I've been perusing the photos forum recently as my 2013 MBP is looking like it's on its last legs (and that XDR iPad display is so shiny) but I'm trying to determine the best solution for my situation before I buy any new hardware, and photos management, unity and redundancy is my top priority in the steps I take. Here's what's up:
I have 98,267 photos in my Photos Library (and some about 2K videos, but mainly small ones). The size of my library is 1.54 TB (I currently pay for the 2TB iCloud storage option [why couldn't Tim have given me 4 this year??]) which I share with three other family members (who fortunately don't need as much digital space). I shoot RAW and was using a 1D Mark IV before I recently upgraded to a R5 and so my file sizes have only gotten bigger. I've only got 216 GB left of storage space, which at the rate I'm going would easily last me another year I think, maybe two. Currently, everything's only backed up in the Cloud via iCloud Photos > Optimize Mac Storage and I access the 1.54 TB drive both with my iPhone and my MBP (I have copies of my old Aperture libraries on some drives somewhere, but nothing else is duplicated and redundant--which I also want to resolve--which means as this point about 6 years of photos are Cloud only. Even though I trust the "Cloud," it has always felt risky only having one nebulous backup somewhere so feel free to chastise me about this).
When I first came to the mac ecosystem, I used aperture, and loved it, and was even hesitant to switch over to Photos as I wasn't sure it would end up doing what I wanted. But I love all the energy apple has spent on Photos and love the direction it's going. Faces is one of my favorite features. Keeping everything together is my top priority, because of all of the cross-referencing.
Right now, my library is unified, with photos going back to 2007. I also intend at some point to scan all of the family photos that we have, which fit in one or two of those large 2ft x 5ft plastic bins. I would love to be able to see the my childhood as captured by my parents as well as their lives before they had children, easily searchable and in chronological order, in order to pass down the photos to the next generation. I haven't started this process yet, as I would like to continue to have everything in one unified library, and the size required is more than any internal mac storage options (save maybe the Mac Pro). As well, my photography has always mainly been about capturing my own memories, but I have dabbled doing stuff for others in the past, and this too I would like to keep with the rest of my photos. And to make matters worse, I am contemplating starting a side business, which would increase the number of photos i need to store. Still, I would like to keep these too with everything else.
----
At this juncture, I'm basically waiting for the new MBP to drop (and might get an iPad in the meanwhile), and my parents have a mac mini as well that could be used to assist the situation. What I'm thinking I want to do, but I don't know if it's possible, is get a NAS to create a large hard drive onto which I can place my Photos Library. My first problem is problem/question is this: Can you loop multiple hard drives together in this way and store a Photo Library on such a set up? I've seen plenty of people talk about having a library on an external drive, both always plugged into a running device and also one that is removed from time to time, but I don't know enough about Storage to know if hard drives in a raid array function effectively like one drive. If they do, then getting some 6TB drives in Raid 1 or Raid 5 could be one route I could go. As I typed this, it occurred to me to ask why I was presuming I need to set up smaller drives in such an array (other than the fact that it might be cheaper and provide more safety should any one drive fail), and that I could perhaps just get only 2 6TB drives and just do a manual hard copy each time I update (time consuming but oh well).
Either way, I'm eventually going to have to move away from the Apple Cloud as being my primary storage solution, which then raises my next question: exactly how does accessing images on your other devices work when your library is no longer cloud based? Will I need to leave this larger hard drive plugged in and network accessible so when I go to an iPad, iPhone, or other mac, that device can access the full resolution image should it need to? Both my MBP and my phone are 256GB so I already don't/can't have the full drive on local hardware, but when I select Download Originals To This Mac for this larger Harddrive set up, I don't really know what happens to the speed and usage of other devices. Already my iPhone has to load the full image if I pick a random photo from several years ago, but does it being on an external drive connected to a computer that then has to send data over the internet and back to my other device substantially increase access times?
Beyond those two questions about my specific ideas, how does everyone else manage large libraries while also adding in redundancy? I'm really looking for input from people who have the same desire I do to have one unified library, and I am open to software other than Photos. Do you mirror image the library, or do you store the backup photos in folders (by date or place or file name or...)? Is there another cloud solution that you like? Do you know if there's anyway to contact Apple and ask to pay more in excess of 2TB (surely I'm not the only one that has this problem)?
And then how should I best implement new devices for whatever solution I decide on? My family mac mini typically stays logged into either my Mother or Father's user profile (with their iCloud account), but I could easily add a user profile for myself complete with my attached iCloud information, and attach the NAS to that system. However, if they are logged in to their user, by my phone is trying to access a photo in the library which is on a non-logged-in user, what happens? Does it, succeed or fail or how does any of that work.
And I know there will be at least a few people that say "why in the world do you need to have access to everything all in one library" and trust me I already ask myself that question a lot, but it's what I've decided that I want. Storage will only get cheaper with time (and money to pay for it isn't the issue, it's figuring out how to rig it together for the easiest use case). And there will be some who say "delete some d^&G files!" and yes there are a few spread throughout that are just blurs or dupes but everything I have truly does mean something to me. And there will be some that say "okay but do you really need everything RAW" and yes I've asked myself that too but you never really know what you may need until you need it and if you kick out that compress and delete you'll never get that data back. Will I want to print a hi res large photo of a random college event in the future? Probably not, but that soccer player I went to college with might contact me in the future wanting to have a print of his glory days or that sorority might want to publish something on one of their members that I captured (I was the campus newspaper photo editor and main photographer).
I have 98,267 photos in my Photos Library (and some about 2K videos, but mainly small ones). The size of my library is 1.54 TB (I currently pay for the 2TB iCloud storage option [why couldn't Tim have given me 4 this year??]) which I share with three other family members (who fortunately don't need as much digital space). I shoot RAW and was using a 1D Mark IV before I recently upgraded to a R5 and so my file sizes have only gotten bigger. I've only got 216 GB left of storage space, which at the rate I'm going would easily last me another year I think, maybe two. Currently, everything's only backed up in the Cloud via iCloud Photos > Optimize Mac Storage and I access the 1.54 TB drive both with my iPhone and my MBP (I have copies of my old Aperture libraries on some drives somewhere, but nothing else is duplicated and redundant--which I also want to resolve--which means as this point about 6 years of photos are Cloud only. Even though I trust the "Cloud," it has always felt risky only having one nebulous backup somewhere so feel free to chastise me about this).
When I first came to the mac ecosystem, I used aperture, and loved it, and was even hesitant to switch over to Photos as I wasn't sure it would end up doing what I wanted. But I love all the energy apple has spent on Photos and love the direction it's going. Faces is one of my favorite features. Keeping everything together is my top priority, because of all of the cross-referencing.
Right now, my library is unified, with photos going back to 2007. I also intend at some point to scan all of the family photos that we have, which fit in one or two of those large 2ft x 5ft plastic bins. I would love to be able to see the my childhood as captured by my parents as well as their lives before they had children, easily searchable and in chronological order, in order to pass down the photos to the next generation. I haven't started this process yet, as I would like to continue to have everything in one unified library, and the size required is more than any internal mac storage options (save maybe the Mac Pro). As well, my photography has always mainly been about capturing my own memories, but I have dabbled doing stuff for others in the past, and this too I would like to keep with the rest of my photos. And to make matters worse, I am contemplating starting a side business, which would increase the number of photos i need to store. Still, I would like to keep these too with everything else.
----
At this juncture, I'm basically waiting for the new MBP to drop (and might get an iPad in the meanwhile), and my parents have a mac mini as well that could be used to assist the situation. What I'm thinking I want to do, but I don't know if it's possible, is get a NAS to create a large hard drive onto which I can place my Photos Library. My first problem is problem/question is this: Can you loop multiple hard drives together in this way and store a Photo Library on such a set up? I've seen plenty of people talk about having a library on an external drive, both always plugged into a running device and also one that is removed from time to time, but I don't know enough about Storage to know if hard drives in a raid array function effectively like one drive. If they do, then getting some 6TB drives in Raid 1 or Raid 5 could be one route I could go. As I typed this, it occurred to me to ask why I was presuming I need to set up smaller drives in such an array (other than the fact that it might be cheaper and provide more safety should any one drive fail), and that I could perhaps just get only 2 6TB drives and just do a manual hard copy each time I update (time consuming but oh well).
Either way, I'm eventually going to have to move away from the Apple Cloud as being my primary storage solution, which then raises my next question: exactly how does accessing images on your other devices work when your library is no longer cloud based? Will I need to leave this larger hard drive plugged in and network accessible so when I go to an iPad, iPhone, or other mac, that device can access the full resolution image should it need to? Both my MBP and my phone are 256GB so I already don't/can't have the full drive on local hardware, but when I select Download Originals To This Mac for this larger Harddrive set up, I don't really know what happens to the speed and usage of other devices. Already my iPhone has to load the full image if I pick a random photo from several years ago, but does it being on an external drive connected to a computer that then has to send data over the internet and back to my other device substantially increase access times?
Beyond those two questions about my specific ideas, how does everyone else manage large libraries while also adding in redundancy? I'm really looking for input from people who have the same desire I do to have one unified library, and I am open to software other than Photos. Do you mirror image the library, or do you store the backup photos in folders (by date or place or file name or...)? Is there another cloud solution that you like? Do you know if there's anyway to contact Apple and ask to pay more in excess of 2TB (surely I'm not the only one that has this problem)?
And then how should I best implement new devices for whatever solution I decide on? My family mac mini typically stays logged into either my Mother or Father's user profile (with their iCloud account), but I could easily add a user profile for myself complete with my attached iCloud information, and attach the NAS to that system. However, if they are logged in to their user, by my phone is trying to access a photo in the library which is on a non-logged-in user, what happens? Does it, succeed or fail or how does any of that work.
And I know there will be at least a few people that say "why in the world do you need to have access to everything all in one library" and trust me I already ask myself that question a lot, but it's what I've decided that I want. Storage will only get cheaper with time (and money to pay for it isn't the issue, it's figuring out how to rig it together for the easiest use case). And there will be some who say "delete some d^&G files!" and yes there are a few spread throughout that are just blurs or dupes but everything I have truly does mean something to me. And there will be some that say "okay but do you really need everything RAW" and yes I've asked myself that too but you never really know what you may need until you need it and if you kick out that compress and delete you'll never get that data back. Will I want to print a hi res large photo of a random college event in the future? Probably not, but that soccer player I went to college with might contact me in the future wanting to have a print of his glory days or that sorority might want to publish something on one of their members that I captured (I was the campus newspaper photo editor and main photographer).
