NAS Photo storage + sharing

[Enquiries]

Hi!
First of all Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience via your insightful YouTube channel!

I need to do something new with my photo collection. I have close to 100.000 photos on Photoshop Elements. The catalog is also exported to Google Photos for sharing and easy access. I would like to get rid of My Google account.

I keep folders per year/owner/month of photos. My photos are stored on a PC with a NAS backup.

I share my Google account with my wife, but would like to share it with my kids and other family members with access restrictions. They can see whatever they like, but I don’t want them to edit/delete photos. Additional functions, like comments that I could accept or reject would be welcome.

I am on a Ubiquity UniFi LAN/WLAN with a 500Mbps symmetric Internet connection.

I have been waiting for a new DS92x+, but have now decided (almost) to go for a TS-464.

Do you have any advice on my forward path?

Best Regards
Einar Rossavik

[TribalHound]

First off - congratulations for what you have achieved... that's quite a library of photos and the fact you're running a UB network means you're making good choices.

The DS923+ is due out in the next couple of months (probably - keep a close eye on NASCompares updates) but there's also a 'Black Friday' coming - so whatever decision you want to make a little wait now might save you quite a bit.

You mention you want to ditch your google account, but that you want to share it with your kids, so I'm not sure if this features at all in your future plans. If you're not paying for it there could certainly be a use case to keep it as an online backup that only you would have access to. You certainly don't want all your copies are in the same building.

Whichever NAS you decide upon (QNAP or Synology) has the capability to setup local users (one each, and even extended family or friends) - and then add those users to an 'Adults', 'Kids' & possibly 'Family' group.
Wherever the 'Family' have the same access level - add The 'family' group (if you use it) or add both 'Adults' & 'Kids'... Where access is different, give one group Read Write and the other Read Only. The same would apply to any other data you store - just use file shares or sub folders accordingly.
With a file share anyone can map a network drive to it from their PC or log into the NAS and browse or use the NAS Photo Station app (which is also available as an ios or android app for remote access or via a web browser if you open up your security settings).

In terms of backups. You need ideally 3 copies (or more) of your data, one of which should be off site. With your PC (x1) and a 4 bay NAS in Raid 1, 5, 6 or 10 you have (x1 + redundancy), so you're just missing the offsite version. It can be as complicated as you like, or just an encrypted disc in a friends loft.

One final thought - it you're going to add NVMe discs for caching, you might want to double check your cables and the rest of your network can keep up with the NAS data read/write speeds.

Don't forget Robbie will have a link to whichever one you want to buy.