Export Mac Photo Libraries to Synology Photos

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Export Mac Photo Libraries to Synology Photos

127
20
NAS
DS220+
Operating system
  1. macOS
Mobile operating system
  1. iOS
I have looked for tutorials as well as threads... and no doubt it's me and my limited skill level (a 220+ Raid 1 : 4T/4T) . My laptop (MBP 2021) has 5 libraries with a total of about 200 Gb of photos and some videos. I just want to move all to Synology Photos and then be able to delete them from my Mac. If someone could point me to a Synology tutorial or YouTube that would be great. I am at the bottom of the curve with lack of prior knowledge base.... meaning I am at training wheel level.

In tried practicing by moving (LABORIOUS!) to Moments...then Photo Station.... it is a gnarled mess of seemingly neither order, rhyme not reason.
So I backed out of that and need to purge all those files.

I read a few threads on using Docker (honestly I haven't a clue what I was doing and tried to "install" a Docker "platform" (?) for photos (a program (container?) called Piwigo1) it's there now but still I am over my head... like a monkey at a piano. I am just not experienced in this but want to learn ...I'm 67... a retired math teacher so have a few marbles.

Thanks in advance for any and all constructive thoughts.
 
You got the math covered, everything will fall into place 🙂

Check the following threads:

On how to export. See if this is helpful:

and this:
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I’m sure you’ll have input from someone more knowledgeable than me too. Hang on.
 
just want to move all to Synology Photos
Does this mean your 220+ is running DSM7? Synology Photos are still not out, officially, but after the app will be official you will be able to simply mount your Apple Photos library, export your images, and copy them to a folder on your NAS (volumeX/home/user/Photos/<your_exported_folder1>

Once you create your "albums/folders", opening the Photos app will detect the folder structure and you will be able to start working with your photos using Syno Photos app.

Again, this is for the Synology Photos app, once it becomes public and not atm in beta. Personally, I do not recommend using it atm while it is still in beta if nothing else because of the lack of support for it from Synology (until it's officially out).
 
Thank you both for your ideas. Being a beginner I want to keep the number of variables where I can screw up as small as possible so I will stay away from 'extra' programs (sorters) ...which I'v tried as well already and either I bullock-ed that up too (I'm real good at it!), or it was inherently too complicated.

I was psyched when DSM7 was coming but shied away after the "horrors" in the reviews were broadcast. Now I realize it will probably be fine for me once it is out of Beta as I really don't have any history/prejudices from DSM6. If, Rusty, it as you say it will be that is exactly what I am looking for... a simple mount of the libraries and off I go. I don't like Apple Photos... so look forward to DSM7 ....I will wait and be patient (I hope this occurs this year).
 
I want to keep the number of variables where I can screw up as small as possible
That's the mathematician in you speaking 🙂

But keep coming to this forum and you won't resist the temptation of trying things– a testimony to how empowering the forum has become as a magnificent resource driven by a knowledgable community.

And If you want to open the Pandora's box, keep trying Docker (the event horizon in your Synology's NAS black hole– the point of no return) 🤣
But you'll learn so much and empower your NAS with tremendous capabilities.

Since you have a 220+, you can install vDSM and play with anything you want, and if things don’t work out, remove it and reinstall again. Your main DSM won’t be affected.
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I jumped into this because I wanted to make my information safe, easy to access from afar and have my laptop as empty as possible. I know this sounds crazy, but I live in a corner of New England on the east slopes .... we had no internet until last September. Because of where our home is we couldn't even get satellite. We live at a high elevation so got 2 bars cell In one area. I got a data plan for my truck (20 Gb)... Plugged the truck battery into a 4 amp battery tender and turned on ignition... I could get the wifi signal in the den on the iPad and screen shared to tv. That was our internet! Our town decided to finally make their own service... they were smart and ran 1 Gb fiber optic cable. "All" I had to do was dig a trench 500 feet across the pasture to the pole on the road from the house. It has been a whole new world since. Trouble is, went from 0 to full speed in a day and I have been a bit overwhelmed with setting up the house for wifi and running PoE cable. Setting up things I've been thinking about for a long time. Believe me I'v got the enthusiasm but missing a lot of the background as I've been in the 'desert' a long time.

You confirmed what I was thinking though. I belong to only two other forums. I've tried a bunch and found the people who run them to not manage the behaviors, and enforce rules of decorum. Incredibly crass mean spirited even. Some downright hostile! The other forums are not related to tech. I have learned an enormous amount from them and enjoy sharing what I know to those less aware. I am glad this forum is here so I can 'learn-up' as fast as the brain can take it. I am a hands on person and need to try something before I fully understand it.

I appreciate the patience of those who know and are willing to share their expertise. So thanks in advance.
I will jump back in to Docker. I have to learn the terminology first so I know what people are referring to.
One hesitation is not wanting to learn a bunch that will not be applicable in DSM7. I assume Docker will be there but not sure if I would have to reinstall or reconfigure what I do now.
 
I am about to migrate from IPhone/Photos/iCloud to iPhone/NAS220+/Moments. This is my intended workflow

1) on the assumption that you are in the unboxing and not-yet-set-up phase of NAS ownership, then set-up your user account on NAS. Enable home folder
2) install moments on NAS
3) install moments app on iphone. Check "backup new photos only"
4) on MacBook, mount NAS as a drive
5) even though the photo library exists on the MacBook ignore it
6) on the MacBook, in iCloud, export all photos from iCloud. You have to choose between unmodified or modified, and I'm not sure if I can export to the mounted Nas drive (yes - step7, no - step8)
7) export to the MacBook, this will create another set of photos on top of your existing photo library so you will need space. Once copied, drag the entire folder structure to the moments folder in the mounted NAS drive. They all copy across at the speed of your local lan, and then moments will spend a few days chewing and indexing and creating thumbnails. You should be able to see them without thumbnails in your iphone moments app fairly immediately.
8) as 7 but direct the export directly to the moments folder on the mounted NAS drive

9) turn off iCloud upload/sync. Delete or backup your MacBook photo library and/or recently exported photos.


10) you will need to come up with a download-edit-save workflow on your iPhone and MacBook. On my iPhone I'm going to be using Snapseed. I haven't yet thought about my MacBook

How that all makes sense. I haven't executed yet, but please do ask or challenge any of my steps.
 
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Thanks for the step by step... That is the kind of direction that helps. I am curious though as to why you want to use Moments at this juncture if it won't be available in DSM7? I tried to do the Import to Moments from my laptop and got a million folders ... just seemed to be a convoluted mess. I will delete it all and try your steps for the practice even if I do not keep Moments latter. Thanks
 
we had no internet until last September. Because of where our home is we couldn't even get satellite. We live at a high elevation so got 2 bars cell In one area. I got a data plan for my truck (20 Gb)... Plugged the truck battery into a 4 amp battery tender and turned on ignition... I could get the wifi signal in the den on the iPad and screen shared to tv. That was our internet! Our town decided to finally make their own service... they were smart and ran 1 Gb fiber optic cable. "All" I had to do was dig a trench 500 feet across the pasture to the pole on the road from the house. It has been a whole new world since. Trouble is, went from 0 to full speed in a day and I have been a bit overwhelmed with setting up the house for wifi and running PoE cable. Setting up things I've been thinking about for a long time. Believe me I'v got the enthusiasm but missing a lot of the background as I've been in the 'desert' a long time.
Wow! What a story.

It'll be a fascinating journey with your 220+
The things you can do with these devices is kind of limitless. I started (like most users I think) with the intentions to have a NAS to backup our laptops, but ended up running a mail server (but no more), a website, a Dropbox replacement, a media server, an ad blocker, a safe info exchange service, a projects document repository, an accounting package, video surveillance, VPN server, vDSM, off-site backup and a few other things with Docker. And I don't consider myself a heavy user (compared to some of our members here). You'll be amazed of how much you can do.

I'd suggest that you learn and cover the basics first, like securing your NAS, especially that you plan on opening it up for remote access and to get more familiar with DSM in general, then move into the realm of Docker. The resources section has a wealth of info that you might find useful.

As for how transferable docker is to 7, I'm not sure. I didn't install 7 on any of my devices. Whenever I get the itch, I go to the demo site and play with it. But it's all containers, so I assume it's easily transferable.

Welcome aboard and I'm sure you'll nail this thing in no time with all the fresh air around you 😀
We all started at zero at some point. So don't hesitate, ask, the members here are very helpful 🙂
 
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Thanks for the step by step... That is the kind of direction that helps. I am curious though as to why you want to use Moments at this juncture if it won't be available in DSM7? I tried to do the Import to Moments from my laptop and got a million folders ... just seemed to be a convoluted mess. I will delete it all and try your steps for the practice even if I do not keep Moments latter. Thanks
I want to release myself from apple's grip. Although it is true that DSM 7 in theory is released end of July, I suspect it won't be reliable or stable for at least several weeks after that, so I might as well be getting on with things now. The folder structure in moments is technical rather than fundamental. When browsing the gallery on the browser or mobile application the folder structure is invisible and I pay no attention to it (although I haven't performed the full migration yet I have been copying and pasting various albums and photos and uploading new ones from both Android and iPhone phone to see how moments deals with them). As far as I can tell the Moments folder structure is combination of source and date but for day to day use I never actually see the structure

Oh and I forgot to add I'm also a professional mathematician!
 
10) you will need to come up with a download-edit-save workflow on your iPhone and MacBook. On my iPhone I'm going to be using Snapseed. I haven't yet thought about my MacBook
edit : this workflow created a copy of the photo in Moments and preserves meta-data (and does not override the capture date and time). Devices must have SnapSeed installed

Android phone
  • Select the photo in Moments
  • Share to Snapseed
  • Edit as required - (do not press Done)
  • Share to Moments
  • 'Upload' to 'Photo Library'

Chromebook
  • Download from Moments
  • Open in Snapseed
  • Edit
  • Export
  • Return to Moments
  • Upload
  • Find photo in Chromebook Files/Images
 
Well I went to DSM 7....it looks flashy and it certainly loads fast... That said I thought I'd start over with bringing in my Apple Photo Libraries (6 of them) totaling 130 Gig data. Photos says it will Max download 5000 files at a go.... after 6 attempts it just isn't working at 4000 .... try 120. I exported the raw jpg's to a folder from one library. I then started Photos and went to add and selected 4000. After 20 minutes it has stopped uploading and I have a 120 photos.
Is there a "faster" way to do this than in the browser as I am a newbie and maybe missing an obvious task setup. I have searched this topic on You Tube to see if there is someone who is Apple bound that wants to show how to get their photos out of the libraries and into the NAS... but alas no-one tech smart has made a step by step that I could find. I think most beginners in NAS do so for the photo storage and other media. Anyone willing to help ... TIA
 
You're adding these to /home/photo (or is it .../photos , I can never remember)? You can mount the NAS in Finder using SMB file sharing and then just copy the folders across from the Mac.

From Finder, either access you NAS from the sidebar or use Connect to Server...
1626212904811.png


Enter the server URL using however you access it, e.g. its IP address.
1626212975758.png


It will then ask you to authenticate the request, after which there'll be a dialogue window with the list of available shares. Click 'home' and the OK. You've now mounted your NAS account's home folder in Finder.
 
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Can't thank you enough....I used to know that! I think my brain is fried from this last year of coping!.
Much obliged for your help. I'm lucky to have found this form.
I might as well ask... If I were to mount the NAS via finder and dragged the Apple library folder, would those files be able to be accessed by Synology Photos as they are? ( In other words .... not go through the step of exporting the library as JPG's first. That way I would have all the 'date of photo' info left intact. I noticed when I dragged into the NAS the raw jpg's from my desktop that all of the "created" dates were today.
 
making progress... I experimented with uploading Apple Library but though it loaded to PHOTOS folder in file services and I gave permission for Syn. Photos ... nothing could be done with it. Then I went back and exported the 9700 jpg's to a desktop folder. From there accessed the NAS from finder and tried to upload photos to Synology Photos... I chose 4500 of them and it started to upload....... after a bit... at about 450 photos it stopped. I have ordered more Ram (4G) and will upgrade soon as it arrives but don't know if that is a reason...I am using an ethernet cable 1G connection I have the suspicion that the desktop (though it is programmed not to sleep) connection via browser to the NAS is timing out. Or Maybe there is something wrong with Synology Photos?
 
I noticed when I dragged into the NAS the raw jpg's from my desktop that all of the "created" dates were today
I missed this bit. I prefer to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to make exact copies of files and folders.

If you ctrl-click the Photos Library item and select Show Package Contents then you'll see inside this special folder. The Originals folder here is where your photos and movies are held. Copy/clone this, but it does mean you have unhelpfully unique named items.

The DS220+ will appreciate running with 6GB, so even if the is activity does or doesn't need it it will not be a wasted purchase. You'll be able run many packages together.
 
Got a trial of CCC and did as you instructed. The 7 folders did indeed arrive in Photos folder on the NAS. When I open each there 0-9 and A-G folders each with 650 photos in each. I see what you mean by renamed! Can I drag and drop each of these 0-9, A-G folders' contents out into their respective 7 folders or is there any conflict with naming that would prevent that?
 
Doesn’t seem to be any duplication but can’t say for 100% that it won’t happen.

I’ve played with exiftool on Mac command line to see about renaming these files to have more useful names with date and time in them. Have a google for it.

This unique file naming came in with Catalina. Before this Mac Photos and iPhoto held them in year/month/day folders. This new way seems retrograde.
 
Have uploaded 100 gig of photos in to NAS photos folder. When I open Synology Photos and try to upload a large folder the page goes blank and I have to re-sign in to NAS. I then tried just to select 30 photos ... it does it but takes 5 seconds per photo... I'll be dead in the same chair before this task is half done! I must be doing something or everything the wrong way. All the Mac photos are now in jpg form and in the NAS in folder "Photos". I have to re-upload again to the Synology Photos app?
Or do I need to set up a shared folder the Synology Photos (I already gave permission for read and write in the system shared folder. Yup I am confused) so that Syn. Photos can access the Photos Folder?
 
Have you enabled the shared album in Photos? This uses the /photo shared folder.

I’ve not played much with DSM 7’s Photos as I’m waiting for niggles to be ironed out before moving the main NAS. You’re in the vanguard!

As for DSM saying to re-login, did you try just reloading the webpage? I’ve found that usually works and could be due to excessive Mac/PC resource usage by the browser.
 

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