wrong thing, unfortunately. That's a NAS or Network Attached Storage. Essentially it's a Linux computer (hence the Network part). It has two plays against it - the disk is the wrong format, and the Library should not be on a network location.

iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.

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.”

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Answer 2

MrAhhaha

Level 1

0 points

Oct 11, 2015 1:45 PM in response to Yer_Man

I did the same thing, I bought a NAS to house my photo library. This is because our main computer (an iMac attached via ethernet cable to our router) has become so slow and outdated. We only have laptops (and iphones and ipads otherwise) Rather than invest in another iMac, I wanted a solution that would serve all of the laptops and not need another computer. The library has grown to over 600 gb!!

If iPhoto is not the option when is there another program that you could reccomend?

PS I plan on doing the same thing for iTunes...storing all of the media on the NAS

Thanks

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,408 points

Oct 11, 2015 2:25 PM in response to MrAhhaha

Not really. I don;t know of any app that will store library on a NAS and then share it to attached Macs. You will get apps that can store the originals on the NAS and have the Library on the Mac - which means everyone would have their own library, but not the same library. Lightroom springs to mind in that case.

What you're talking about would require something like a media server. Not a trivial thing to set up and something like Extensis Portfolio starts around the $2000 mark. Cheaper to buy a new iMac...

You can use Photos and the iCloud Library for this, but that won't use your NAS

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