Accessing New Asustor NAS (AS6404T) original files using Lightroom Classic

[Sparker699]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic v9.4

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

A techie friend highly recommended storing my original photos (over 104,000) on a NAS instead of my external LaCie HDD's. So I recently purchased an Asustor AS6404T NAS with 4 bays and have set it up in a RAID 5 configuration. Using my external HDD where I store my Lightroom photos, I have copied them to the NAS. I would now of course, like to have Lightroom access my photos on the NAS so I don't have to rely on my external HDD's going forward. I have always kept my Lightroom Classic catalogue and all support files on my iMac internal SSD and will continue to do so. It is just my photos I'd like Lightroom to access on my NAS. This is where I am stumbling. I have scanned the internet for help, found a simplistic method Adobe recommended, but my Lightroom Classic (v9.4) preferences panes don't look like or have the same choices as Adobe showed. Since I don't have an Ethernet connection in my office, I am accessing my NAS using a secured WiFi connection. My NAS is only accessible to my wife and myself.

I have not plugged my HDD back into my iMac. Of course when I started up Lightroom it could not find my photos. Can someone offer some guidance on what I need to do to make this happen so Lightroom will see my NAS and Lightroom folders? It may be something very simple or perhaps complicated...I have no idea!

My goal is to have a safe and long term backup storage system for all my original and edited photos. The NAS in RAID 5 configuration apparently offers a more secure backup should one HDD fail in the unit. Previous to my NAS, my external HDD was backed up to a second HDD using Carbon Copy Cloner. And my photos are also backed up nightly to Backblaze for offsite storage. My external HDD's are about 2/3's full and old and likely to fail in the next year or two.

Or after all this is said and done, should I just continue to use my external HDD directly connected to my iMac as I have been and then back up raw & edited photos to my NAS?

I am a serious amateur photographer and my photos mean everything to me. If I'm missing something that needs more detail, let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help that may come my way!

Steve

 

[Jim Wilde]

When you start Classic with the HDDs disconnected, all the folders in the Folders Panel will be greyed out with the "?" on them. All you need to do is right-click on the top-level folder(s) and select "Find Missing Folder" from the resulting menu. That opens a file browser window, use that to browse to and select the same folder on the NAS. That will relink the catalog to that top-level folder and all of its sub-folders (and thus of course the contained images). Repeat for any other top-level folders.

One caveat: I'm not sure how Classic will handle wifi-connected drives....in theory if the OS file system "sees" the NAS then Classic should also.

 

[David Gordon]

The NAS in RAID 5 configuration apparently offers a more secure backup should one HDD fail in the unit.

RAID is not a backup! Make sure you continue to backup your RAID to another hard drive using CCC. I had a RAID 5 once. A drive failed. During rebuilding another drive failed. No more data. RAID 5 is not always the best choice! I did know RAID is not a backup so had all my data on another drive. I prefer RAID 10 now!

 

[Sparker699]

Jim...thanks so very much for your fast reply. Success!!! And easy! I guess I hadn't clicked on the parent folder! So indeed an easy solution.
David, you are so right. I wouldn't sleep at night trusting a one-unit device for backing up my photos even though it's promoted as a safeguard. I will also continue to back up to external HDD's. Excuse my ignorance, but how does RAID 10 differ from RAID 5?

I gave my NAS a test by developing an image in Lightroom. It all seemed to go very well, no slow downs whatsoever. But then when I returned to the Library module, my modifications to the image "disappeared" and the image reverted back to its original state. Going back into the Develop module, I checked the History panel. Everything I had done was there! I clicked on the most recent History edit, but nothing happened. If I hovered over any of the other History edits, I could see the changes to that point in the Navigation window. So not sure what the hiccup was...perhaps there is a delay between the computer and the NAS. So I tried it again, but this time completing the Export of the edited image before going back to the Library module. And voila...all is well. Perhaps a few minor hiccups to live with.

Thanks guys...you are both awesome!

 

[clee01l]

Jim...thanks so very much for your fast reply. Success!!! And easy! I guess I hadn't clicked on the parent folder! So indeed an easy solution.
David, you are so right. I wouldn't sleep at night trusting a one-unit device for backing up my photos even though it's promoted as a safeguard. I will also continue to back up to external HDD's. Excuse my ignorance, but how does RAID 10 differ from RAID 5?

I gave my NAS a test by developing an image in Lightroom. It all seemed to go very well, no slow downs whatsoever. But then when I returned to the Library module, my modifications to the image "disappeared" and the image reverted back to its original state.

Develop edits do not actually use the original image file except for certain processes but instead are made on one of the Previews in the Previews folder. If the original image file is RAW. Lightroom works with the RGB file created and stored in ACR cache. It will only go to the original file if the ACR Cache RGB file is missing Only when you export or print will LR go to the original file (or ACR Cache file) to merge edits with original to make the derivative.
The Preview refresh does always seem to have some lag, but this is not dependent upon the location of the original image.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Woodbutcher]

What I do with my NAS is I have created smart previews for all the images and can see them even when the NAS is disconnected. I just can't do certain edits. My NAS is configured (a Synology 2 drive unit) to shutdown at night if it is on. And I can use the Wake On LAN feature to wake it up anytime I need it. So if I want to do HDR or Pano creation or print then I can. Otherwise I have the smart previews to view. It is working nicely for me. I connect to mine over wifi also. I still do backups offsite though. As others have mentioned, the RAID on the NAS protects against a local drive failure, but is of no use if the NAS is stolen or destroyed in a catastrophe.

Oh, and I keep current year files on my local drive. The NAS just has anything older than current year. So the mac still gets a Time Machine backup. I may configure the NAS as a Time Machine backup drive also, but haven't done that yet.

 

[David Gordon]

how does RAID 10 differ from RAID 5?

In your RAID 5 let's say you have four 4TB drives, a total or 16TB. The raid stores your files in a way which allows you to make use of 12TB, the rest is used for data needed to rebuild the volume when (not if!) a drive fails. Its a good compromise of speed and safety but there are many who dislike this favour of RAID. I'm biased as I had a bad experience which I now believe was down to a poor batch of drives.

RAID 10 is a combination of RAID 0 and 1. RAID 0 stripes the data over (in my case) two drives. If one drive fails all data is lost. RAID 1 is a mirror, data written to one drive is duplicated to another. So in RAID 10 two drives are striped together (so faster than a single drive for writing and reading) and another two drives are a copy. A single drive failure is not a disaster. But now my four 4TB drives only add up to 8TB of storage.