Apple photo library to NAS DS220+

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Apple photo library to NAS DS220+

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DS220+
Operating system
  1. macOS
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Mobile operating system
  1. Android
  2. iOS
Hi Hive mind - I have googled and searched and googled but I can't find clear answers or workflows to these questions...and finally stumbled on your blog

Use case:
I have a 210GB Apple photos library, on my macbook and mirrored in icloud
I want to copy or move or download (depending on the answer to Q1 below) the apple library to my NAS220+ running DSM7 beta and Synology Photos
I have already mounted my Synology home folder as a network drive on my Macbook, and I can see the 'photos' folder created by Synology Photos
On my iphone I plan to access my photos through Synology Photos and not have local copies kept on my iphone. I want my iPhone to auto-export new photos to the NAS
Why? I want to 'own' my own data, and (eventually) stop paying Apple icloud storage costs (The NAS will be backed up to BackBlaze, and is shared with my partner)
Questions:
1 : how do I populate my NAS with my photos? What is the workflow? Can I keep my albums, tags and meta-data on the NAS even if Synology Photos can't (yet) use them?
2 : I'd like the photos to be retained locally on my MacBook and to continue to use Apple Photos on the MacBook to access and edit them, so what is the best solution for ongoing sync and version management between my MacBook photo library and my NAS photo library?
3 : if there is to be no local copy of the library on the MacBook, so only on the NAS, am I stuck with ONLY web-based Synology Photos to access and edit?
any thoughts, solutions or comments gratefully received,
many many thanks
Darren
 
Regarding question 2/3, keep in mind that Apple Photos requires that your library lives on Apple compatible volume. So using the Apple Photos app to edit photos that "live" in Synology Photos will only (maybe) be possible that you map the folder and then edit the file (if that will work, haven't tested it).

Personally, I am in a transition towards Syno Photos as well from Apple Photos, but still waiting for the "final" version of Photos to come out with DSM7, so haven't used it at all that much, let alone in this form that you are saying (yet).
 
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Rusty - many thanks for your response. Re 2/3 - my perfect use-case is that my Apple photo library continues to live on my MacBook, to be accessed and edited by my Apple Photos app BUT it syncs with the photo library on my NAS not with iCloud.

In this way I don't think that I am making life tricky for Apple Photos?
 
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In this way I don't think that I am making life tricky for Apple Photos?
There is no direct way you can tell your Apple Photos to sync up with your NAS destination let alone a specific app. There would have to be some sort of manual or custom automatic procedure here. Also, when you say sync you actually mean a 2 way sync, or one way (in what direction)?
 
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Well I had thought 2 way. But increasingly I can see that this is not possible, even 1-way from NAS to MacBook or the other way is not straightforward.

So it looks like i'm either (a) 100% in apple photos library plus iCloud for 2-way syncing or (b) not so.

If not, but I have managed to export all my photos to my NAS, then do I access all my photos only through the Synology Photos browser on my MacBook? And so have no local copies at all? That would mirror what my iPhone would be doing. I think I'm ok with that apart from one bonus question :

If I'm on my MacBook, accessing my NAS photos through the Synology Photos web browser (is there another way? A Mac desktop app that accesses the NAS library?) what are my editing and manipulation options?
 
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then do I access all my photos only through the Synology Photos browser on my MacBook? And so have no local copies at all?
Correct on both accounts.

If I'm on my MacBook, accessing my NAS photos through the Synology Photos web browser (is there another way? A Mac desktop app that accesses the NAS library?
Atm only the mobile app exists. Knowing Syno, we won't get a desktop computer version but there is one desktop app that is related to the "soon-to-be-deprecated" Photo Station, called PhotoStation Uploader:


Not sure it will be of any use, but the fact is that PhotoStation or Moments (that will be replaced with Syno Photos), don't have desktop apps.

what are my editing and manipulation options?
Network share from your Mac to your NAS to the location of your images and then use any photo editing app you want, and edit right of the NAS.
 
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I get it. When you say app do you mean a 3rd party app photo editing app on the MacBook that reads from and writes-back to the NAS?

Or do you mean an in-browser app (in which case my workflow would be indistinguishable say from Chromebook+GooglePhotos+Pixlr) as an example
-- post merged: --

and so if (2) or (3) is resolved by simply not retaining the apple photo library on my macbook then we come back to (1) how to get the photos off my macbook and onto my DS220+ in the 1st place?
 
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I’m a bit confused on the reliance on iCloud and paying for storage. You don’t have to have all your iOS/Mac photo library in iCloud, if you want you can just use My Photo Stream to send new iOS photos to Mac.

In the Photo Library pseudo-folder there will be a Masters/Originals folder - depends on which macOS you’re running - where the, ahem, original files are stored. You could back this up to the NAS where Synology Photos can read it.

There isn’t any migration of processed meta tags from Mac to Synology. Synology Photos will do all this again

Not sure exactly how you’d manage modified files.

If you want a good photo editor on Mac then I’m favouring Serif’s Affinity Photo for my modest needs but it can do loads more.
 
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I’m a bit confused on the reliance on iCloud and paying for storage. You don’t have to have all your iOS/Mac photo library in iCloud, if you want you can just use My Photo Stream to send new iOS photos to Mac.
Most photos are taken with my iPhone and backed up to iCloud. Over 200gb so I pay for the 2tb storage. I tend to edit/ share from my MacBook so I have that sync to iCloud.

The MacBook becomes my processor/high res workstation, and iCloud is, well, my cloud backup.

Tbh I hadn't thought of using photostream to send photos directly to my MacBook and cut out iCloud, but i just don't know enough about it
 
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Tbh I hadn't thought of using photostream to send photos directly to my MacBook and cut out iCloud, but i just don't know enough about it
My Photo Stream is one of the iOS options within the iCloud account settings for Photos. It is the bit that uploads new photos but is limited so stuff you add to Mac Photos isn’t accessible to your iPhone.

My 40GB of Mac Photos Library is held locally on the Mac; I’m on the free 5GB iCloud level.

It’s similar to using Mac Music/iTunes and having your music files just on the Mac and not using iTunes Match.
 
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Yes I see how that works. No I'd like the photos to live on the NAS, and if they can't be synced to my MacBook then I'd like to see or stream thumbnails as needed on both my iPhone and MacBook, and I'd like an editing option on both that edits the NAS files. Not much to ask!
 
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