NAS advice: iCloud alternative with Apple photo format support and similar library management

[Enquiries]

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on choosing a NAS for photo and video management. My goal is to find a platform that natively supports modern Apple formats such as HEIF, Apple ProRAW, and Live Photos, and provides robust library management for both personal and shared collections—with the ability to easily move photos between these libraries—all within a single application. A crucial feature is also the ability to view both libraries simultaneously in one interface and timeline, similar to Apple Photos.

I want to use this NAS as a full replacement for iCloud to store tens of thousands of photos and videos. So far, I have mainly considered NAS systems running Synology DSM, UGREEN UGOS PRO, TerraMaster TOS 6, and MinisCloud OS.

Lastly, I’m curious about how critical having ECC RAM is for ensuring data safety.

If there exists an ecosystem with an app that matches Apple Photos’ functionality please share experiences and recommendations.

Thank you for any insights or suggestions.

[ed]

Hi, thanks for the detailed question. The short answer is that no NAS ecosystem fully replicates Apple Photos. None of the platforms you mentioned offer true support for Apple’s full stack such as Live Photos with motion and sound together, Apple ProRAW processing, shared libraries that behave like iCloud, and a single unified timeline that merges multiple libraries. Some systems get close, but not all the way.

Synology Photos is the closest for Apple users. It supports HEIF, Live Photos playback, shared albums, people detection and mobile backup that behaves predictably. It cannot match Apple’s editing pipeline or multi user unified timeline, but for a self-hosted iCloud alternative it is the most stable and complete option today. UGREEN, TerraMaster and MinisCloud all work for basic HEIF and video storage, but the software is not mature enough yet for large photo libraries or full family workflows. They lack deeper metadata handling, polished search and proper Apple Live Photos management. If iCloud replacement is the primary goal, Synology remains the safest choice.

ECC RAM is not critical for home photo libraries. It is nice to have, but silent corruption on modern NAS file systems is very rare and Btrfs checksumming already protects against most issues. Focus more on good drives, multiple backups and a UPS rather than ECC.

If you want the closest experience to Apple Photos with minimal friction, choose Synology DS425 Plus or DS925 Plus and run Synology Photos. It will give you the most reliable long term solution for tens of thousands of HEIF, ProRAW and Live Photos files.