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New Macbook Air and Photos App with Multiple Macs

J

jeddouglas

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 13, 2012
245
60
Inverness, UK
Just got myself a new 13"MBA with 256GB of storage. I also have a 2011 iMac with 1TB of storage and that is where I keep my Photos library. My Photos library is approximately 90GB in size. I would like to be able to access and edit my Photos library on my iMac from my MBA but don't want to use up valuable storage space on my MBA. I currently have the 50GB iCloud storage plan of which 40GB is used. I would prefer not to have to increase my iCloud storage. I have tried opening the Photos library on the iMac from my MBA through Finder but have been unsuccessful.

Does anyone have any tips for how this can be done e.g. other Apps or am I stuck with either having the full library on my MBA or increasing my iCloud storage plan. I have read that for a library to be shared it needs to be on an external drive. I do have a Seagate HDD that I used for my iMac backups so is this an option for me if leave it plugged in to my iMac?
 
The Photos/iPhoto library package, although shareable, is not designed to be edited by multiple computers at once. Also, there are programs that won't work with the integrated photos file picker in Finder if the library is located externally.
I personally thought a similar idea of having an iPhoto library in a NAS, but scrapped it. I believe as long as you can ensure that there won't be more than one computer accessing the library at any given time, it might be okay. Make a duplicate out of it and test it first.
 
I'd suggest that you use your iMac as a network share and let the MBA access it over the network.
Just needs to setup file sharing in the sharing preference panel in system preferences.
 
kiwipeso1 said:
I'd suggest that you use your iMac as a network share and let the MBA access it over the network.
Just needs to setup file sharing in the sharing preference panel in system preferences.
Click to expand...
It's easier said than done. Photos on MacOS put everything into a package, and it is not designed to be accessed from outside the internal drive. I tried putting my library into a NAS, and it breaks some softwares' integration, especially software from the App store. In the sandbox environment, they expect the photo library to be in the internal main drive of the Mac. It is just not the most versatile method of having a photo library to be honest, although iCloud kinda fix it (but obviously it would cost money for larger storage).
 
Thanks for all the replies. I did as kiwipeso1 suggested and was able to access Photos library on my iMac from my MBA whilst on my home network and work on a slideshow successfully. Should this work if I am on a different network from my iMac?
 
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jeddouglas said:
Thanks for all the replies. I did as kiwipeso1 suggested and was able to access Photos library on my iMac from my MBA whilst on my home network and work on a slideshow successfully. Should this work if I am on a different network from my iMac?
Click to expand...

You can use a VPN to access your home network. Your router should support making a VPN connection, so it is just a matter of either using the VPN part of the network preference panel, or using tunnelblick.
That will get you a secure connection to your home network, and is useful if you are on a public wifi and need to do banking, etc.
 
kiwipeso1 said:
You can use a VPN to access your home network. Your router should support making a VPN connection, so it is just a matter of either using the VPN part of the network preference panel, or using tunnelblick.
That will get you a secure connection to your home network, and is useful if you are on a public wifi and need to do banking, etc.
Click to expand...
This is getting very technical for me. So how do I use a VPN and how do I find out if my router supports one? I would like to access my home network from my work network if possible.
 
If it's an ASUS, then you click the VPN icon on the home page of the router, and configure the VPN server with the usernames and passwords you want to use, then save the VPN config file and open that in tunnelblick on your MBA.

You should be able to login to your router on your home network at 192.168.x.1 for the correct network number of (x)
Then it should have an online built-in manual and/or tooltips near the settings, as well as the manual on the manufacturers website. (Which should be a quick google link.)

It is very useful to have if you are travelling and you'd want to watch the BBC iPlayer for example, as you could just login to home network and your connection is effectively from your home.
 
It's a BT Homehub 5. Will investigate to see if it supports VPN. I take it Tunnelblick is an App that I can download? Does Back to my Mac not do the same thing? I appreciate your help with this. Sorry for all the questions.
 
jeddouglas said:
It's a BT Homehub 5. Will investigate to see if it supports VPN. I take it Tunnelblick is an App that I can download? Does Back to my Mac not do the same thing? I appreciate your help with this. Sorry for all the questions.
Click to expand...

Tunnelblick is an App for openvpn VPNs. It is avaiable from https://tunnelblick.net/ and does the main form of VPN supported in Sierra, as the previous type is no longer consider secure.
 
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