iPhone 11 Pro Which NAS would you buy???

[Norseman]

So I've been reading about 3 different NAS units: QNap, Synology and Asustor.

I just don't really see anything that does what I want (that I can tell anyway).

I want to be able to save a photo or video from my phone to a remote NAS server (or at the very least over my home WiFi when I'm there) and then delete it off my phone if I want - but STILL have it on the NAS. And then I would like some way of viewing those photos/videos from my phone later on (or even like if I have to re-download the video to watch it from my phone and then delete it off the phone when I'm done).

Does this make sense? I don't just want to backup the phone to a NAS so that if something happens I can restore a backup to the iPhone. That's something I already do manually. I just want to be able to do this with photos and videos.

ALSO ...I want to be able to let my family do this with THEIR phones - but not have everything in one place. So like I can only go through my stuff and my daughter can only go through hers.

Does anyone know if there is something on the market now that will do this?

 

[charliesixtwo]

What you want to do makes sense to me - for that functionality, you need some sort of tie in with the mobile OS - through an app and 'personal cloud' offering.
The good news is what you need is already readily available.

I get that level of functionality with my Synology device.
And of all the names you mentioned, I am familiar with the first two - and a few others, but have never heard of Asustor.

I would recommend the Synology unit - the size you want, that's up to you (be it 2 drive, or more)

You don't need to back up your phone to the NAS for this functionality.
You're just using a personal, private cloud offering through that storage unit (that has some smarts in it)
Everything goes to a separate location for me, iphone, ipad, etc.

 

[ipponrg]

So I've been reading about 3 different NAS units: QNap, Synology and Asustor.

I just don't really see anything that does what I want (that I can tell anyway).

I want to be able to save a photo or video from my phone to a remote NAS server (or at the very least over my home WiFi when I'm there) and then delete it off my phone if I want - but STILL have it on the NAS. And then I would like some way of viewing those photos/videos from my phone later on (or even like if I have to re-download the video to watch it from my phone and then delete it off the phone when I'm done).

Does this make sense? I don't just want to backup the phone to a NAS so that if something happens I can restore a backup to the iPhone. That's something I already do manually. I just want to be able to do this with photos and videos.

ALSO ...I want to be able to let my family do this with THEIR phones - but not have everything in one place. So like I can only go through my stuff and my daughter can only go through hers.

Does anyone know if there is something on the market now that will do this?

Food for thought...

Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, you get Amazon Photos for free, which allows you to store unlimited photos / 5 GB of video. I believe you can also add your family members and friends to your Photos account too, so they will also share your unlimited photos space and 5 GB space.

I have a Synology DS212 at home, and the Synology iOS app to back up your photos/video takes some time to getting used to. It works ok, but the photo browser software by Synology is kind of a miss. You'll have to look for a custom software solution if you aren't happy with the Synology apps.

 

[firedept]

I recommend QNAP NAS. But I'm sure Synology or Asustor would work as well. I recommend QNAP as that is what I own and it will do exactly what you are asking for. I own a 4 bay NAS and have all the apps for it on my iPhone and iPad. I can upload, download or view any images or files I store on my NAS from any of my devices. QNAP has a decent amount of apps to work with for the iPhone and iPads. They have apps for music, videos, files, pictures and then some. Check out their site and see what they have to offer. They are simple to setup and work well.

 

[Norseman]

Thanks for the feedback!

Is there perhaps a link to instructions or video you could share so I see how to do it if I end up purchasing the Synology? I'm looking at the DS218+

Check out the Asustor AS6302t. I was about to just plunk down on it, but I decided I should spend some more time researching before I do. Then I came across the Synology and that looks like it has better speed. I was thinking of going with SSD drives. They cost a LOT more but reliability and access speed should be better-faster. I just wanted to make sure it can do what I want it to. Even if I have to wait until I'm home and do it over Wifi, that 's fine. I just want to know that all of my stuff is backed up. Then I also periodically do a backup to my laptop using iTunes.
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Food for thought...

Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, you get Amazon Photos for free, which allows you to store unlimited photos / 5 GB of video. I believe you can also add your family members and friends to your Photos account too, so they will also share your unlimited photos space and 5 GB space.

I have a Synology DS212 at home, and the Synology iOS app to back up your photos/video takes some time to getting used to. It works ok, but the photo browser software by Synology is kind of a miss. You'll have to look for a custom software solution if you aren't happy with the Synology apps.

I do have Amazon Prime, but I think when you store them online, they lose the "Live" portion of the photo. Does anyone know if the photo keeps that when you use a Synology or Qnap iOS app and backup to NAS?

 

[charliesixtwo]

I recently recommended the DS218+ (or was it the J model) to a friend - and working fine there.

It all depends on your budget.
However, based on that unit and the speed (wifi particularly), you do not get any benefit from an SSD.

Here's a link for example:

How to backup photos and videos from smartphone to your Synology -easily :)

Hi again! I just discovered this past Christmas by accident, the easiest way to back up your photos and videos with a simple click. And how to remove them from your phone as easily! I have previous…

synoguide.com

You can do the backup remotely and access all the files remotely too - you're just either using a remote wifi or cellular data

 

[ipponrg]

Thanks for the feedback!

Is there perhaps a link to instructions or video you could share so I see how to do it if I end up purchasing the Synology? I'm looking at the DS218+

Check out the Asustor AS6302t. I was about to just plunk down on it, but I decided I should spend some more time researching before I do. Then I came across the Synology and that looks like it has better speed. I was thinking of going with SSD drives. They cost a LOT more but reliability and access speed should be better-faster. I just wanted to make sure it can do what I want it to. Even if I have to wait until I'm home and do it over Wifi, that 's fine. I just want to know that all of my stuff is backed up. Then I also periodically do a backup to my laptop using iTunes.
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I do have Amazon Prime, but I think when you store them online, they lose the "Live" portion of the photo. Does anyone know if the photo keeps that when you use a Synology or Qnap iOS app and backup to NAS?

This is what Synology can run as the "photo browser" on the NAS: https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/photo_station. Might be helpful to check out the live demo to see if that's something that might interest you.

Yes, you are 100% right that Amazon Photos does not store the "live" portion of the photo. I honestly don't know if it stores the live portion with the Synology/Qnap iOS app.

What I set up for my partner was to allow them to use my NAS as a "drive" as opposed to photos only. So that allows them to copy over whatever the file is without caring if it's a photo or not.

 

[charliesixtwo]

Yes, you have the option to save the live version (or not) with the Synology DS File app (I don't use the Photo app, but you can use that too)
The live portion is stored as the .mov and the .jpg
You also the option to convert the .heic to a more compatible format, if you need to. (which reminds me, I should install the heic viewer on this laptop...)

 

[Norseman]

I really like the look of the Asustor and all and it has some HDMI hookups and Optical Audio output in case you want to setup a media server. However, my main focus is what we are discussing, so I'd hate to buy it and it does NOT have the function of the Synology that we are discussing. Plus I figure I'm going to be spending at least $600 on all of this, so I don't plan on buying another for a long time. I want to get the one that is going to do what I want it best. Charliesixtwo, what about speed issues when accessing photo/video remotely? Ipponrg was saying it's not the best and thinking maybe the Qnap is better. Thoughts? (I'll be honest ...I don't like the asthetics of the white Qnap ...does it come in black?)

 

[charliesixtwo]

The Synology is your data store for any media server application (it has that functionality)
You then access the content using any DLNA capable device like a TV, media device, etc - and that is what has the HDMI and other functionality.

I do not think you will notice any speed issues - you are going to be accessing the storage device from your mobile devices over wifi and from a computer over either wifi/Ethernet, while your Synology unit is connected over Ethernet to your router/switch.
The speed limitation will be your wifi network and your mobile device wifi capability, not the Synology storage unit - that is gigabit.

I do suggest you get decent NAS drives (especially those that are RAID capable and which are not SMR - WD Red NAS Pro drives are good for a 2-drive setup if you can't find the WD Red drives that are not SMR)

Keep in mind that there's an entire drive thing happening nowadays regardless of what company's unit you purchase:

Buyer beware—that 2TB-6TB “NAS” drive you’ve been eyeing might be SMR

Hard drives were already bad at random access I/O—but SMR disks are worse.

arstechnica.com

You can sidestep all that by going with the WD Red NAS Pro (or carefully check the model number on the WD Red drives) (or just go with a different NAS compatible model)
EDIT: The Synology site has a drive compatibility checker matrix

 

[Norseman]

I really appreciate you helping me figure this out!!

I have a small house (2 story, 3 bedrooms) and have a Nighthawk 1750 Wireless router. I'm just wondering if I have me, wife, 2 sons that live with us and 2 daughters out on their own all connecting to this thing (sometimes over our wirless and sometimes remotely), will I notice ANY connectivity/speed issues? I was going to max out the Memory, too. Will that improve anything or is it not really noticeable?
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I think I'm going to go with 2 X WD Red Pro 4TB and mirror them.

 

[charliesixtwo]

Your speeds (regardless of what storage unit you purchase) will be dependent upon:
- your router's wifi range and speed when you're at home accessing your network
- your internet upload speed when you're accessing it remotely

you will be connecting your storage unit by ethernet to your router's available switch ports (or to another switch, if you have that in the mix)

You mentioned you're looking at the DS218+, that comes with 2 gigs of RAM - I'd start with that and see if you really need more.
Based on the infrequent workloads you've mentioned, I do not think you will need more. (You can always add more later if you really need to)

To see cpu and memory consumption, the Synology has a web and mobile interface for configuration.

The WD Red NAS Pro 4 TB drives are good - choose to use RAID-1 and not 'SHR' (Synology Hybrid Raid)

 

[Norseman]

Looking at the cost of "Synology approved RAM" I'm hoping the 2GB will suffice. I thought it would be maybe $40 to upgrade to 8GB, but it looks like it would be more like $120. That's a big jump LOL

On paper I like the Asustor better, but there just doesn't seem to be anyone online that can offer first hand experience like you are now with the Synology. Plus when I read reviews, I just think the Synology has the better track record, so I think I'm going with it. I really appreciate the help!
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Oh one more question if you don't mind. It says it's upgrade-able to 6GB of Memory. But nobody sells a 3GB DIMM. Wouldn't it either have to be 4GB or 8GB?? Why would they do that?

 

[charliesixtwo]

I had never heard of the Asustor before. (EDIT: just reading about it now - looks like a nice device)

Unless I misread, the 218+ goes to 6 GB of RAM.

Take my anecdotal info for what you will (I've been running/recommending various sorts of Synology gear for a few years now)

It just comes down to doing what you want it to do - whichever manufacturer checks all those boxes for you.

 

[HDFan]

I recommend QNAP NAS.

I'm just wondering if I have me, wife, 2 sons that live with us and 2 daughters out on their own all connecting to this thing (sometimes over our wirless and sometimes remotely), will I notice ANY connectivity/speed issues? I was going to max out the Memory, too. Will that improve anything or is it not really noticeable?

File transfer speeds on a NAS are going to depend on how many drives it has, what workload it is running (such as virus checkers), and the network interface. Synology devices generally only support 1GbE, but they do have 10 GbE cards. QNAP has some models which support both 10 GbE and Thunderbolt 3. I do a lot of large transfers from my computer (a lot of 4K movies, so maybe ~300 GB at a time) and the QNAP 4 bay is, compared to the Synology 5 bay, much faster. My Synology (without a 10 GbE card) runs in the 50-110 MB/s range. I'm doing almost a terabyte transfer right now and it is only running at 55-115 MBs. QNAP Thunderbolt gives transfers up to about 250 MB/s. These are all with a direct connections to my 10 GbE main computer.

When I turn off my main system and play videos from the NAS on my Apple TV it then becomes an issue of wireless speed. Test your local network with a local network tester such as Tamosofts Throughput test to get an idea of how fast network transfers will occur. Likely your bottleneck won't be the NAS but will be your WiFi network. Note: you don't want an internet test, such as Speedtest, but a local network speed tester.

If you have multiple users then things get more complex. Worst case might be if they are all streaming 4K movies. You could run into cpu limitations if a lot of transcoding is happening, but that doesn't look like it would be an issue for you given how it would be used.

As far as memory goes I have 8 GB of memory, 4 GB of it is use on my QNAP. I run both Roon and Plex with no problems. But it really dependent upon what applications you run and how much memory they use.

QNAP is more expensive, has more feaures, has great monitoring apps and software, but can be a bit flakey. Synology is cheaper, maybe more stable, but I find their apps and software not as good. I have found support from both Vendors to be good. My strong preference is for QNAP.

In terms of your questions about photo management I defer to the comments above as I just do an image copy of my reference files via Chronosync to the NAS.

 

[Norseman]

File transfer speeds on a NAS are going to depend on how many drives it has, what workload it is running (such as virus checkers), and the network interface. Synology devices generally only support 1GbE, but they do have 10 GbE cards. QNAP has some models which support both 10 GbE and Thunderbolt 3. I do a lot of large transfers from my computer (a lot of 4K movies, so maybe ~300 GB at a time) and the QNAP 4 bay is, compared to the Synology 5 bay, much faster. My Synology (without a 10 GbE card) runs in the 50-110 MB/s range. I'm doing almost a terabyte transfer right now and it is only running at 55-115 MBs. QNAP Thunderbolt gives transfers up to about 250 MB/s. These are all with a direct connections to my 10 GbE main computer.

When I turn off my main system and play videos from the NAS on my Apple TV it then becomes an issue of wireless speed. Test your local network with a local network tester such as Tamosofts Throughput test to get an idea of how fast network transfers will occur. Likely your bottleneck won't be the NAS but will be your WiFi network. Note: you don't want an internet test, such as Speedtest, but a local network speed tester.

If you have multiple users then things get more complex. Worst case might be if they are all streaming 4K movies. You could run into cpu limitations if a lot of transcoding is happening, but that doesn't look like it would be an issue for you given how it would be used.

As far as memory goes I have 8 GB of memory, 4 GB of it is use on my QNAP. I run both Roon and Plex with no problems. But it really dependent upon what applications you run and how much memory they use.

QNAP is more expensive, has more feaures, has great monitoring apps and software, but can be a bit flakey. Synology is cheaper, maybe more stable, but I find their apps and software not as good. I have found support from both Vendors to be good. My strong preference is for QNAP.

In terms of your questions about photo management I defer to the comments above as I just do an image copy of my reference files via Chronosync to the NAS.

Thanks for the added input! I see a lot of people with Qnap and Synology talking about watching 4K movies but honestly I don't really intend to do any of that. I usually use Kodi or just the Netflix app on my TV for movies. Do you guys download them to your NAS and then watch them? That sounds like a whole other can of worms LOL

I bet my 2 boys don't even care about the NAS and don't try to back up anything. It'll probably be me, the wife and 2 daughters (maybe my brother and his wife, too, if they want and if I don't notice any issues with the 4 of us) just copying photo and video from our phones to start. I have a PowerMAC and 2 Windows laptops that I'll also backup to it.

It really sounds like any of them can easily handle this for me.
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I had never heard of the Asustor before. (EDIT: just reading about it now - looks like a nice device)

Unless I misread, the 218+ goes to 6 GB of RAM.

Take my anecdotal info for what you will (I've been running/recommending various sorts of Synology gear for a few years now)

It just comes down to doing what you want it to do - whichever manufacturer checks all those boxes for you.

Yes it says the 218+ goes to 6GB. But I don't see a 3GB Memory card. Wouldn't you need 2 X 3GB to get it to 6GB? If I went over to 8GB is that going to be a problem? I'll have to contact them and see. But the type of memory for the Asustor is much more affordable and I think it's upgrade-able to like 16GB. That's another + in its column.

 

[charliesixtwo]

Yes it says the 218+ goes to 6GB. But I don't see a 3GB Memory card. Wouldn't you need 2 X 3GB to get it to 6GB? If I went over to 8GB is that going to be a problem? I'll have to contact them and see. But the type of memory for the Asustor is much more affordable and I think it's upgrade-able to like 16GB. That's another + in its column.

It comes with a 2 GB stick.
You buy a 4 GB Synology approved stick for the available slot.
And like I said, I'd start with the default 2 GB set - I very much doubt you'll need the extra based on the workloads you have mentioned.

 

[cmaier]

Synology or qnap are the gold standards. Synology has the reputation of being a little less finicky. I have had synology units for years, and they work great, but qnap is generally considered to be just as good.

 

[Norseman]

Ok thanks everyone for your help!! I just pulled the trigger on getting the Synology D218+ and the 2 WD Red Pro 4TB HDDs. Now get ready for me to be a PITA asking a slew of other questions once I get them and start trying to get everything running LOL

 

[Norseman]

Ah man ...I accidentally got the wrong HDDs!!!! (well not the ones I intended to order.) I guess when I was toggling back and forth between screens, I accidentally ordered these: Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 128MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage, Data Recovery Service – Frustration Free Packaging (ST4000NE001)

Anyone think that I should cancel that order and get the Western Digital Red Pro 4TB that I initially intended to order?

 

[cmaier]

Ah man ...I accidentally got the wrong HDDs!!!! (well not the ones I intended to order.) I guess when I was toggling back and forth between screens, I accidentally ordered these: Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 128MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage, Data Recovery Service – Frustration Free Packaging (ST4000NE001)

Anyone think that I should cancel that order and get the Western Digital Red Pro 4TB that I initially intended to order?

I’ve bought a ton of drives from seagate, western digital, etc. Failure rates are more or less equivalent between them. If there’s no price difference, I wouldn’t worry about it. Otherwise I’d get whatever is cheaper.

 

[Sgil]

Great choice on the DS218+! I purchased mine a few months ago to keep me busy during shelter in place and have been a big fan. I decided to keep the stock specs and purchased two 4TB WD Reds. As you may or may not have heard, there was a big controversy that the big manufactures of HDs were deceiving customers using SMR vs CMR drives. The Seagates you purchased should serve you just as well as the Red’s as they are just as well rated, just make sure they are CMR (contact Seagate if you can’t find out via a Google search).

Once you get everything set up, I highly suggest you use Moments. It’s just as full featured as the native photos app on iOS (AI Face and Object albums) and enable the shared library so you and the family can have a library you all contribute to. They are having a big upgrade to the moments app on the upcoming DSM 7 release later this year where they are adding the best features of their existing photo apps and more. There are tons of guidance around config on the Synology forum, so check that if you have any questions. Enjoy!

 

[Norseman]

Great choice on the DS218+! I purchased mine a few months ago to keep me busy during shelter in place and have been a big fan. I decided to keep the stock specs and purchased two 4TB WD Reds. As you may or may not have heard, there was a big controversy that the big manufactures of HDs were deceiving customers using SMR vs CMR drives. The Seagates you purchased should serve you just as well as the Red’s as they are just as well rated, just make sure they are CMR (contact Seagate if you can’t find out via a Google search).

Once you get everything set up, I highly suggest you use Moments. It’s just as full featured as the native photos app on iOS (AI Face and Object albums) and enable the shared library so you and the family can have a library you all contribute to. They are having a big upgrade to the moments app on the upcoming DSM 7 release later this year where they are adding the best features of their existing photo apps and more. There are tons of guidance around config on the Synology forum, so check that if you have any questions. Enjoy!

It looks like the big problem with Moments is the initial upload takes extremely long and you have to keep the app open and in the foreground. Is there any way around that? Can I connect the iPhone directly to the NAS for the initial upload?

 

[Sgil]

It looks like the big problem with Moments is the initial upload takes extremely long and you have to keep the app open and in the foreground. Is there any way around that? Can I connect the iPhone directly to the NAS for the initial upload?

Depending on your network, the initial upload is at the same speed as you would expect doing a wireless backup to iTunes. Having the app open in the foreground for best results is true, but that’s a limitation by Apple as part of iOS so you would encounter this regardless of the NAS or backup solution. I previously had a WD MyCloud for photo backup so I did a direct transfer of all the photos I had backed up over the network instead of through the iOS app. You could get creative by first downloading all your photos/videos to your computer then transfer them to the appropriate personal or shared (/Photo) folder on the NAS but that’s the only other option.

One other thing to note is depending on how many photos you upload, don’t be surprised if your NAS is working at almost full CPU capacity over the course of many days. Once uploaded, the CPU is analyzing the photo and video metadata and running machine learning for face and object analysis and it takes a LONG time to fully complete (understandable if you think about all this being done behind the scenes). I did a transfer of ~40k photos and videos and it took~4 days to do all the processing. You are able use the Moments app while it’s happening, you may just notice a lag in browsing/viewing until the analysis is complete.

 

[Norseman]

I also see there’s other Synology apps for browsing photos but I’m going to try Moments first at your suggestion. I can’t wait to get going on this!
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Just checked and Seagate's website AND in the Q&A on Amazon I see that the drives I ordered are CMR.