P: Desktop: Syncing Issues when Originals are stored on a NAS

Rikk, thanks for your quick reply.  I didn't save the chat, however, I received this e-mail shortly after my chat ended so hopefully this is it.

• Case Number: ADB-12225254-X7K2 
• Issue:  Performance 

Given that this does seem to be a known issue experienced by multiple users I have decided to switch to an external hard drive for the time being.  However, the better solution for me would be to use my NAS for its intended purpose.  My LR library is in the process of being rebuilt and I am importing with the new external hard drive location.

Same here, after some initial problems, probably not related to the NAS, all is working fine since over a year now. The only issue is the speed of Lightroom CC Desktop, which is much slower than the Lightroom Classic on the same PC, the same network (1GB/s) and the same NAS.

That information is not correct. 

I have my Lightroom originals on a NAS and do not have any issues.  Not everyone experiences the issues mentioned in this thread which why we are investigating it as a bug. That said, we still are unable to reproduce this issue. 

If you have a case number from your chat, I would love to review it. 

I have the same problem with my synology NAS.  Just chatted and was told that LR does not support using NAS.  I must switch to an internal or external hard drive.

Thanks for you report. Currently I use the Synology NAS with Shared Services over SMB. There is already a shared service drive with all images copied manually. If I create an iSCSI "drive", do I have to format/delete parts of the NAS? After creating an iSCSI "drive" I could manually copy all images from the SMB drive. Or I let Lightroom do the work from zero. 

And regarding file access on the Synology it is only visible when the iSCSI Target is mounted (not within the normal Synology interface).

@43542: After 24 hours of use, I’ve noticed it takes about 20 seconds for Lightroom to fully launch (wheel spins for a bit). Previously with my USB drive setup it was almost instantaneous. After launch, I haven’t noticed significant performance delays. Note that I haven’t done much heavy editing yet, and a majority of my images are JPG as opposed to RAW.

Any observation about performance of this setup? And one more: can you access that folder from Synology or now it is accessible only via iSCSI?

Update....iSCSI works!  Here are some step-by-step instructions for others who may want to attempt the same solution:

1) Configure Synology drive as an iSCSI Target, using Synology's out-of-the-box iSCSI Manager utility.  Instructions here.

2) Download and install iSCSI client software for Mac.  I attempted and was unsuccessful in installing a trial package from globalSAN.  Ended up going with iSCSI Initiator X v3.0 from Kernsafe, which has the added benefit of being free for non-commercial use.  Note that Mac security settings will block you multiple times during the install process for non-App Store software.  You will need to go into Security & Privacy under System Preferences to allow the software to install and run.

3) Configure iSCSI/Synology as target drive.  Instructions here.

4) Format drive.  Although the walk-through resources linked above for set up of iSCSI Initiator X indicate that after you configure your target drive, it will automatically prompt you to format that drive I found this not to be the case.  After connecting to the target drive on the Synology, you can manually launch Disk Utility on your Mac then format/configure the drive for use.  Instructions here.

5) Migrate photos.  Since I already had a copy of all Lightroom originals on an external USB drive, I copied the Lightroom CC folder and all of its subfolders onto the iSCSI drive on the Synology.  To do this, I attached the USB drive to my Mac, connected to the iSCSI/Synology, and copied the sub-folders which are organized into years in several batches (e.g. 2000 - 2005, 2006 - 2010).  I ran into some issues with a handful of individual files stopping the process when attempting to copy everything in a single batch, so broke things up and was able to address a handful of duplicate file errors as they occurred.  In the end, I made sure that the folder/ sub-folder structure on the Synology matched my original files on the USB drive.

6) Pointed Lightroom at the new storage location.  Under Mac Preferences, changed the storage location for backups to the iSCSI/Synology.  Closed and restarted Lightroom. The process of locating over 40,000 files took several hours, but ultimately everything was re-indexed successfully.

7) As noted above by @74350, it's best to unmount the iSCSI drive when Lightroom is not in use.  Prior to launching Lightroom, go into iSCSI Initiator and "Logon" to the drive.  After closing Lightroom, return to the program and "Logoff".  I receive an error message from Mac OS that the drive was not ejected properly, but I've attempted to eject in a few different ways and always receive the message.  Doesn't seem to be an issue.

Good luck to all, and hopefully Adobe ultimately resolves this NAS issue so we can avoid the extra steps.

Update....iSCSI works!  Here are some step-by-step instructions for others who may want to attempt the same solution:

1) Configure Synology drive as an iSCSI Target, using Synology's out-of-the-box iSCSI Manager utility.  Instructions here.

2) Download and install iSCSI client software for Mac.  I attempted and was unsuccessful in installing a trial package from globalSAN.  Ended up going with iSCSI Initiator X v3.0 from Kernsafe, which has the added benefit of being free for non-commercial use.  Note that Mac security settings will block you multiple times during the install process for non-App Store software.  You will need to go into Security & Privacy under System Preferences to allow the software to install and run.

3) Configure iSCSI/Synology as target drive.  Instructions here.

4) Format drive.  Although the walk-through resources linked above for set up of iSCSI Initiator X indicate that after you configure your target drive, it will automatically prompt you to format that drive I found this not to be the case.  After connecting to the target drive on the Synology, you can manually launch Disk Utility on your Mac then format/configure the drive for use.  Instructions here.

5) Migrate photos.  Since I already had a copy of all Lightroom originals on an external USB drive, I copied the Lightroom CC folder and all of its subfolders onto the iSCSI drive on the Synology.  To do this, I attached the USB drive to my Mac, connected to the iSCSI/Synology, and copied the sub-folders which are organized into years in several batches (e.g. 2000 - 2005, 2006 - 2010).  I ran into some issues with a handful of individual files stopping the process when attempting to copy everything in a single batch, so broke things up and was able to address a handful of duplicate file errors as they occurred.  In the end, I made sure that the folder/ sub-folder structure on the Synology matched my original files on the USB drive.

6) Pointed Lightroom at the new storage location.  Under Mac Preferences, changed the storage location for backups to the iSCSI/Synology.  Closed and restarted Lightroom. The process of locating over 40,000 files took several hours, but ultimately everything was re-indexed successfully.

7) As noted above by @74350, it's best to unmount the iSCSI drive when Lightroom is not in use.  Prior to launching Lightroom, go into iSCSI Initiator and "Logon" to the drive.  After closing Lightroom, return to the program and "Logoff".  I receive an error message from Mac OS that the drive was not ejected properly, but I've attempted to eject in a few different ways and always receive the message.  Doesn't seem to be an issue.

Good luck to all, and hopefully Adobe ultimately resolves this NAS issue so we can avoid the extra steps.