How-to Create the Best Lightroom NAS Setup
If you’re anything like me, you’re familiar with the scenario of running out of storage for your photos, or having to keep track of which drive holds which Lightroom catalogue. Sometimes the solution is buying more drives, or worse, deleting photos that you believe you no longer need only to find yourself looking for them years later.
After researching for quite some time, I believe I have found the perfect setup for any photography workflow that allows one to focus on what really matters: editing and photographing.
In this post I will be going over a complete overview of what I believe to be a great solution for managing your Lightroom setup on both windows and mac. For the purposes of this post, I will be highlighting the setup on MacOS Ventura.
Here's What You'll Need
Below you will find a list everything you’ll need to get started, as well as some of my personal recommendations. Please note this post or recommendations are not sponsored in any way.
NAS (Network Attached Storage)
HDD (Hard Drive Disks) for NAS
(Minimum 4TB each recommended)
10GbE Network Adapter for NAS*
Only needed if your NAS doesn’t already have one and/or supports it.
10GbE Network Adapter for MAC or PC*
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 to 10Gb Base-T Ethernet Adapter SOLO10G-TB3
Only needed if your computer doesn’t have one and/or supports it.
10GbE Ethernet Switch (x2)
Only needed if NAS isn’t placed in same room as computer AND using 10GbE adapters above
Mac or PC
Adobe Lightroom
*Optional but highly recommended
**I personally use these items and I highly recommend them.
Please note, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Before You Get Started
The best thing to do before you get started is plan out where your equipment will be placed. This will determine the amount of cables, cable length, switches, and adapters you’ll need.
Below are some questions you may want to consider, as long as the pros and cons associated with each.
Do you plan on having the NAS in the same room as your computer?
Pros: You won’t need the 10Gbe switches referenced above since you will have a direct connection to the NAS.
Cons: NAS are fairly audible due to the server grade HDDs running them. This can be problematic if you prefer a completely quite environment. I have mine in the same room and I found myself getting used to the sound.
Would you rather place your NAS next to your modem & router?
Pros: You won’t have to hear the NAS when it is being utilized.
Cons: You will need to purchase a 10GbE switch that goes from the RJ45 Ethernet cable in that room as well as a secondary one for the room in which you plan to work from.
Are you looking to get the most out of your NAS & Lightroom?
If so, you should consider purchasing the 10GbE adapter for the Synology NAS’ above and then a 10GbE adapter for your MAC or Windows computer.
I personally use and highly recommend the OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter, (OWCTB3ADP10GBE). It is fanless, runs relatively cool, and has never failed me.
Don’t forget: In order to take advantage of a 10GbE connection, you will need to ensure that every point in your setup supports it. This includes switches (if any), ethernet ports on your computer or laptop, and the NAS itself. If you don’t then you will bottleneck your setup to the lowest rated component of the setup (nowadays typically 1GbE)
Personal Recommendation: OWC 10G Ethernet Adapter
Comparing Setup Options
Setup 1: Placing the NAS in the same room as the editing device
Setup 2: Placing the NAS in the same room as the Modem & Router
Getting Started
After you have selected your preferred setup, you will be ready to make a list of needed items and purchase your products from the list above. Please note, there are multitudes of products available beyond what I’ve recommended above. I’ve only recommended what I’ve had first had experiences with in terms of NAS and Lightroom setups.
Once you have received your products you are ready to get started. Simply connect your devices based on the applicable diagrams above. If you already have a Synology NAS set up feel free to skip below.
If you’re new to setting up a NAS Synology has a great knowledge center that is available here: Synology Knowledge Center
Create a Lightroom Shared Folder
1. Navigate to your Synology NAS by visiting 192.168.1.1 in your browser’s address bar. This may differ if you’ve setup your NAS differently.
2. Create a Lightroom shared folder by going to Control Panel > Shared Folder > Create Shared Folder > Lightroom
Note: Do not enable encryption as this will slow down your transfer speeds to and from this shared folder.
Set Up Your 10GbE Connection on Your NAS
This section is only applicable if you are looking to have a 10GbE connection between your NAS and editing device.
Connect your ethernet cable to the 10GbE port on your NAS and to your 10GbE connection on your editing device (either thunderbolt adapter or PCIe card).
Navigate to your Synology NAS by visiting 192.168.1.1 in your browser’s address bar. This may differ if you’ve setup your NAS differently.
3. Navigate to Control Panel > Network > Network Interface
Here you should see two (or more) ports connected. One of them should be the connection going back to the router (with the IP that you used to log into DSM) and the other should be your new 10GbE connection.
4. Select the 10GbE LAN port connected to your editing device and click edit.
Then assign the following IPv4 settings under manual configurations:
IP Address: 10.10.10.5
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 10.10.10.1
DNS Server: 10.10.10.1
Using these Static IP addresses will help ensure they dont conflict with other devices on your network.
Set Up Your 10GbE Connection on Your Mac
1. On your Mac go to System Settings > Network > and Select the 10GbE adapter from the list of connections.
2. Rename the adapter to 10GbE Adapter for easy referencing.
3. Then go to TCP/IP and under Configure IPv4 select Manually
Enter the following:
IP Address: 10.10.10.20
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Configure IPv6 Automatically
In order to ensure that you can successfully connect to your NAS via the new 10GbE connection, you’ll want to ensure there is a firewall rule to allow the traffic.
4. Navigate back to Synology’s DSM and navigate to Control Panel > Security > Firewall > Firewall Profile > Edit Rules > Create
Ports > All
Action > Allow
5. Select Source IP > Specific IP > Select >
Single Host
IP address: 10.10.10.20
Connect Your Mac to Your NAS Via 10GbE Connection
1. Go to finder click Go > Connect to Server > and enter smb://10.10.10.20 (replace with your NAS 10GbE IP address if different)
You should now be connected to your NAS via a 10GbE Connection!
Setting Up Lightroom With Your NAS
Before starting Lightroom transfer your photos onto your NAS by copying them into the shared folder that you had created in the beginning. This process can take some time depending on the size of your portfolio.
My file structures are laid out as follows:
Lightroom> My Lightroom Photos > YYYY
My Lightroom Photo Exports> YYYY
This allows me to simply copy the one parent Lightroom folder and transfer everything at once
2. In Lightroom find your parent folder that contains your images and right click, then select Update Folder Location…
From there you’ll want to navigate to the folder that you copied onto your NAS and select that as the new updated location.
Congratulations! You should now have a 10GbE connected Lightroom setup that will allow you to store your photos in one location. No more fumbling through different hard drives or worrying about running out of space.
In my next post I will walk you through how you can automatically back up these photos onto the cloud for added peace of mind. (Link coming soon)