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Q: Sierra and Photos: cannot load photos library located on a NAS

I have a 300GB Photos library located on a NAS.

No problema with El Capitan or Yosemite.

With Sierra when I open Photos I got a spinning wheel and even after a full night, nothing happened (well, the NAS disconnected... but I think it's something from Sierra... never happened before)

Now I'm trying to get everything from the Masters folder within Photos library...

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 10:53 PM

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Q: Sierra and Photos: cannot load photos library located on a NAS

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  • by Huigie,

    Huigie Huigie Sep 26, 2016 1:44 AM in response to Web4People
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 1:44 AM in response to Web4People

    I have the same problem. Can't open Photos library thats located on a Synology NAS. Finder (Not Responding)

  • by Terence Devlin,Solvedanswer

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 26, 2016 3:47 AM in response to Huigie
    Level 10 (139,557 points)
    iLife
    Sep 26, 2016 3:47 AM in response to Huigie

    Correct. The surprise is that you could ever open it from a NAS. The Library needs to be on a Disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (that's one strike against a NAS) and directly connected to the Mac (That's a second strike against a NAS). Either an internal disk or one connected via USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt. You're trying to run a complex database for a Mac from what is essentially a Linux computer. The solution is to move the Library to an appropriate location.

  • by Web4People,

    Web4People Web4People Sep 26, 2016 3:52 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 3:52 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks! It have sense.

    There are some docs about it?

    But why it worked under El Capitan?

    Maybe we guys had lucky with Synology drive until now?

    Or just Apple decided to gave us some headaches?

    I mean... I have 20 years of my life within Photos. As I need these file remains available forever (I know, it's too much for avery storage support, but you know what I mean) I decided to buy a NAS and move my 300GB there.

    why do have I to put it back to a single USB drive? If it will break, I'll lose everything...

    I found an external thunderbolt 2 bay unit, so maybe I can use it setting a raid via MacOS. But what if they will break the RAID option again?

     

    Oh, well, I think I'll have to save money for the dual case + 2 SSD...

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Sep 26, 2016 4:17 AM in response to Web4People
    Level 10 (107,679 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 26, 2016 4:17 AM in response to Web4People

    What you need is two drives - one drive with enough storage to accommodate the growing Photos library, and a second drive for a backup of all your data.  are you using time Machine? Then include the drive with your Photos Library into your regular Time Machine backup.

  • by Web4People,

    Web4People Web4People Sep 26, 2016 4:17 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 4:17 AM in response to léonie

    mm, well, maybe I could set TimeMachine on the NAS (hoping it will work there) and put the external USB data to backup on the NAS.

    That's cause if the drive should break, I would lose a lot of memories...

    Actually I use Time Machine on a USB drive connected to the mac, but it's a single disk (and it's where I configured photos too yesterday, discovering it worked, and before reading the answers here)

  • by Huigie,

    Huigie Huigie Sep 26, 2016 5:44 AM in response to Web4People
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 5:44 AM in response to Web4People

    Smartest workaround if this is not a bug... is to place all the photos on the NAS and drag them from there in a new/clean Photos library and in Photos preferences turn "copy items to the Photos library" OFF. This way the library stays small enough to be able to keep using the Photos( library on your machine) and the data aka photos safe on the NAS.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 26, 2016 5:54 AM in response to Web4People
    Level 10 (107,679 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 26, 2016 5:54 AM in response to Web4People

    There are some docs about it?

    Apple's current documentation on the requirements for a drive to host a Photos Library is not very conclusive.

    The Photos Help says only that an iCloud Photo Library needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled), but not which other file systems are supported.  https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/pht211de786

    By default, your System Photo Library is stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac, but you can move it to another location on your Mac or store it on an external storage device. However, to use iCloud services, the external storage device must be formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, also known as HFS+.

    And it is written down, that the volume must not be any kind of synced volume. Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support

     If you store your Photos library in a location that's part of a cloud service (for example, Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive), your library might be damaged by the syncing process. As a result, you could lose photos.

    To see your photos on all your devices, you can use iCloud Photo Library. To back up your library, you can use Time Machine.

    For Aperture and iPhoto we had documents, that stated clearly, that locally mounted, MaxOS Extended formatted volumes are necessary. Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

     

    I tested a lot with libraries in different locations. If the drive is not formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled), I get the occasional Error -36 message, when I try to copy or backup the library, and Photos may not be able to find some original image files.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 26, 2016 6:04 AM in response to Huigie
    Level 10 (139,557 points)
    iLife
    Sep 26, 2016 6:04 AM in response to Huigie

    Except by using a referenced library you cannot use the iCloud Photo Library...

  • by Steve7why,

    Steve7why Steve7why Sep 26, 2016 6:15 AM in response to Web4People
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 26, 2016 6:15 AM in response to Web4People

    I had a problem with moving files on a NAS drive with El Capitan, I solved that by googling for a NTFS helper,

     

    I forget what I down loaded now, but that and a java file and its working for me at the moment