Transfer Terabytes of Photos from Apple and Google to NAS

ar7ist on 17/10/2025 - 19:18
Last edited 17/10/2025 - 19:18

Thinking of setting up a NAS to consolidate all the photos from Apple Photos and Google Photos and stop paying for monthly subscriptions (even though I am paying via Turkey, the prices keep going up), I'm lost on the best way to do it - I have read up on reddit. Will give each family member their own account (considering Synology for this because of their Synology Photos app with face recognition).

Options I've considered:

  • Google Takeout and Apple Privacy takeout: Problem with this is that it removes some of the metadata/EXIF info and doesnt maintain the albums. There are custom scripts to sort this out GitHub, but there's got to be a different way.
  • Multcloud: They look dodgy and reviews arent great
  • PhotoSync app: All Apple users currently have Optimise storage, so not sure if it will download originals and upload those to NAS. For Android, half of my own library is uploaded via Pixel 1 with original quality and half is uploaded via Pixel 5 high quality.
  • rclone: Google API changes no longer allow download unless it was uploaded by rclone.
  • iCloud sync to local computer: This is something I can potentially look at doing, but I dont like the idea of having to do this for all family members / privacy concerns.

I'm still in the process of deciding on which NAS provider to go for (leaning towards Synology now that they have gone back on their statement for Synology only drives). Plus I'm also keen to run Plex/Jellyfin with *arr.

TLDR: Need advice to migrate close to 200k photos/videos including live/edited off from Apple and Google for multiple family members to a NAS

Internet Cloud Storage

Comments

  • spackbace on 17/10/2025 - 19:35

    Have you done the sums on how much the Google One storage is actually costing? I'm only on the 100Gb plan currently but that's less than a coffee per month

    If you do this, and all the photos are on the NAS, then a house fire etc and all those memories are lost. Gone. No cloud backup. No separate redundancy

    • ar7ist on 17/10/2025 - 19:46
      +1

      I will plan a 3-2-1 back up down the line. Possibly keep another NAS offsite.

      • simplystu on 17/10/2025 - 21:00

        Unless you seriously plan (including specific deadlines) + budget now … Most likely you won't get around to doing those backups down the line.

        Before you know it - 6 months, then 1-2 years will have passed …

        "life" happens - people get sick, family die or end up in hospital … You may even get sick/unwell yourself.

        • ar7ist on 17/10/2025 - 21:31

          I will be doing a manual backup every 2 months onto an external HD. The offsite backup I was talking about is an additional expense and just for peace mind.

  • 87percent on 17/10/2025 - 21:04
    +1

    Fist thing I would do is cull the picture count.

    • ar7ist on 17/10/2025 - 21:32

      I had the same thoughts. Even if I get rid of my 20k photos and videos, I'm pretty sure the family members wont spend the time or effort to do this.

      • Benno007 on 18/10/2025 - 08:10

        Have you tried using a duplicate Finder to compare the file files? There’s a free one out there that checks for exact duplicates as well as close matches. I think it’s based of Meta or a hash of the image. I think it was called dupe guru.

  • Scotty99 on 17/10/2025 - 22:09
    +1

    I have an older synology which didnt get the hdd locked down but even i wouldnt consider another synology because of it. It says a lot about their business practice and i dont want to risk them doing it again or doing it with other components.

    The face recognition on synology is ok. Not great but works ok. Still lots of manual overrides.

    When i replace in a few years i think im going the truenas path.

    • theMoebius on 18/10/2025 - 09:08
      +1

      @Scotty99 FYI Synology finally reversed their position on restricting HDDs in the past week - coincidentally after their sales plummeted!

  • trankillity on 18/10/2025 - 07:52
    +3

    You really need to consider whether cost is actually the reason you're wanting to do this. The initial outlay for a decently capable NAS + drives is equivalent to at least 10 years of paying for the 2TB tier of Google One (in AUD).

    You also need to consider the convenience factor. With how deeply integrated Google Photos is to the Android OS, it really is a "set and forget" solution to retaining your photos. With another system you'll need to consider many things like:
    - The background sync of photos and whether your manager can handle things like only syncing on WiFi
    - Whether or not it can leave a low-res version on the phone to browse (one of Google's best space-saving features)
    - Any sort of AI/ML that you want on it (face/location/landmark recognition) and whether the NAS is even capable of it
    - A 3-2-1 backup solution as you mention (Google doesn't provide this natively, but I have my NAS syncing my Google Drive/Photos to it)
    - The "partner/family acceptance factor" of whatever you choose to go with - especially if you're going to want to share albums
    - Any sort of external integration/use case (we have our Nest Hubs dynamically display photos from our library which is lovely to revisit randomly)

    I'm a huge proponent of self hosting and have spent close to $2k on NAS + drives, but for the above reasons I've stuck with using Google One with Google Photos.

  • CodeXD on 18/10/2025 - 09:16

    half of my own library is uploaded via Pixel 1 with original quality

    Why only half? Do you not have the phone anymore? Worth keeping just for uploading.

    I've got a modded Samsung phone that google thinks is Pixel so I can upload everything to google photos for free. Alternatively, buy a second-hand pixel 1. It will be cheaper than the NAS and no on-going costs.

    • ar7ist on 18/10/2025 - 17:08

      I'm not keen on solely relying on Google or Apple for photo storage. I still have the pixel 1 but its not a set and forget solution. Plus it won't work if I have me and my wife syncing to it.

      • peteru on 18/10/2025 - 20:54
        +2

        Yeah. I've heard horror stories of Google suddenly cutting people off from their accounts with no explanation, no recourse and decades of photos and emails gone.

        You need to have your own copy of your data.

        Doing that does not need to be expensive. A $200 N150 minipc and a couple of USB3 external HDDs - you'll get all that under $500. Don't get fooled into going for a Raspberry Pi - stick to Intel or AMD based machines if you want to have an easy time.

        I would recommend you not bother with TrueNAS or Unraid or any other complicated NAS with RAID arrays. You just need a basic OS install that can run Docker. Deploy Immich & set up a scheduled synch job that replicates your valuable content to another hard drive. Rotate that backup drive to off-site on a regular basis and you are done.

        You can go deep down the rabbit hole, like I have and build a whole cluster of Proxmox nodes with replication, shared storage, 10GbE and 2.5GbE networks and a whole lot more kit. That's a time consuming hobby though. It can get expensive as you accumulate more technology, but you do learn a lot.

  • SlickMick on 18/10/2025 - 11:10

    TBH I have all my photos sitting google takeout zip files on my NAS, every since google started counting photos in their storage quota. And it isn't being backed up.
    But I definitely will get to finishing that project, one day.

  • USER DC on 18/10/2025 - 11:17
    +1

    or just buy a old pixel 1- pixel 2XL for unlimited photo/video storage

    • ar7ist on 18/10/2025 - 17:10

      I do have it. But it's not a long term solution. I have a pixel 5 as my main and happy with unlimited storage saver

  • snofil on 18/10/2025 - 12:18

    Another good way is a bit more of a project, so only if you can spend some time: Get a cheap mini PC, external 2.5/3.5 drive, get Immich for photos. Would ideally need docker and proxmox. Can then install the *arrs on the same machine. Bit of a learning curve but with LLM help can figure everything out. Would then want to backup periodically - as you've noted off-site is a good idea in case of fire or whatnot.

  • Paul J Weddell on 18/10/2025 - 12:37
    -1

    you've got How Many Photographs ? more than a Squillion?
    Allow me to draw a similarity to Inner City Parking.
    It's YOU, you're the reason that storage is in such short supply,
    you and your squillion vehicles, And come the day when you Download them
    to your Terabyte thingy, it'll clog up the "Information Superhighway ".

    And why did you save 'em to the 'cloud' in the first place ?
    it costs both ways.

    • ar7ist on 18/10/2025 - 17:13

      My 200k photo storage probably cost less than one prompt to generate a video on Sora.

  • soan papdi on 18/10/2025 - 12:46

    Will give each family member their own account

    Be ready to receive non-stop “feedback” from family about how Google Photos was easier and better. Unless you’re doing this specifically for privacy related reasons, iCloud and Google are far superior for set-and-forget photo management.

  • peteru on 18/10/2025 - 20:34
    Immich

    The answer to hosting your own photos. Whatever hardware you decide on, you'll want it to run Immich. If you want to save a few bucks, get a miniPC and a two bay HDD enclosure. It'll cost way, way less than a turnkey NAS and it will do a great job. Just make sure that you copy your photos to another HDD every few weeks and store that HDD elsewhere - in case shit hits the fan and your self-hosting solution is destroyed.

    • ar7ist on 18/10/2025 - 22:27

      Thanks mate, what would be the best way to transfer the large photo repository in google and apple to Immich? I already have an old pc with Ryzen 5 1600 and Nvidia 1660S which would be more than enough for hosting Immich on Docker and running a Plex with hardware accelerated transcoding and *arr.

      The only reason I was going with Synology is because of their Photos app which apparently transfers original quality photos from iPhone even if I've selected the optimise storage option. It does so by downloading the original and moving to Synology NAS. I've not been able to verify this information though.

      • peteru on 19/10/2025 - 19:41

        I've used Google TakeOut to get all the data downloaded and then imported it into Immich just by mapping the directory into the docker container. That's a few years ago.

        There are probably more sophisticated tools available now. I suggest you look for answers in one of the online Immich communities.

        Maybe this: https://github.com/simulot/immich-go

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