Backup Photos Library To Nas

Posted : admin | On 17-09-2021

A few years ago, I decided to go all-in with iCloud Photos. My library was just over 1TB at the time, so I’ve been paying for the 2TB plan ever since (I’ve been collecting photos in my library since 2001 and while it could definitely use a bit of trimming, I don’t think there’s much I want to get rid of).

It’s super convenient to have all my photos everywhere at all times (what’s the point in taking them if you can’t enjoy them?), but I did want to find a way to have a secondary backup solution that doesn’t rely on Photos or iCloud.

Direct transfer between services, devices & NAS. Transfer photos & videos directly between targets without having to first import them into the iOS Photo Library. You can for instance, directly transfer from OneDrive to a NAS or from SMB to a USB device. Supported transfer combinations are basically endless!
The below answer is from 2017. Maybe it wasn’t possible then, but now there is a way to do this. There may be several companies out there providing this service, but the one I use is called iMazing.

I already have a Synology NAS for other backups and as a general storage system, so I wanted to find a way for it to always have an up-to-date copy of my Library.

Google Photos is one of the best ways to sync and store the picture you take on your phone, but getting them out of your library is another story—especially if you want to keep your metadata.

Why back up the cloud?

So since I’m already paying Apple, why would I want another backup?

Well it basically boils down to wanting an independent backup: what if I lose access to my iCloud account? Or Apple loses my data somehow? Both unlikely, but it can happen.

Options considered

Direct backup

First I looked into ways to get the Synology to pull my photos down directly. 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 doesn’t require maintenance.

Via Windows

The next option I tested was using a cheap miniPC running Windows 10 and Apple’s iCloud software to copy the files onto the mounted Synology drive.

In hindsight, I’m not sure what I was expecting: the cheap miniPC was temperamental, Windows never stopped updating and Apple iCloud for Windows seemed… well not their main focus, lets put it that way.

It sort of worked, but quickly felt like more hassle than it was worth.

Via a Mac

Ok so this is by far the easiest way of doing it, but it does require you have a desktop Mac or a MacBook that

a) has a full copy of your photos library

and

b) Is awake and connected to your network at regular intervals to run the backup

Since my MacBook is usually closed / not plugged in and doesn’t have a full copy of my photo library, I bought a used Mac Mini and hooked it up to an external 2 TB drive. Then I configured Photos.app to store a full local copy of my library.

Backup Photos Library Mac

(Note: Why isn’t this enough backup? My concern is that if my photos are wiped on one device accidentally, the Mac Mini’s library would also be wiped)

Finally I installed Synology’s Cloud Station Backup Mac client on the Mac Mini and told it to monitor the photos directory and mirror those files to the Synology. It’s configured to only add files, not delete them. That way, if my library is ever accidentally wiped, it won’t also delete the files from the Synology backup.

So now I have the following setup;