User profile for user: B C R S
B C R S Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Good resource for photo storage options?

Can someone point me to a reliable resource on options / setup for an effective home photos storage solution?


My wife and I both have Mac Book Pros whose hard drives have been maxed out by our Photos libraries. I've read countless articles/posts on using external drives, not using NAS as a solution for photos, using Airport (and not using Airport), etc., but I feel like I'm running in circles without a clear idea of what would be the best way to go. What one person recommends another claims will be a disaster.


Ideally, her photos and my photos would be separate and stored on some kind of external easily accessible media (to free the Mac hard drive). I'd be fine with combining the libraries into one pool of photos accessible by all if that is a more workable solution. We'll also be adding a desktop (mac) that we would like to access one or both libraries as well. Of course, I also want to implement some kind of mirror storage in case the main drive gets wiped out (and consider some kind of additional off-site storage as a second backup) so the photos are safe. I'm trying to avoid cloud storage due to cost (we have LOTS of pics), but I'm not 100% against the idea if that's the best option. But I do want something that's fairly easy to use and doesn't require unplugging and plugging in various external drives to access the photo library. (Also, with the external drive solution, I'm unclear where iphone photos you take on a daily basis (that sync to the Mac) would be stored, and whether they'd have to be manually moved from the Mac to the external drive every few weeks. I'm looking for something as automated as possible.)


Thanks in advance for any responses. If you have your own detailed setup you'd like to share, obviously I'd really appreciate that. But I'm fine just being pointed to a good resource that's already out there that someone feels would be a good solution for Photos. I think the info I need is probably out there -- I just haven't found it yet.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Mar 8, 2017 9:57 AM

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User profile for user: B C R S
B C R S Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Posted on Jan 2, 2018 1:59 PM

Hi RitaLx,


I ended up going with iCloud storage. I got the 2TB storage for my wife, and the 200GB storage for me. My library is smaller than her library, so I didn't need the larger one. One thing that I have noticed since my original post is the option of family sharing, which you can expand to iCloud storage. I haven't explored this option yet, but it looks as if I can use my wife's 2TB iCloud storage for my photos as well (she doesn't need 2TB, but she needs more than 200GB). I'll still have to pay for the 2TB, but I could then drop the 200GB iCloud on my account. This option should still keep our pictures separate. (Hopefully this feature works as I expect it will...)


Although I didn't want to have to pay the monthly cost, I like the fact that iCloud allows me to access the pictures on all my devices. Plus, by the time I bought hardware to do my own setup (and paid for off-site backup of that local storage), the savings wasn't going to be substantial.


Some additional setup info: In addition to our Pros, I set up a desktop Mini with an attached external hard drive (6TB). I configured the Pros to optimize storage -- so they keep little thumbnails of the photos, but the full-size pics are stored in the cloud. The Mini stores the photo libraries on the external drive only (not on the Mini internal drive), but it is configured to keep full-size pictures. With this configuration, I always can access a full-size version of the pictures locally if internet isn't working for some reason. And, because I'm using iCloud, I feel comfortable that I only have one offline store of all my photos. (I am also using Amazon and Google photos to do auto backups as well, but those are merely free redundancies, just in case.)


Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions -- I'll try to help.

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User profile for user: B C R S
B C R S Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Jan 2, 2018 1:59 PM in response to RitaLx

Hi RitaLx,


I ended up going with iCloud storage. I got the 2TB storage for my wife, and the 200GB storage for me. My library is smaller than her library, so I didn't need the larger one. One thing that I have noticed since my original post is the option of family sharing, which you can expand to iCloud storage. I haven't explored this option yet, but it looks as if I can use my wife's 2TB iCloud storage for my photos as well (she doesn't need 2TB, but she needs more than 200GB). I'll still have to pay for the 2TB, but I could then drop the 200GB iCloud on my account. This option should still keep our pictures separate. (Hopefully this feature works as I expect it will...)


Although I didn't want to have to pay the monthly cost, I like the fact that iCloud allows me to access the pictures on all my devices. Plus, by the time I bought hardware to do my own setup (and paid for off-site backup of that local storage), the savings wasn't going to be substantial.


Some additional setup info: In addition to our Pros, I set up a desktop Mini with an attached external hard drive (6TB). I configured the Pros to optimize storage -- so they keep little thumbnails of the photos, but the full-size pics are stored in the cloud. The Mini stores the photo libraries on the external drive only (not on the Mini internal drive), but it is configured to keep full-size pictures. With this configuration, I always can access a full-size version of the pictures locally if internet isn't working for some reason. And, because I'm using iCloud, I feel comfortable that I only have one offline store of all my photos. (I am also using Amazon and Google photos to do auto backups as well, but those are merely free redundancies, just in case.)


Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions -- I'll try to help.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,597 points

Jan 2, 2018 1:59 PM in response to B C R S

How large is the hard drive of your your MacBook pros?


My MacBook Pros have 1TB of internal storage, and that suffices to keep a Fotos Library with the most important photos on the internal drive. My main library just has a size of slightly more than 200 GB.


I'm keeping an archive of all photos on two external drives, one drive is just a backup of the other drive. This archive has now a size of nearly 1 TB.


My husband keeps his photos separate and I my photos. Initially we tried to keep a shared library but that did not work out well. It is hard to agree which photos to delete and which photos to keep in a joint library.

Now we just occasionally send each other the photos we want to share. This is easily done by copying them over on a USB stick. This way I have his best photos and he has mine, and the mediocre photos do not clutter up each others library.


If you cannot afford to keep a library with a selection of all favorite photos on the internal drive, iCloud Photo Library is an option in combination with "Optimize Storage". But I cannot recommend it, if you do not have always access to a fast, affordable, reliable internet connection. "Optimize Storage" is a pain, if the internet is slow or not available when traveling. You will have no access to your photos or have to wait to too long, before you can edit the photos. In that case simply use a small, portable drive to store the library and a second drive with a backup copy of the library.

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User profile for user: RitaLx
RitaLx
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 2, 2018 1:29 PM in response to LarryHN

Hi LarryHN, thank you for your reply.
Maybe I missed something – it's my first time using the forum – but I only saw two answers.

Personally I was trying to avoid a cloud service (as B C R S also mentioned) so although your solution is great, it's not helpful to me. About léonie's solution, the new MacBooks have very small storage, mine only has 250GB and my Photo Library is 300GB large so I can't store my photos on my computer.
This is why I was wandering what solution B C R S went for.

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User profile for user: RitaLx
RitaLx
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 3, 2018 10:07 AM in response to B C R S

Thank you so much for your feedback B C R S.


The iCloud does sound like a perfect solution but I'm so reluctant to subscribe to a monthly fee... I know I'll get "addicted" and will soon need lots of space and really don't want to increase my monthly costs 😟

I currently have a 2TB external wireless drive (WD My Cloud) but it has been a struggle to get it to work properly and I'm loosing patience. So it seems like iCloud will be my solution in the end...!

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User profile for user: RitaLx
RitaLx
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 3, 2018 10:58 AM in response to LarryHN

I'm sorry, I should have detailed further. I have the following setup:

• MacBook Pro 250GB

• External drive 1TB (for extra space: photo library and other archives)
• External wireless drive 2TB (for backup)


On my laptop I have my "everyday files" and I back them up with TimeMachine onto the 2TB wireless drive.
My Photo library is on the 1TB external drive that I connect often with my laptop to access photos and other stuff.

My problem has been backing the external 1TB to the external wireless 2TB (either connected by cable or through the laptop). It's a very ridiculous problem but it has been so frustrating...! That's what's causing me to look for other solutions.

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User profile for user: LarryHN
LarryHN
User level: Level 10
106,142 points

Mar 8, 2017 8:52 PM in response to B C R S

Basically the best solution is the one you do not want - iCloud Photo Library - it does have a cost but has many benefits and covers requirements except not being cloud based


using ICPL with a common Apple ID will give you your total library on every connected device with optimized photos on any device with limited storage - ideally at least one device (probably a Mac) will have all originals downloaded to it and be using TimeMachine so everything is always backed up


We use that and it works marvelously even from foreign countries as long as I have WiFi part of the day - sometimes at a Starbucks or other public WiFi -- I have an iMac at one house with a large local drive that downloads all originals and two iPhone, an iPad, an Apple Watch and a MachBook Air - daily I download camera photos to the MBA and to the extent possible leave it on in the Hotel or ship cabin to upload via WiFi - at night all IOS devices are on WiFi and upload the day's IOS photos and usually by morning all Camera and IS photos are uploaded and back home and backed up - we have about 25,000 photos currently and iCloud costs $9.99 a month for photos, files, IOS backups, etc - for me well worth the $120.00 annual cost -- no manual steps except assuring that I connect to WiFi when possible, everything is totally automatic and there never is any plugging or up-plugging of anything except to charge the devices


LN

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Good resource for photo storage options?

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