Photos storage is getting too large - Alternatives?

[ghulst]

I would like to pick your collective brains on photo storage. I have been using Apple Photos since iPhoto and my first mac in 2009. At the moment my Photos archive takes up almost 700Gb on my MacBook. That is pretty expensive storage if you see the cost of a 2Tb drive upgrade. As I am considering the purchase of a new 16" MBP, I am wondering whether there is a better way to store my photos. I also have a Synology NAS, but that cannot natively store a photos file. And I do like to have copies of my photos somewhere outside of iCloud (where I also have a 2 Tb subscription).

I am open to other software solutions, as long as they easily transfer from Photos and integrate my iPhone and iPad. I do like that about the Photos app. I have also set up lots of albums on Photos, so a lot of work has gone into it. That probably is also a big reason why I stuck with it.

 

[mollyc]

I have never used Apple Photos, but have you looked at the photos app that is native to Synology? I think it would do what you want although you might have to recreate your albums.

Synology Inc.

Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network deployment to facilitate data management.

www.synology.com

 

[tizeye]

I am in the process of setting it up on my Synology NAS so really can't address its efficiency as a substitute, but many YouTube videos on the subject and comparisons vs iCloud, Google Photos and others. Not certain which Synology you have or if upgraded to DSM7, but with the release of DSM7 they also released Photos. It combined the two prior programs - Moments and Photo Station into a single app. May be worth a try since already have the resources and the app and operating system upgrade (can't reverse it) are free.

On a related note, I NEVER keep my photos or video on the internal SSD drive, always an external drive. I may process them, particularly video, on the SSD, but when finished move them to the external drive. My Synology doesn't have the juice to store and work on them there, but it is theoretically possible.

 

[jz0309]

My photos are stored on a USB external SSD, a SanDisk Extreme Pro, same spec as a Samsung T7, you can get those for $225 or so on sale for 2TB

 

[ghulst]

Thanks. I do have Synology with DSM 7 and I think the Photos app is on there. Perhaps I should dig in a bit and see what it can do. I do have all my photos on the internal SSD, but at the same time I do sync everything to iCloud and I have a second iMac that also holds all of them locally. So, perhaps I should just move to the ‘clean up’ setting on photos to not have them on my main MacBook, but download them when I use them. At the other hand, I don’t really want to have that extra step.

 

[mollyc]

you can access synology like an external drive from your macbook. the biggest hangup you have right now is having things organized through apple photos. ditch that and you’ll have a much easier time of it.

 

[MCAsan]

The managed catalog concept in Aperture and now Photos is not so great. Fine when you have a small number of images. But a referenced catalog where the images are in file system folders gives much more storage options. My 100,000 image library of folders sit on a RAID 0 connected via TB3. Only the app sits on the Machintosh HD. Consider moving from managed catalog app to a referenced catalog app such as Lightroom Classic or Capture One Pro.

 

[ghulst]

Interestingly, I do have Lightroom CC and have never used it. Perhaps I should take a look at that. But does that sync across devices just as well? So I can have my iphone photos backed up to it and to be able to see them on the iPhone again? The seamless integration of Photos is one of the things that I do like a lot...

 

[kenoh]

I think this has been answered but +1 here for the Synology option. I have family images “published” to there and they can access them from their own devices and the TVs etc. Perfect solution. Only snag is it is a flat file system setup and so getting images out of photos app into Synology is going to be a chore.

 

[kenoh]

Interestingly, I do have Lightroom CC and have never used it. Perhaps I should take a look at that. But does that sync across devices just as well? So I can have my iphone photos backed up to it and to be able to see them on the iPhone again? The seamless integration of Photos is one of the things that I do like a lot...

It does but it isn’t cheap either. The NAS option is good as you can put the images onto cheaper drives - no need for super fast SSDs when your access of them will be infrequent at best.

A Synology with mirrored drives and Amazon Glacier backup is about as good a solution as you can get without moving into the realms of in home data centres.

Also, do not confuse cloud sync with backups. Sync'ing to the cloud is subtly different but most definitely NOT the same as a backup.

 

[tizeye]

Interestingly, I do have Lightroom CC and have never used it. Perhaps I should take a look at that. But does that sync across devices just as well? So I can have my iphone photos backed up to it and to be able to see them on the iPhone again? The seamless integration of Photos is one of the things that I do like a lot...

Lightroom processes and organizes. It DOES NOT backup. Plus, it has its own rules like requiring you to move files within Lightroom, not Finder,and requires relinking if moved some other way. It is not really designed for multi location access and why I keep files on external hard drive to transport between machines. It can be set up to work with files stored on a NAS, however there it is dependent on network speed and may benefit with beefing up the NAS memory to improve performance.

 

[tcphoto1]

There is no reason to have all your images on your main computer unless they are low resolution JPEG's. I will do a shoot and immediately backup to two external drives when I return home. After culling and minor adjustments, I will replace the two backups and only delete from the main machine once the images have been delivered to the client. Once the client makes their selections, I will edit and deliver the selects then add them to the two backups and finally format the cards.

I make small JPEG's of my selects and keep them on my main machine, iPhone and iPad for sharing. After 27 years of shooting, the current size of my selects folders is 1.77GB. I do have two sets of drives, eight total drives containing just about every RAW file I've shot for my clients and myself if needed. BTW, I run a lean main computer and have 409GB available on my 500GB SSD.

 

[cthompson94]

I have different setups for the two devices I take photos on (iPhone and Sony camera) I use Icloud for the iPhone photos it is just easy, i already have shared albums with my wife and family members so it would be too much to change that now. As for photos with the Sony, i have all the raw files backed up on a Samsung T5 1tb ssd, all jpeg (i shoot raw+jpeg) on a older disk drive i have had in my pc for quiet some time just to have (these are mostly to still have the memory if worst comes to worst at least i have a photo still) and lastly any changes i do to the T5 gets done on the Synology in the exact same folder layout as my lightroom on the T5 along with the Photos app provided by Synology so i can still access any photo shot from the sony from my phone no matter where i am.