I’m looking for a product that I can run on my Mac which will hold and host photos which can be segregated into projects, but the key thing is that I want this to be separate from Apple Photos I don’t want it in my system photo library or as a standalone Apple Photos library. The last thing I want to have to do is mess with my family photos, have to log out or back in to icloud or have it compare the system library with the icloud library as I have over 30,000 photos.
I’m not bothered about online syncing, but ideally I’d be able to access and interact with the library from my ipad. I can back this up as part of my backblaze backup of this machine.
I don’t mind paying for the right product so long as it’s not too expensive (one off or sub)
Unfortunately because of the naming of Apple Photos, it’s pretty much impossible to search online for any combination of macOS, Photo Library and Photos without getting 1million results which relate to the Apple Photos suite of products.
I’ve been syncing my photos to both Apple Photos and Google Photos for years. Google has better search but each has its strengths. IMO both are equally reliable.
Note: in the default sync setup deleting a photo from GP will delete the photo from AP. But you have the normal 30 days to recover. Turning off sync after the initial copy is one way to prevent this. You can also do everything manually.
I don’t use Photos on my Mac, instead all of my images are in folders. I won’t bore you with the details or workflow (but am happy to answer any questions). I then manage them with NeoFinder, a cataloging tool that allows for searching and viewing. You point NeoFinder at a folder and it catalogs all of the images in the folder and subfolders.
There is also an associated iPhone/iPad app, but I do not use it.
Have a look at Photo Mechanic from Camera is. Not cheap, but an excellent photo manager, with a ton of built-in facilities to automate naming, tagging and folder locations. I use it alongside Photos and am very happy
This is a little different, aimed at researchers holding archival image files and managing metadata tagging, filing and so on, but it’s worth a look and it’s free to use. I am not sure though how this plays with your syncing requirement.
I also use Photo Mechanic and it is definitely a prosumer tool and priced that way. Highly recommended if it meets your needs.
I started using NeoFinder back when Photo Mechanic did not have a cataloging feature, and my previous cataloging tool, iViewMedia Pro, was discontinued and stopped working.
Or, if you’d like cataloging tools without the overhead of editing tools, Adobe Bridge—which is free—might fit the bill.
Here’s the blurb from the product page:
Adobe Bridge is a powerful creative asset manager that lets you preview, organize, edit, and publish multiple creative assets quickly and easily. Edit metadata. Add keywords, labels, and ratings to assets. Organize assets using collections, and find assets using powerful filters and advanced metadata search features.
You can, in fact, use Lightroom for free if you only use the Library module. Set up a free Adobe account if you don’t already have one, then download Lightroom. The Library module is fully functional*. This is due to Adobe’s claim many years ago, when they switched to subscriptions, that they would never hold your photos hostage.
You can import, export, keyword, rate, label, filter, and otherwise organise your photos to within an inch of their lives. You just have to weather a pleading pop-up window at each launch which may (it certainly did for a time) suggest what you are doing is impossible.
*This was true last time I checked (less than 2 years ago), but I now pay Adobe so cannot confirm. There was a time when Adobe tried to force everyone’s hand to pay, but all that amounted to was the need to commit to a free trial, which you could then let lapse.
There are many alternatives to look at. Unfortunately I’m stuck in Adobe’s grip and is running Lightroom but there isn’t a week where I don’t think that I should migrate to another more reliable service (syncing isn’t reliable). A few alternatives that I’ve been looking at is DxO Photolab (desktop only) and On1 (desktop + iOS). And one that have potential to be the best “library” program is Mylio but I haven’t had the time to test it yet. Photo Mechanic Plus is good but the UI is a bit rough.
Well in a little over a month I will find out if it’s still as simple as it used to be 2 years ago. As soon as I cancelled my Photography Plan this morning, they warned me I would “lose access to” Lightroom. I would be worried except for the fairly plain (and utterly misleading) language I have seen before along the same lines.
If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt you only if I can get it to work, then something I’ve been dreading, moving thousands of images from Lightroom to something else is no longer a dread I need to carry around.
Now, about all these other dreads I carry around …
If you can hang on until after 9th November I will be finding out if there are any new gotchas. That will conclude my 2 years of paying for it, before which it did work.
