IPhoto & NAS

Back in 2012 my external USB drive suffered a catastrophic failure and I lost about 9k photos which were mostly from when I was deployed to Afghanistan. So I set out to ensure that I would never loose my photos again and settled on an in house NAS solution using FreeNAS with mirrored storage drives. I don't know how I got it to work but I was able to mount the drive and use it as my primary iPhoto Library drive. Recently I noticed that I was having performance issues with iPhoto and found where people were having problems with it due to the fact that they had over 10k photos. I figured that this was my problem too and set out to divide my iPhoto library up into different years. Everything went great, and iPhoto Library Manager was a big time saver. However when I went to put the libraries back onto the ZFS formatted NAS drive (using AFP) the libraries would get about 150mb copied and then crawl to a speed of about 2mb per minute or less. This was very aggravating as I have a Cat 6 gigabit wired network in my house with a HP ProCurve gigabit switch for the backbone. Performing a FTP transfer did the trick though and at the speed that I would expect. Unfortunatly I found that I could no longer open the libraries in iPhoto with the NAS drive mounted (again using AFP). I figured it was some sort of permissions problem and started playing with the file permissions going as far as chmod 777 and chown username:username to see if that would fix the problem.
With no luck I turned to the forums and found that iPhoto will only read iPhoto Libraries from a HFS+ journal formatted drive. Now I know that FreeNAS does support HFS+ format but to get it to work was beyond my needs of the solution. Thinking that I don't need these libraries that much anyway as they are just a back up I thought of compressing the files to zip format and then store them on the ZFS mirrored drives. However I realized that I would be decompressing the folder and recompressing the folder using valuable drive space with each change that needed to be made.
My solution was a sparse disk image for each library, then copied to the ZFS Mirrored drives. This way if I need to add more photos to those libraries, all I need to do is mount the NAS share, mound the needed years iPhoto Library and then open iPhoto selecting the needed iPhoto library. Since the sparse image is expandable, I am not limited to a set size and due to iPhotos requirement of a HFS+ drive format, the disk image solves that problem as well.
I am sure there are many other solutions that more technically minded users than I have come up with, but I wanted to share this for those who might have similar problems but not wanting to devote too much of their life to the solution. Hope this helps someone.
Kurt

Unfortunately there is no solution involving a NAS that is reliable. Don't take my word for it, take Apple's:
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
and note the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

Similar Messages

2 troubles with iPhoto + NAS

Hello!
I have two problems appeared after moving my iPhoto Library to NAS:
1. It does not import photos from my camera. After opening up previews and selecting "Import All" iPhoto hangs on "Preparing to import". It does not seems to be completely hung, as Force Quit does not show it as "Not Responding", but it ignores any actions.
2. When I select to show random images from iPhoto Library as a desktop wallpaper, it does not show anything at all. If I choose any exact image - everything is ok.
Of course, I have my network disc mounted.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. iPhoto does not behave properly when not on an OS X Extended formatted hard drive. It's the nature of the beast. Continued use of the library on that server will give it a good chance of getting corrupted with a loss of your organizational effort, i.e. albums, keywords, slideshows, etc.
Change the disk format to OS X Extended, ignore ownership on it, connect it to one of the Macs and all Macs on the network will be able to use the library and it will work as expected regarding desktop images, etc.

Looking for help with using a NAS to store iphoto library.

I have a Seagate Business Storage 2 bay NAS and wish to move my iphoto library out of my MacBookpro to the NAS so it can be accessed from my iMac or the other user on the MacBook pro (appreciate that this can be done without NAS but need to make space on the MBP). I have partially achieved this but get messages saying that cannot access file (reset permission rights) despite the file not being open by any user. I'm competent but not massively techy and desperately need help.

SImple: You can't do it.
Two reasons: typically a NAS is the wrong disk format. Secondly having an iPhoto Library on a network is not recommended.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

I would like to move my photos in iPhoto to my NAS?

I would like to move my photos in iPhoto to my NAS.
Some state simply drag and drop it then point iPhoto to the new Location
quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive
Some say it isn't possible.
Unless the NAS is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) you will not be able to run the iPhoto library on it
I am not particularly fussed about other users seeing it, I just want it off my iMac? I am using iphoto 9.5.1. its a synology DS213J NAS.
thanks,
ooops think i am in the wrong section, if someone can move it then great. apologies.

for anyone else reading this, this is what I was told in the other forum.
iPhoto is problematic with referenced original files, because iphoto has no tools to recover from broken references, but Aperture has been designed to handle referenced images and libraries distributed across several drives well and has tools to fix broken references.
But both, iPhoto and Aperture, are not network databases.
Apple says: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library
Putting your originals on a network storage will make Aperture slower, and you are risking library corruption by transmission errors. The safest and option, and the solution with the quickest access to your original files will be a directly connected drive.

Trying to import fotos from a nas drive into iphoto

OK folks.
Seems that I'm taking the long road instead of the short but here it is ....
I have a mac mini with a SSD drive on which I store the OS in one partition and user data in another. No problem.
I also have a non-partitioned Time Capsule that I use to store a slew of photos that I shoot in RAW, JPG and TIFF. Some of the files are duplicates at different exposures, non-edited, etc. So, I really don't want to get into the habit of storing all my photos on the SSD drive.
What I would like to do is share some recent photos via a photostream to allow team parents to grab copies remotely. According to everything that I've seen, I can only open a photo stream from my Mac with iPhoto. Step 2.
So, the initial question is how can I get iPhoto to recognize that NAS mounted disk to even import the pictures? Step 1.
(I'm really not up for copying all those photos to my hard drive.
A future option is to take one of the many HD and install it in the second bay and use it as working drive but I don't really have that kind of time right now.
Knowledgeable enough to follow UNIX type instruction and do the hardware but right now I'm looking for the 'this evening' solution.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Have you tried the File -> Add to Library command? Or drag and drop to the iPhoto Window? Or drag and drop to the iPhoto icon?
But you need to think this out carefully.
You do not want to run iPhoto with the Library on your internal drive and the images on another one. This article has information on how to do that and why you shouldn't.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361
The best solution is to run a Managed iPhoto Library, and you can do this from a directly attached disk (read USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt) but not a network share like a NAS.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”
Are you sure Aperture won't do photostreams?
If you're thinking of sharing via Photostream well Flickr is nearly as good, free and simple.

Moving from folder-organized photo library on networked NAS to iPhoto...

Hello,
This is a fairly broad question, I know, but I've been researching for almost a full week and still at a loss as to what to do, so I thought some of the kind souls on here might be able to cut thru the forest of info out there to help me.
I vetoed iPhoto long ago but am now interested in trying it out & testing it against Picasa. However, I have a fairly large photo library that I keep on NAS, and definitely want to keep it there. Basically the research I've been doing has scared me, with all the horror stories about mixed libraries and the dangers of referenced libraries (which is what I was thinking would probably be the way to go), so now I'm a bit frozen.
My photos are currently folder-organized, mostly by date, but the level above date is by major categories (such as child's name, etc). I realize the date organization becomes redundant if I migrated to iPhoto, and even the categories seem redundant too if I can tag them all instead, etc.
The Picasa part was pretty easy, since I can just point it to the externally stored library and it does the rest, not moving anything. That part of Picasa is brilliant and makes a strong argument for going that route. My big hangup with it is the lack of nested collections - particularly in the web environment. The organizational aspects of Picasa seem a bit lackluster - and iPhoto sounds to be pretty good at that.
But with iPhoto, I'm having trouble deciding how to structure things and get started. I've read up on moving an existing iPhoto library to an external drive, but my impression is that to achieve what I'm trying to, I would need to import the entire library into local iPhoto library FIRST, then go backwards and migrate that iPhoto libary back onto NAS - which would then be a duplicate of the entire library since I'd be leaving the original intact to continue using with Picasa. Is that indeed the way to do it? I'm a little worried about ending up with an undifferentiated mass of 50+ Gigs of pics in iPhoto that i'd then need to go thru individually to tag (a monstrous task), as opposed to, say, having the names of folders turned into tags on all the pics within those folders (wishful thinking?).
To complete the picture of my situation for whoever may be kind enough to read all this, we have an iMac & a MBP, and would love to be able to share the NAS library on our respective iPhotos, and be able to keep "sync'd" up to what the other has done. From reading around it seems this is a little trickier, and the stuff I've been seeing about speed issues with WiFi-connected NAS libraries is not making me any more comfortable.
I was somehow able to rig just this situation up for iTunes (the library for which is shared & kept on NAS), which works pretty good (although I'm now concerned that that is also a 'referenced library' and liable to the same horror stories and cautions as external referenced libraries for iPhoto - is it the same? - so far so good...).
I've seen Terence Devlin mention a few times about using 'external managed libraries' instead of referenced libraries, but I'm not sure how to do that. The other vague conclusion I've come to from reading around is that I should probably use iPhoto Library Manager to achieve my goals here, and although I'm aware of what IPLM does, I'm not totally clear about how I would use it most effectively in my situation.
Whew - sorry for such a long rambling 'question'! This has probably been addressed elsewhere in the boards, but I've been reading for hours and can only get glimpses into a possible strategy for my situation - I thought just asking might nip it in the bud.
THANKS!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
A long question with, I'm afraid, a short answer.
a fairly large photo library that I keep on NAS, and definitely want to keep it there.
Stick with what you have. iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos. That pretty much rules out having a Managed Library on that NAS.
In some more detail:
My photos are currently folder-organized, mostly by date, but the level above date is by major categories (such as child's name, etc). I realize the date organization becomes redundant if I migrated to iPhoto, and even the categories seem redundant too if I can tag them all instead, etc.
Here's a fast way to tag them:
Start at the bottom of your Folder hierarchy and drag a folder of images to the Album Heading in the iPhoto Window. iPhoto will import the pics and make an Album of the same name as the Folder. Now: Want to tag all those pics with the same keyword: Select all (Command - a) and apply the keyword.
You can work through your images quite fast in this way.
Alternatively, use an app like Keyword Manager which has Nested Tags as a feature. So, for instance, you can set a hierarchy: John is your Son so tagging 'John' will also add a 'Family' tag and so on. In my case I have tags like 'Seattle' that add 'Washington State' 'U.S' and 'Travel' to the pics. WIth auto completion all I have to type is Sea...
but my impression is that to achieve what I'm trying to, I would need to import the entire library into local iPhoto library FIRST, then go backwards and migrate that iPhoto libary back onto NAS
No, all you need to di is start a Library, then move it to an appropriately formatted disk. You don't need to complete the Library first.
we have an iMac & a MBP, and would love to be able to share the NAS library on our respective iPhotos, and be able to keep "sync'd" up to what the other has done.
Again, noting that the NAS is not the way to go here, you can simply enable iPhoto Sharing or use the same Library with both machines - very easy.
I know that these a pretty short answers, and by all means post back if we can be more helpful.
Regards
TD

Sharing iPhoto Library on NAS

I have a synology NAS on which I have my iPhoto Libraries (multiple libraries, one for each year). I have both a macbook and a mac mini, both running os x 10.6.8 and both running Iphoto 11 (Version 9.2.3). I am only able to access the Iphoto libraries from my macbook for some reason. I cannot access them using my mac mini (I get the error "The iPhoto Library is locked, on a locked disk or you do not have permissions to make changes to it"). Also, when I try to access them with the mac mini, the libraries show up as folders, not as Iphoto icons/library files. Anyone have any idea why this is happening? I've turned on sharing as well, which doesn't seem to help (the library doesn't show up in the source list on the mac mini). I have also made sure the permissions on the library file/folder are open to everyone on my network.

A NAS is not a suitable environment for an iPhoto Library.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
All of the symptoms you report are caused by having the Libaries on an inappropriately formatted disk.
You're lucky it opens with one of your machines. At any point it may stop.

I cant copy photo's out of iPhoto, I select them all but if I want to paste them for example to my nas or a folder on my macbook, the paste option wont appear. I tried with export, didnt work either. It used to work, but now all of a sudden it wont.

I cant copy photos out of iphoto (event), I can copy them but if I want to paste them in another folder on my macbook or nas hdd, I dont have the option "paste" If I select some of the pic's it sometimes works.I also tried with export them but didnt work either.
I used to load them into iphoto manged them and then simly copied them and saved them on my nas and/or my macbook's hdd in a folder, but now it wont work. I have now thousents of photo i cant copy, its a mess....
it might be a problem with an update as I had also a mess with my music after updating to the latest itunes.
has anybody an idea how to fix this??

That warning sign comes up when iPhoto has broken the link/file path to the original photos. Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Should I still use iPhoto? I want to store my photos on a NAS

I'm trying to come up with a new photo workflow now that I have a Synology NAS on my home network. In the past, I've just let iPhoto do its thing, but now I'm not so sure I should even use iPhoto, given how my needs have changed. Some background:
I have a new 13" rMBP with 256GB of solid-state storage. For what I need, this should be plenty, as long as I find a new home for my 100GB of digital photos. I also have a Synology DS213j with 2 3GB Western Digital Red drives in a mirrored RAID configuration on my home network. I want to use this as my primary photo storage location, so I get the security of a mirrored RAID configuration and I am using Amazon Glacier for offsite backup (not to mention freeing up 100GB of storage on my rMBP).
I think I can make this work, but I want to get some opinions. Synology offers a nice system they call Photo Station that looks to be a great fit for organizing and browsing. I can use a combination of Image Capture and Hazel to help import, sort and organize any new photos. For any images that I need to edit, I plan on bringing a copy to my local drive, edit with Pixelmator, and then push the changes back to the NAS.
From what I've read, I can't simply copy the iPhoto library over to my NAS, that will cause all sorts of chaos, so my thought is to export all of the photos from my iPhoto library to my Synology NAS. For file export kind, should I use current or original? Once I complete this process, is there any value in even using iPhoto? Anything else I should consider?
thanks!

No you should not continue to use iPhoto. You can't have an iPhoto Library on an NAS. The disk format is wrong and iPhoto is not designed for network access. End of story.
Neither should you use iPhoto in Referenced mode with the Photos on a NAS as that's just storing up problems.
For more on iPhoto and file management see this User Tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361
That said, iPhoto is due to be replaced soon - in the coming months - by a new App, and this may not have that issue. For instance, there are no such reservations bout running referenced Aperture library - so who knows what may come with the new (that also replaces aperture.)
So, you might want to hold on making any big decisions until you see the options. Why? Because what you're describing as a workflow is moving to an entirely different kind of workflow. You're going from non-destructive with iPhoto, to lossy and destructive in your suggested replacement. Is that what you want?
What you export from iPhoto really depends on what you want: the original unedited image? Or a version of the edited one? What's for sure is the one thing you don't want is to export as Current - that's just a preview and missing loads of metadata.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

Thinking about storing my iPhoto and iTunes on a NAS Drive

Hi,
I am thinking about buying a LaCie Network Space MAX NAS Drive and I just wanted to know if anyone else is using one and can provide some insights or advice. I have a the following set up:
- Macbook pro
- Macbook air
- Apple TV
- Airtport Extreme
- 2 x iPhones
- iPhoto album over 150Gb
- iTunes library over 800Gb
I have been running the iPhoto and iTunes off a 1.5tb USB WD external hard drive attached to the Airport USB. It has been working but has been slow but a few days ago the drive became corrupt. I have been able to recover the data but I am now looking at other options for storing iPhoto and iTunes externally.
I can't help but think I am not the only person in this situation. I find managing these large data libraries really annoying and I think apple should be offering a better solution to this problem. I think most peoples' iTunes and iPhoto libraries are too big or getting too big to run on a portable computer's internal hard drive. Anyway that is my moan for this post.
Does anyone have any ideas on a good set up for this situation? And if you are using a LaCie Network Space MAX drive is it working for you?

Same exact problem in my case... thinking same Lacie Network Space could help...
Any idea ?

Installed iPhoto library on NAS external HDD - now I cannot access it.Help.

I initially had no problems with accessing photos from iPhoto but now when I open iPhoto I get a message "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto." and then "Your photo library is damaged or unreadable and cannot be opened.Please restore from a backup."
I cannot even see the individual files when I access the share on the NAS drive whether I mount it as smb or afp.
Any way to recover my photos?

Simon
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums back.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

How to transfer iphoto and itunes libraries from NAS back to MacBook Pro

I recently upgraded my MBP hard drive, and decided I'd like to move my iphoto and itunes libraries back to my local drive from my Synology NAS. I thought this would be easily achieved by copying the libraries from the NAS and pasting them in the desired locations in the MBP, as I did to get them to the NAS in the first place. This will not work.
First off, when I try a simple copy and paste through finder, the transfer gets about half way through and suddenly stops with "You can't copy "iPhoto Library" because it has the same name as another item in the destination volume, and that volume doesn't distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames".
This occurs even if there is no Iphoto directory currently on the MBP.
I contacted Synology, and they attempted to have me use a windows transfer protocol to transfer the libraries, but when transferring this way I am stopped half way through with an "Error -8084" code.
I am aware that the MBP is formatted with MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and that the NAS is formatted differently, but there must be some way to get this back.
My itunes library contains all my family's ipad, and iphone back ups, in addition to around 35 gb of music. Additionally, I don't want to lose Event info in Iphoto.
Please help!
Thank you

Have you read for possible solutions over in the "More Like This" thread over here?----------------------->

I copied iPhoto library from old Mac to NAS. I cannot access the library from my new Mac

I've a nice new MacBook Pro (OS X 10.9.5) with iPhoto version 9.5.1. I decided to move my iPhoto library from my old MBP (running iPhoto 7.1.5) to a Synology NAS and expected I'd be able to open it from the new Mac.
I can see the library on the NAS from the new MAC. Unfortunately when I select it using option key on iPhoto launch or trying to open directly from the library in Finder, I end up with iPhoto open and showing "No photos". I've tried using iPhoto Library Manager and this can't select the library either.
I can open the library on the NAS from my old Mac OK.
Does anyone have an idea what I'm missing here?

iPhoto Libraries cannot be located on a NAS driver. Read this Apple document, iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives - Apple Support, and note the last sentence of the first paragraph.
They must be located on a drive formatted OS X Extended (journaled) with ownership set to be ignored (if an external HD). A NAS is a headless computer with a file system and file access requirements that are not compatible with iPhoto's Library structure.

Moving photos from iPhoto to NAS Device

Hello.
I'm having a difficult time copying photos from my library and then transferring them to my NAS device once I've edited my photos in iPhoto. It seems as though I can only transfer/move the iPhoto library file and not my actual photos. I use iPhoto 11 to edit photos and then would like to move those edited photos to my NAS device so I can view these photos on all my network computers. I have a new Macbook Pro Retina Display and my NAS device is a Synology ds212J. This device is a media server so I can view these photos on my tv and other connected devices. Does anyone know how I can accomplish the above? I'm new to the Mac environment and need some help with this problem. I'm sure there has to be a fix for this as it seems so seemless for my Windows computers to do the same.
Thanks much.

Think of it this way:
Open a file in a photo editor - say Photoshop, Acorn, Graphic Converter, whatever...
Fix Red eye.
Save.
What happens? The file containing the photo is edited. The Modification date is changed. There's no way back to the photo before the fixing of the red eye.
Try do that in iPhoto (or similar apps: Picasa, Ligthroom, Aperture)
Open a file... Well you can't. You have to import it to a database first. So, that done, now you view the photo.
Fix red eye. Okay. There's no 'Save' you just move to the next picture.
Now look at the file you imported. Notice anything about the modification date? It hasn't changed. Open the file in another app. Notice anything? Like the Red-eye isn't fixed...
iPhoto will never edit the original file. It's called version control. It means that you can always revert back to the original. It preserves the original like a film shooter preseves the negative.
You don't want that. You want to edit the original. So, use a photo editor, something that edits the original file, uses no database and works the way you want.
In order of price here are some suggestions:
Seashore (free)
The Gimp (free)
Graphic Coverter ($45 approx)
Acorn ($50 approx)
Pixelmator ($50 approx)
Photoshop Elements ($75 approx)
There are many, many other options. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store.

How do i import a large organised library from NAS into iPhoto without it re-organising my photos?

I have a large library of photos, (20,000 or so photos - 58 GB) stored on my NAS Drive, they are organised into yearly folders, and then individual event folders, among other folders such as 'favorites'. When i click import, and leave it to do its thing, will it re-rganise my photos on the NAS or leave them as they are and simply index them? (i have unchecked the 'copy photo's to iphoto library') Hope somebody can give me an answer.
Thanks in advance Gaz

It will index them as a Referenced Library but I strongly urge you not to do this when you have the Library on one volume and the photos on another.
iPhoto uses a very simple tool for workign with Referenced Libraries: Aliases. Aliases are perfectly good when the Library and the photo are on the same volume - the alias will track when the original moves and so on. However, if anything changes in the path to a file on another volume the alias will break, and you'll have to repair it manually. Now what happens if the path to the NAS changes... Like if you upgrade your machine, move the files on the NAS or on to another one? You'll find yourself repairing the aliases for everyone of these 20k photos, manually, one by one.
Iphoto is not the app for you if you want to do this. You can't put the library on the NAS (because the NAS is not an appropriate disk format for it). Aperture has no problems with this kind of set up.
There is a broader principle there though: If you use apps like iPhoto, Aperture, LIghtoom, how you organise the files on the disk is not important. It's just storage. You never access the files via the Finder or File Browser. You do every thing via the app - whether it be iPhoto, LR or Aperture. The point of these apps is tht you organise in the Applications, not on the HD.
Regards
TD

IPhoto & NAS

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