My Lightroom catalog is 280,000 photos, 1.8 TB. For years I kept it on a local SSD because I was afraid NAS storage would corrupt the catalog file or be too slow for the develop module.
Last month I moved the entire library to a NAS-mounted drive. It's fine. And it's better in three ways.
This post is what I did, plus the gotchas.
The setup
- NAS (Synology DS220+, 2x 4 TB mirror)
- WebDAV enabled on DSM (Control Panel → File Services → SMB → enable WebDAV)
- ScsDriver mounts the NAS as Z:
- Lightroom catalog location:
Z:\Photos\Lightroom\ - Photo storage:
Z:\Photos\Raw\
That's it. Lightroom sees Z: as a local drive. The catalog and raw files are both on the NAS.
Why I switched
- Disk space: 1.8 TB on a laptop SSD is painful. On a NAS, it's free.
- Backup: the NAS is already mirrored. My laptop SSD isn't.
- Two-machine workflow: I edit on a desktop, review on a laptop. Both can mount the same NAS.
- No sync state: Lightroom doesn't have a sync client. A mount is the only way to share a catalog.
Performance
LR operations on the mounted catalog:
| Operation | Local SSD | WebDAV via ScsDriver |
|---|---|---|
| Open Lightroom | 2 sec | 5 sec |
| Browse 1000 thumbnails | instant | 4 sec first time, instant after |
| Develop module preview render | instant | 1-2 sec |
| Export 100 photos to JPEG | 4 min | 5 min |
| Library backup | 12 min | 22 min |
The browse and preview are slightly slower on cold cache. After Lightroom caches the thumbnails, everything is instant.
Export is slower because it writes a lot of small files (JPEG previews). The mount has higher per-file overhead than local SSD.
Library backup (a single 800 MB catalog file write) is much slower — 22 min vs 12 min. Workaround below.
Gotchas
Smart Previews are mandatory. Lightroom's smart previews are reduced-res DNGs that live alongside the catalog. Without them, you'd need the raw files every time you open an image. With smart previews, you can edit without the raw files. Generate them on first import.
The catalog file is sensitive. A NAS with mirror is safer than an SSD. But if you have a power outage mid-write, the catalog can corrupt. Solution: enable UPS on the NAS. Or use a UPS.
Library backup on local first. Don't back up the catalog directly to the NAS — 22 min is too long. Back up to a local SSD, then rsync to NAS. Total: ~22 min vs 12 min, but with a hot backup.
**Lightroom's catalog open operation pulls thumbnails. Cold loads — all slow. After the first slow load, subsequent loads are instant because of the smart preview cache.
What I'd change
Honestly, nothing. The setup took 30 minutes (LR catalog migration + smart preview generation). I've been using it for 3 weeks with zero issues.
Cost
- ScsDriver: $9.99/yr
- Lightroom: $119.88/yr (Photography plan, 1 TB cloud)
- NAS hardware: I had it already
Total: $130/yr for 1.8 TB Lightroom library, mirrored, accessible from two machines.
Reference
- ScsDriver: https://drive.scsoi.com/ (7-day trial, $9.99/yr)
- Lightroom: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic.html
If you have a large Lightroom library and a NAS, mount the NAS via ScsDriver and put the catalog there. Stop syncing libraries across machines.
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