Is this possible: Network drive folder synced to D-drives on multiple computers?

[LRAT]

Currently I'm trying to organize 40,000 pictures.
I've got PM6+ running on 2 PC's, a laptop and a NAS drive. The computers are all running on Windows 10 and the NAS is a QNAP TS-453D.

On all computers I've got the D-Drive synced with sync.com (Cloud storage).
So, that means that it doesn't matter which machine I work on the D-drive is always up to date.
The following is what I intend to do:

All the pictures will reside in one folder on the NAS ("Pictures folder"). This is my master folder.
I will have a "Pictures folder" on each D-drive that is synced (Both ways) via GoodSync with the "Pictures folder" on the NAS.

All my catalogues will be in the "PM Catalogues" folder on the NAS and also on each D-Drive of each computer.

Now the question is:
Will PM6+, which is installed on every computer, be able to run from the synced information in the D-Drive and/or from the NAS drive?

I will only have one computer on at a time, so there won't be any clashes of simultaneously changes.
Obviously I won't do any work during the syncing.

I sincerely hope somebody can tell me if this is possible or not.
Thanks for your help!

Luke

[Kirk Baker]

Luke,

Is the D-drive just the mount point for the NAS on the two PCs?  Or is it an actual hard drive local to each PC?

-Kirk

[LRAT]

The D-Drive is an actual hard drive to each pc and laptop.

[Kirk Baker]

Luke,

The D-Drive is an actual hard drive to each pc and laptop.

If you go this route, you'll be having to reintegrate the shared catalog on both systems any time you add or remove images.

Reintegration doesn't usually take long, but I'd expect it to become bothersome fairly quickly.

The only data in the catalog that doesn't come from the metadata in the images is Collections.  So aside from Collections, there isn't much to be gained by sharing a synchronized catalog between the two systems.

Storing the catalog on the NAS would not help in the reintegration case and it would be dismal in its performance.

-Kirk

[LRAT]

Thanks Kirk for the fast reply.

I just want to work out a strategy how to keep all my pictures synchronized over the different computers.

I would also like to work on the local D-drive as this is marginally faster then working on the folder on the NAS.

I still need to get my head around the "Collections". Last October I spent three weeks sorting my pictures into Collections. Now, every picture is still there but comes with a yellow dot instead of a green one. Obviously I lost the link with the target folder but can't work out which one it was. So, I need to do it all again. That's why I want to start with a solid foundation. I think it would be easier if the collection data is included in the picture itself so that it would be easier to rebuild a collection if everything gets broken.

[Kirk Baker]

I just want to work out a strategy how to keep all my pictures synchronized over the different computers.

Your sync strategy sounds like a good one to me.

I would also like to work on the local D-drive as this is marginally faster then working on the folder on the NAS.

As long as you're talking about the images vs. the catalog database, I'd agree, the local disk will be somewhat faster than the NAS.  NASes are horrible at small random accesses.  As for the catalog db, the speed difference would be very significant between a local disk and the NAS, the NAS being almost entirely unusable.

I still need to get my head around the "Collections". Last October I spent three weeks sorting my pictures into Collections. Now, every picture is still there but comes with a yellow dot instead of a green one. Obviously I lost the link with the target folder but can't work out which one it was. So, I need to do it all again. That's why I want to start with a solid foundation. I think it would be easier if the collection data is included in the picture itself so that it would be easier to rebuild a collection if everything gets broken.

The yellow dot indicates that the image is no longer to be found at the location it was when it was added to the catalog.  This can be due to: renaming, moving, or deleting the image.  Catalog Sync can help.  See: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001161171-catalog-sync

-Kirk