Backing up your photos is of paramount importance in our digital age. Even though digital photos are easier to handle compared to film rolls, that doesn’t mean you should overlook them. Our precious memories, captured in photographs, hold immense sentimental value. However, digital devices are not immune to failures, accidents, or theft. Without proper backups, these cherished moments can be lost forever.
Why Synology NAS (personal cloud)?
There are many ways to back up your photos, such as local drives or cloud services that ensure accessibility and preservation. However, why should we consider a NAS? Are there any advantages over the local and cloud backup services?
First of all, we must understand the pros and cons of each method:
| NAS | Cloud | Local Storage | |
| Security & Privacy | > Stored by yourself > 2-factor authentication |
> Stored by third-party > 2-Factor authentication |
> Stored by yourself > No authentication (unless with software) |
| Ease of Use | Can be easy or complex depending on the user’s requirement | Easiest, with user-friendly apps, at the cost of complex features | Basic copy and paste can be troublesome unless with software |
| Backup & Reliability | Requires RAID & multisite setup for true backup | > Cloud services handle all of it, as long as the company is still in business > However, users have no control over it |
Requires manual file duplication & backup (unless with software) |
| Performance | > On-site, limited by your local network speed (1Gbps at least) > Off-site, limited by your network speed |
Limited by your network speed | Depending on your external drive USB version. Decently fast with at least USB3 (5Gbps) or up to Thunderbolt |
| Availability | > On-site, no issues > Off-site, limited by network availability |
Limited by network availability | On-site only: Need to make sure to bring along the disk drive when you travel, which increases the risk. |
| Price | High upfront cost, mitigates the need for a subscription | Low upfront cost, requires a monthly/yearly subscription | Cheapest |
From this simple table, we can clearly see how Synology combines the best of both worlds. For those who value their data privacy, cloud storage is definitely not their cup of tea. Hence they would either store the data on their PC or external hard disk. However, this kind of storage poses a severe risk when it comes to theft and damage.
Thus personal cloud comes into the picture as you can configure RAID and multi-site backup solution that ensures your backup reliability. Having the system connected to the Internet allows you to access the data over the network anytime, anywhere.
How to Setup Synology Photos
From here onwards, I shall demonstrate how you can set up your own photo backup solution by using the Synology DS224+ NAS. Before that, I think it is wise to show the cost comparison of this setup with cloud options:
| Synology NAS (4TB+4TB RAID) | Google One (5TB) | iCloud+ (6TB) | Dropbox (3TB) | |
| Price | RM 1599 (DS224+) RM 1200 (2x 4TB HAT3300) |
RM 1079.90 (annual) | RM 129.90 (month) RM1558.80 (annual) |
US$ 18 (month) US$ 216 (annual) |
As mentioned earlier, setting up your personal cloud would require a high upfront payment due to the purchase of the NAS box and the hard disk drives. However, it will eventually pay off throughout the years.
Setup the Synology DS224+ NAS
After unboxing the NAS, you will need to access the drive bays.
The drive caddy can be released by a simple push tab.
Once you secure the drives in place, it is time to connect the NAS to the ethernet and get started with the system installation.
The Plus models come with two RJ45 Ethernet ports for link aggregation and failover support. It is fine if you have no plans to use both of the ports.
Installing DiskStation Manager
After powering on the NAS, you can use [finds.synology.com] to search for the NAS especially if you have no idea what local IP address it has obtained from the DHCP server.
Once you connect to the NAS, it will prompt you with the DiskStation Manager installation guide. Keep in mind that this process will wipe all of the data off the disk drives. The installation should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
You will also need to create an administrator account for the NAS.
A Synology account is recommended for a better user experience and all-rounded features.
The installation will also prompt for the creation of a QuickConnect ID. This is an extremely useful feature that resembles something like no-IP. It enables you to access your home NAS from an external network without the need to configure an IP forwarder.
Once the DSM installation is completed, you can log into the system and proceed with the system setup. There will be guides that lead you to install some of the most useful applications (also known as Packages). It is highly recommended to install all of the above packages – Synology Drive Server, Synology Office & the focus of our topic today, Synology Photos.
Storage Pool Setup
The next step would be the Storage Pool setup. In layman’s terms, it is like initializing the disk for the files to be stored.
At this point, some of you may not be tech-savvy enough to fully understand what is going on. Hear me out, it is not as scary as it may seem to be. You just treat it like how you create a folder to store your data, just the name “Storage Pool” may be unfamiliar to you.
For starters, I would always recommend Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) for the RAID type because it is the most flexible RAID type. Even if you started with a single HDD, SHR allows easy expandability when you purchase a second drive.
Select the drive to create a storage pool.
For brand new drives I usually would skip drive check as this process will take quite time to complete.
Allocate the capacity to be used for the storage pool. For hassle-free setup, just use the maximum available capacity.
Unless you have a specific requirement, Btrfs is the recommended file system.
Volume encryption protects your data in case of device theft.
Once applied the process is now complete.
By the time you completed the setup, the Synology Photos package should have been installed on your NAS.
Enable Backup Using the Synology Photos Mobile App
Now you should install the Synology Photos app on your mobile devices and get started with the backups. The application is available on both Android and iOS.
you know the drill, just log in to your NAS account by using the QuickConnect ID, user name and password.
Once you log into the app, go to More tab to enable Photo Backup.
You can configure how the backup works. Pretty straightforward.
Congratulations, you have enabled automated photo backups from your mobile device to the Synology NAS. From here onwards, all your photos will be saved to the NAS, saving you the trouble of micromanaging the files and at the same time having peace of mind.
Find out more about Synology Photos: https://sy.to/my-synologyphotos
Where to buy (Affiliate Links):
- Lazada: https://sy.to/lazada
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