By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. You end up with exactly the same photos on your synology volume as you do in iCloud. While that person could be the most altruistic individual, the data is still not under my control. My family each created a documents and desktop folder in their Synology Drive accounts. I always have to run my files through exiftool to change the modified and creation timestamps. I use iCloud photo library so i can view the pics on my apple tv but absolutely want to have a local backup of full res photos. iCloud Photos Downloader . First, a huge thank you to the community here. Even though your entire iCloud Photo Library is (as the name implies) stored online in iCloud, it's worth considering a second online backup as one of your redundancies. Wait for it to copy over. The last step? Download the files that you need from Synology NAS to your local computer. Here are a few ways that you can back up your iCloud photos using your greatest Mac. I think I knew I could connect remotely (provided there is an internet connection, which isn't always the case for me) but wasn't sure if Apple support the iCloud System Photos Library being on an NAS. Its configured to only add files, not delete them. Any stand alone NAS (DS) would be a "smarter" choice. Now, the magic, I go into the Apple Photos preferences menu and uncheck "Importing: Copy Items to the Photos library." . Final Cut Pro X users rely on QNAP NAS to quickly and efficiently edit, export and transcode their content. Ready made packages are available: For DSM 7.x icloud_photo_station-0.3.0.spk. https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/10hw71g/comment/j5f8bd8/. That way, if my library is ever accidentally wiped, it wont also delete the files from the Synology backup. Then install the photos app on your IPhone and let photos copy all your pictures to the Nas itself. Amazon has the DS216+ (the current version of my NAS box) for $300. https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/05/03/how-to-photos-for-mac-referenced-mode/. If you have another cloud-based drive mounted in Finder, click on that. Copy everything from the iCloud desktop and documents folders to your Apple user home desktop and documents folders and let drive do the magic. Once your logs indicate that your back-up is complete, you can validate the success of your back-up by comparing your image count on the iPhone Photos app vs. number of images that have been downloaded to your NAS. Switching from Google Photos to a Synology NAS. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Open any folder. Thanks for pointing it out! Select the data you want to back up > specify the backup path to backup iPad to Synology Nas > Start Backup. I am doing the backup. Ive configured the Mac Mini and Synology to wake up for a few hours every day to do this and so far its working really well. I use Nextcloud and when activating the auto upload feature you can make it upload the entire library first, That windows iCloud app defaults to C drive to download the whole thing. You can download all of your photos in bulk first, then setup synology photos to only sync new images to your library. 2. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader, https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync. You can request to transfer a copy of your iCloud Photosphotos and videos associated with your Apple IDto another service. Synology DS423+ NAS Confirmed How to Enable NVMe Storage Poo QNAP Launches New Security Vul Synology SAT5210-7000G 7TB SAT best nvme for Synology NAS (Sy Unleash the speed with the DS1 Synology DS223 NAS - Should Yo Synology DS1823xs+ NAS Reveale Synology . For #3, you can just add `nohup` before the command and then ` &` at the end if you're running it via SSH and that will prevent the command from stopping if your SSH connection breaks. Step 2. i will check out those alternatives. Docker noob here. Doing so risks corruption which every Apple Photo help article explains. One other thing, on my Synology in Synology Drive Admin, I turn on versioning and have added my "photo" folder as well under Team folders. Lastly, I had my admin account create a "Family" folder on its Synology Drive which is shared to all the family. Through the normal backup process ( iCloud Photo Library disabled ), your photos are backed up at most once every 24 hours along with the rest of your data, when your iPhone is on Wi-Fi, charged, and locked. Navigate to your Recently Deleted folder. Formats include: .jpg, .png, .webp, .gif, some RAW files, .mpg, .mod, .mmv, .tod, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .divx, .mov, .m4v, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m2t, .m2ts, .mts, and .mkv files. Oh no, that's disappointing! In the Synology web UI, open Synology > Control Panel > Task Scheduler. You can then delete the desktop and documents folders from iCloud and go to Apple system settings, Apple ID, and turn off desktop and documents in the "options" menu of iCloud Drive. You can for instance, directly transfer from OneDrive to a NAS or from SMB to a USB device. This enabled me to get up and running and now my entire 500GB+ iCloud Photo Library is synced to my Synology. First I looked into ways to get the Synology to pull my photos down directly. Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy. Set the route to save downloaded iCloud backup photos. Note: Synology Cloud Station Suite is not supported on DSM 7.0 and above. The problem is that you can not put the Apple Photo library on a NAS. Please refresh the page and try again. - In Photos, select the images you want to offload to your NAS. Registration is free, easy and fast! There are two ways to back up your iCloud Photo Library to an external drive: backing up your Photos library automatically or manually. I use a second Synology off site and use it strictly as a hyperbackup vault. If someone has an alternative for backing up a large amount of iCloud photos to a NAS Id be interested in hearing it. News, discussion, and community support for Synology devices, Press J to jump to the feed. Transfer a copy of your iCloud Photos collection to another service. Move Photos Library to the storage device. 15GB is of Google Photos, but when i look at the amount of Got it running. Thanks. . In the Finder, open the folder that contains Photos Library. Youll receive an email notification of your transfer request and another email when your transfer is complete. I also have set up time machine to copy the external drive. I didn't write the actual downloader python script, and it uses a plaintext keyring within the container to hold your iCloud credentials so proceed at your own risk. NY 10036. Your Google accounts total storage space applies to content transferred from iCloud Photos to Google Photos. I have used this to backup some shared albums to a shared space on the DS220+, then keep my own photos in my personal space. This container is going to be a lifesaverthank you so much for sharing and posting your compose. A few tips/notes from my experience: Make sure you install Python from the Package Center (I'm not entirely sure this is actually necessary, but I did it anyway). If youre a digital pack rat with every photo youve ever taken, this is for you. and our Select the photos and video you want to back up. Part 2. While her main speciality is the iPhone, she also covers Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac when needed. Once that was done, though, everything is working fine. I ask because every time I log into iCloud to download the original full resolution image, the timestamps do not have the original time, but they have the time when the download is done. This was you have your photos backed up online in 2 places. From Finder you can't access this folder but you can in Terminal app. Using the cloud and backing up to an external fast drive is fairly painless. Then, each family member downloaded the Synology Drive Desktop Client from here: https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/download. ), but I did want to find a way to have a secondary backup solution that doesnt rely on Photos or iCloud. But, I minimize its use (free tier) because it is another monthly fee, my family storage requirements have grown past what they offer, and I want the ability to have control of my data independent of any platform. Couple of pro tips: You can use Synology Drive folders in the Apple Files app on mobile but you need to enable it. Cannot believe how hard this is and I hope someone can give me some pointers. Its important to note that this is a sync if you delete a photo from iCloud, itll also delete from your Synology. Introducing our latest photo management solution for both pros and hobbyists, Synology Photos.Watch Synology 2021 sessions- System Management with DSM 7.0 - . I've configured the Mac Mini and Synology to wake up for a few hours every day to do this and so far it's working really well. Once the "check" is complete, the container will start downloading your images. It sort of worked, but quickly felt like more hassle than it was worth. If it will be your primary image library . You can select a folder or customize the path according to your needs, and it is best to choose the path containing all pictures of iCloud Photos. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance, or use of third-party websites or products. There are a few command line scripts that can talk directly to your iCloud account, but they all looked a bit fragile I want a setup that is going to work reliably and doesnt require maintenance. I will look into both. Download iCloud for Windows on your Windows PC. They then turned off iCloud for desktop and documents. Run as executable, docker container, or from the source; Run one time or continuously watch for changes to keep a local backup of your photos and videos. In some cases, you may find that the transfer didnt include all the photos, videos, or formats that you expected and there are a few reasons why this could happen. I really love Apple products with the tight integration of their software with hardware. The kids create incredible amounts of digital content even after it has been cut, scaled, and compressed. If your final integrity check comes back with a success/complete message, you can start running below compose for scheduled back-ups. I have the script set to run once a day via DSM Task Scheduler, and it looks like it takes about 30 minutes for icloudpd to scan through my whole (already imported) library. Once done, you will have a local copy of your documents and desktop, and after sync, they will be on your Synology which is easily accessible from the Synology Drive App on any mobile platform. This is great as an extra local backup. That's why if you are truly serious about keeping all of your pictures and video safe, you want some redundancies in your backup process. After installing, you will have an iCloud Drive folder in your Windows Explorer. You have a Google account to use Google Photos. Privacy Policy. u/Alternative-Mud-4479 's super helpful instructions were written in the comments of a post about Apple Photos library hosting, and were bound to be lost to future idiots who may be searching for the same help that I was. We work hard to maintain accuracy and consistency, so the data associated with your account and our responses to data requests may change as our means of storage and collection change. Excited! Is there a similar app for Google photos? Apple strives to collect and store the minimum amount of data required to provide the services you use. I believe I paid around $500 for the NAS box and the 3 TB drive a few years back. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. :), Edit: thanks for all your replies! If it's an external drive, click on it in Finder. Otherwise I would offload all my photos and stop paying Apple for 2TB of storage. Was that what you were thinking of with the spare Mac? We do not use the "auto import" function of Moments (or Photo Station) because we do not like the file structure it produces. We each then pointed our Synology Drive desktop and documents folders at our respective "empty" Apple user home folders. Chronosync would be my second choice. One way to use a Synology device is to back up an iCloudPhoto Library. - Before beginning, BACK UP ALL IMAGES to an external hard drive and disconnect it just to be safe! It's one of the best ways to keep all of your memories together on your Apple devices. (Note: Why isnt this enough backup? I chose to use Backblaze's B2 for my NAS backup. Try out 'iclouddp' which you can run as a docker container on your NAS. Open the Photos app. Synology DS415+. It retains a full copy of your photos in iCloud (accessible on iCloud.com as well). That, in turn backs up to . On my main user, I have "optimized the storage" on my iCloud Photo Library and leave it as it is on the "images" folder. Schedule: your preference, I chose once a month. Please visit NVD for updated vulnerability entries, which include CVSS scores once they are available. Run it as a cron task and you wont have to think about it (full disclosure: I havent done this yet, I just run the program every month or so), Now I have full-res versions of my iCloud photos. Any cloud storage that syncs comes with a risk that all your photos could disappear suddenly this prevents that from happening. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Back up Photos Library manually by showing: Click and drag your Photos Library to your external hard drive (Image credit: iMore). Hover over the Export option. Since my MacBook is usually closed / not plugged in and doesnt have a full copy of my photo library, I bought a usedMac Mini and hooked it up to an external 2 TB drive. These instructions assume youre using a Mac, but Windows users should be able to accomplish this with WSL (Windows Systems for Linux) terminal commands. Learn more aboutApples privacy policy. If your computer went to sleep at any point, you may have to ssh to your Synology again, Run ~/.local/bin/icloudpd -d -u --recent 10 --only-print-filenames --threads-num 2, If it fails if you have spaces in your path, youll need to enclose in single quotes, See if it succeeds (it should print 10 filenames), Run ~/.local/bin/icloudpd -d -u --recent 50 --set-exif-datetime --auto-delete --threads-num 2, Check your folder using the Synology file browser to see if the photos are there and whether they open correctly, In the Synology web UI, open Synology > Control Panel > Task Scheduler, Create an upgrade script to keep the iCloud Photos Downloader up to date, Click Create > Scheduled Task > User-defined Script, General: Give it a name, run as your user, Schedule: your preference, I chose once a month, Notification: Your email here, only if abnormal termination (if you want), Highlight the resulting entry and click run, Click Action > View Result and ensure that the Current Status is Normal (0), Click Create > Scheduled Task > User-defined script again, Schedule: Your preference, I chose daily at 4am, Note that this may occasionally take a long time to run, frequencies <1 day arent recommended.