Apple photos import to Synology photos - best way?

General
1

I fear I am missing something obvious….
I’ve watched Will’s videos for setting up synology photos (and Will’s other videos for setting up a synology NAS) and have got current photos syncing nicely from iphone to SynPhotos, yay.
But now I want to export all photos from my Apple photos to SynPhotos and have tried different ways of doing it.
I was hoping that I could just export photos from Apple photos and I would get the:

  • date taken
  • key words (that translate to SynPhotos Tags)
  • description
  • geolocation
  • people identification.

I’ve tried exporting from Apple photos (to a folder on my desktop) as:
— Export > Export photos
— Export > Export unmodified originals
… then copying/importing to SynPhotos - as an Admin - via:
— Finder
— DSM.

But I get a mixture of:

  • not the ‘date taken’ date but the ‘copied’ date
  • no key words/tags
  • no description
  • it’s hit and miss if I get people identification.

I am only using 4 photos to see how to do it before I embark on importing the 19 Gb library that I have.

Am I expecting too much?
Do I just need to import into SynPhotos then add all the metadata myself? Aaaah…
Any help appreciated.
Thank you

2

If you already synchronize your images on your mobile device to Synology Photos mobile, the images and all metadata should already be in Synology Photos on your NAS. In other words, I don’t understand your question.

3

I’d forgotten about posting this - it was so long ago. But I’ve now figured out how to do it and all the syncing between my mobile devices works well (and always has done).
I suppose one thing I could’ve put in the post is ‘…I want to export all photos from my Apple photos from my mac…’. Hopefully that clarifies my query.
Thanks for your reply Paul

4

I’m glad you figured it out.
I am new to Synology.
Do you mind sharing how you did it and/or the site/guide that helped you?

5

Thank you for asking.
I followed the steps Will talks about in his videos:
The COMPLETE Synology Photo Guide and How to use Synology With Lightroom (full workflow) - Synology for Photographers Part 1
…with just a few tweaks for me.

In short:

  1. I work by year - so I use a Smart Album in Apple photos on my mac to select photos in a particular year
  2. Each photo is checked for key words, these equate to my tags in SynPhotos
  3. All photos (for that year) are exported from Apple photos to a local folder on my mac. I use Export > Export photos (NOT unmodified originals)
  4. Now I use Finder on my mac to move (not copy) the exported photos to my Personal Space on the NAS. For me, this Personal Space folder is found at:
    [my nas on LHS Finder sidebar] > home > photos > (my upload folder)

Then allow plenty of time for the NAS to import the key words/tags, other metadata, and for facial recognition to happen. It will happen but give it time.

Hope that helps