Using Lightroom Classic with a NAS | Featuring UGREEN NASync

[@Gary_G]

You can also export folders "as catalog" that is much quicker and easier. Then open the catalog on that drive to confirm.

[@forestchaput]

Great addition! You are correct.

[@markwilkins9048]

Thank you Forest, I THINK this is exactly what I was looking for. I travel a lot so I want to use my Mac laptop to edit photos/videos when I’m on the road, but also want to use my iMac when at home. I created an Lrc catalog on a fast SSD so I could operate off of either. My plan was to create a new catalog, on a new SSD for every calendar year (how many shoe boxes would I need? LoL). I just invested in a Ugreen NAS and was hoping it would help. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer so I will have to rewatch this video a few times, but I think this method will help. Thank you again.

[@forestchaput]

Nice! That sounds like a good plan. Check out my other NAS videos too. I have a bunch of content that might help. I also offer private instruction if you want to setup a session you can just send me an email.

[@SidneyJackson]

I really like the "Parent Folder" logic! Also makes that left menu smaller when you have all your external drives connected

[@forestchaput]

Yay!

[@jimpearson4295]

WOW!!! What a great tutorial.So thorough! You explain how to do a task then you show the viewer how it is done. What a great video. I am actively looking to set up a NAS so I can access my LR photos from any location AND have redundancy. Thank you so much; it is greatly appreciated!!

[@forestchaput]

Thank you so much! I’m glad it was helpful!

[@React2Cope]

I just watched your ultimate NAS set up last night (helped immensely!) and was waiting for this video to drop

[@forestchaput]

Perfect timing!

[@Handiman325]

Really well done. For a NAS beginner like myself, you really explained it in a way that is not so intimidating. Thank you.

[@forestchaput]

I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@steveglennan]

Just what I needed to know! Thank you!

[@forestchaput]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Ed-ve9of]

Great video. Yours are always just the right length to have enough detail to make it useful but not crazy long. The one thing you may want to mention is with Windows (and I know you have a Mac) the my documents and my pictures directories by default are within a OneDrive location. While I certainly agree with keeping the catalog on the main hard drive I would not put it in a OneDrive location .

[@forestchaput]

Thank you! That’s an excellent addition!

[@edge5415]

It's a great video and quite timely. My setup supports Mac Studio + MBP M4, using iCloud to sync LRC catalogs, raw input and edited exports. I use an EX4100 Raid 1 to store originals with Acronis cloud backup. However, I'm in dire need of a better storage solution, as the current one is not meeting my expectations. This workflow allows me to edit on the road, with final editing on the Studio as necessary. I am looking at replacing the EX4100 as the OS is substandard as is support. Many thanks!

[@forestchaput]

Glad it was helpful!

[@donnischan]

Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge! Didn't know that I could migrate the catalogues and had lost the old record when I switched my computers. If my understanding is correct, your video has shown us how to update the location of the photos. So what would be the path of the catalogues, please?

[@forestchaput]

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that. If your catalog was on an old computer that you don't have access to anymore, it might be gone forever. One thing to try is to open Lightroom Classic and go to "File -> Open Recent" and see if there are any other catalogs in that list. One of them might be your old one. If you want help, I offer private instruction and can help you. You can book a session with me here: calendly.com/everlightedu/lightroom-classic-help

[@donnischan]

@@forestchaput Thank you! It's ok as they are just pictures for leisure, not important. I do have the finished version saved. but it's good to learn how to migrate them from your video. Great work! Thanks!! 👍👍

[@leicaman]

This is timely for me. I just upgraded my whole system. I got an M4 Mac Mini Pro and an OWC 4TB Thunderbolt 5 drive. My Lightroom catalog is on the Thunderbolt 5 drive, which is nearly as fast at my internal drive (way higher than 5,000 Mbps). Since the drive is bus powered, it just stays hooked to a T5 port on the Mini. (This sucker is lightning fast!) I have a QNap NAS with two 10 GbE ports, and a 10 GbE switch everythign is hooked up to, and the Mni has a 10 GbE port. The NAS also has 4TBs of SSD Cache. Lightroom has never worked better, and I now have more space than I'll ever need for my photos and videos. I highly recommend 10 GbE for a NAS, or if you can get one with Thunderbolt 4 or 5 that allows Ethernet over Thunderbolt. To be clear, I sitll use the catalog on the Thunderbolt 5 drive. With 10 GbE there's no need for the catalog to be on the NAS as far as I am concerned.

[@forestchaput]

NICE!!!! That sounds like an excellent setup! 👍

[@ronbyram3880]

Just found your video. great info. I am in middle of migration of my photos from a slower Nas to a faster Nas with Cache. But I am doing it all within LRC and Yes having over 1m photos and years of folders its Slow and takes a while.

[@forestchaput]

It is very slow! Good luck!

[@alandick1547]

Nice video. Once you do the migration, do your collections carry on as before, or do you need to do something different to accommodate them? I suspect the collection info is contained in the catalog file and moving the catalog file would preserve the collections. Thanks!

[@forestchaput]

Yep! All collections will be preserved!

[@asksteevs]

Hey nice intro to NAS LR Classic usage. When accessing your NAS remotely over the internet, does LR find the photos ok?

[@forestchaput]

That depends. If you access your NAS through your web browser, then no, Lightroom will not find your images. If you access your NAS through a VPN connection into your home network, then yes, Lightroom will know where your images are. Beware however that this connection method is pretty slow unless you have very strong internet at home and in the remote location.

[@musicman0024]

Nice video, thank you. Moved away from Adobe Lightroom to Pixelmator Pro ($50 for lifetime vs.ongoing Adobe monthly subscription), haven't looked back.

[@forestchaput]

You're welcome!

[@nowayinhello4199]

Hey Forest, I really like the way you break down NAS usage for photography. Do you know anything about the encryption of the drives? Say the NAS gets stolen and the drives removed? are they still protected like with APFS encryption on my ssd drives? and how do I know if someone is trying to get into the NAS behind my back in the local network? can I get a warning if someone uses the password wrong three times?

[@forestchaput]

That's a great question! Unfortunately I've never worked with encrypted NAS devices, but I know it's an option. I do know it has a small affect on performance. I'm not sure how the NAS encryption compares to the APFS encryption though. As for local network security, I would just ensure your Wi-Fi password is excellent and make a guest network with limited access that you give out to visitors.

[@deuxchasse]

Nice video! Can you say something about the speed when using images on a Nas instead of a local drive?

[@forestchaput]

That is an excellent video idea! I will add it to the list. I would estimate that a NAS running in RAID 5 and connected via 10GbE should be about equal to an SSD when it comes to importing speed. If the same NAS was connected via 1GbE or Wi-Fi, the speed would be more comparable to an HDD.

[@bcronkleton]

Nice video. I’m relatively new to Lightroom Classic and have been rethinking my storage solutions. Unfortunately have photos and videos in numerous locations (Cloud, SD cards, SSD and hard drives). Time to streamline.

[@forestchaput]

Yay! I can help too.

[@OpticsOnOrganisms]

Thank you...really good information, much appreciated

[@forestchaput]

You’re welcome!

[@jodajackson4489]

An iSCSI LUN would seem to be an option too.

[@forestchaput]

Great idea!

[@ruek66]

Hi there, it is a good step 1 video, no problem with that. However it’s step 1….what a lot of people tend to forget that this is NOT a backup, it’s just an extended storage solution ”expanding your harddrive” with a NAS. Step 2, if you are afraid that your internal HD could go corrupt you need to put you LR catalogue in an cloud folder (i.e iCloud or Dropbox etc), this saves the day if the HD goes corrupt and you will still have your last catalogue intact. Step 3, if you for some reason have several computers and you need those to work on the same image storage system using the SAME LR catalogue which contains all edits and changes to the images in the catalogue, you need Step 3, which is having all your computers accessing the same NAS storage and using the same LR catalogue which you have on your cloud service…..i.e computers on the same network as the NAS. Step 4, if you have a backup NAS in the neighbor house that NAS has to mirror the exact folder structure as the first NAS and of course have all the same images copied onto it, by using the same catalogue EITHER from the cloud or on your laptop you will have the same changes in LR when you move to the other NAS network, or if you use another computer using the catalogue from iCloud or Dropbox. Do I make any sense at all trying to explain this? :) Or from a real life scenario; you are out on a trip, get images and import them to LR on your laptop, you come home and move the images from within LR to the NAS or moving them and then finding the location (as in your video). Now you want to look at them sitting on your desktop, you open LR on the desktop and since the desktop is using the same LR catalogue as your laptop (in ICloud or Dropbox. You are now reading the same images on the NAS with all the changes etc that you did on the laptop. But you can ONLY use one of them at the time. :)

[@forestchaput]

Yes! You are absolutely correct. I may make a continuation video in the future. It’s going to be a long one though! Haha.

[@dontgetmadgetwise4271]

A NAS is only as good as your backup NAS. Once the hardware fails your disks may be useless.

[@forestchaput]

I agree!