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Solved
Photo Management
Hi All, On the readycloud app I am unable to sort photos, changes settings for thumpnails and views such as list or sized icons are all fixed. Photos cannot be viewed and scrolled through, it's a...
My conclusion is to not proceed with the attempt. 1 Safety concerns and 2 complexity.
I will safe up for a Synology and keep my Netgear 6-bay raid 10 as back up for how long it still keeps running
I'm sorry mate, the website does not provide any evidence able to manage photos or what the functionality the software offers.
Zerotier lets you set up a virtual network - which you can use to access your NAS when you are away from home, You'd install the zerotier app on the NAS and the devices that you want to access the NAS when you are remote.
Openvpn is similar - though normally it'd be installed in your home router (not the NAS). But you'd still install the openvpn app on your devices.
Either way, you'd just launch the app on your devices when you are away from home, and you'd get the same access you have when you are connected to your local network.
As Sandshark says, they don't provide features to manage your photos. Instead, you'd use the same apps for that as you'd use at home.
G'day Mate,
Unfortunatly we are talking about the absolute basic functionallity any cloud service or competitors apps offer. I do not believe you understand the problem as it has nothing to do with access differences between your home network or external access. I have no issues anywhere accept on a mobile device. This means, regardless if im in my home network or not I do experience these limitations. Let me try to explains this a bit better....
On mobile device like Andriod based phones, you cannot view or edit any type of file from the NAS file structure - you must download the files one by one to your local device which is absolutely ridiculous. Trying to view 100 photos is not realistic.
The mobile app ReadyCloud does not even provide the functionality to sort your photos ascending/descending on filename or date.
Running virtual servers, Plex, Emby and custom setup, VPN tunning, port forwarding etc is not the solution - I can do that - this does not resolve the problem. You want to be able to use the out of the box Samsung photo app "Gallery", out of the box Andriod "My Files", File Commander or like the iPhone Photos app.
Andriod File Commander or any other app can access the SMB3 network - meaning my problem is demonstrated also inside my home network. You can alsop login via the web browser to readycloud directly via your mobile - but again, you should be able to view photos and edit files directly from the NAS instead of needing to download them one by one. Either of these example, you must download each file one by one to your local device.
To make it even more clear, at home on my PC or Linux system it is possible to just browse through the files. You can open an Excel file directly from the NAS, edit and save without needing to download it locally. Also photos can be opened, viewed and editted via the file explorer or any photo viewer/management tool without needing to download the photos locally first one by one. This IS the case on a mobile device even INSIDE the home network.
Any photo management tool, even freeware, can open photos directly from the NAS but NOT on the mobile app.
Synology has for example 2 key apps for Andriod - Synology Drive and Synology Photos. Their app opens photos directly from the NAS, in or outside your home network - Synology allows to sort, even shows places and faces..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BskT44FBYsY or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxwgYrcbSY0&t=693s
It is 2021, not 1940!! I spend close to 3000 AUD on my 6-bay high-end readyNAS to create my own cloud, just like ONEdrive or iCloud.
The fact that netgear does not offer this basic functionality is unacceptable.
Not that it is relevant at all but ZeroTier cannot be installed with the standard futures on my ReadyNAS 426 as the inbuild app store does not offer the app, nor does it allow you to install third party apps. Anything can programmed or modified, in special via my Linux systems but we are talking about the most basic cloud functionality here.
To be clear, neither Sandshark nor I work for Netgear - and both of us have chosen not to use ReadyCloud at all. We aren't in any way responsible for its performance or features. I agree that ReadyCloud isn't really competitive with the cloud services that Synology offers, and that the ReadyNAS app store doesn't contain much that is useful. But all we can do here is suggest alternatives.
Sandshark explicitly said that ZeroTier wouldn't manage your photos. He said (correctly) that it would provide an alternative method for remote access - so you could use the same apps remotely as you can use locally (including any apps for photo management). Something like PhotoMap perhaps? (I use iOS now, so this isn't a recommendation - just an example).
Plex would also work, and wouldn't need remote access. I do use it for streaming, but haven't tried using it for photos. Not sure if that would require a plexpass or not.
A different approach is to sync a NAS share with google drive, and use Google's gallery - though that isn't free.
NextCloud is available from rnxtras.com (which is a good source for third-party readynas apps - IMO better than the ReadyNAS app store). It has similar features to ReadyCloud. I am seeing some photo apps that support NextCloud in the google play store, so that might also be a path you could explore.
Mr_Wonka wrote:
ZeroTier cannot be installed with the standard futures on my ReadyNAS 426 as the inbuild app store does not offer the app, nor does it allow you to install third party apps.
The ReadyNAS does let you install third-party deb files from the app page in the admin web ui - though you do need to be careful when doing that. FWIW, almost all the apps on the app store are third-party - Netgear doesn't support any of them.
BTW, if you are interested in plex, you should install it from plex.tv/downloads - not from the app store. Plex has current ReadyNAS downloads there (and the version in the app store is old).
There are apps for Android that allow direct access to photos and videos on the NAS on the local network or via a third-party VPN without downloading them. If one doesn't,. that's not the ReadyNAS creating the limitation, it's the way the app was written. I have no idea if that's the way ReadyCloud works since I don't use it.
You are incorrect that third party apps cannot be installed to a ReadyNAS. There aren't a huge number of them, but there are some. ZeroTier for ReadyNAS is one such app. The latest Netgear-specific version is very old, but it still works. As you say, you can also install standard Debian packages to it, but that's beyond what the average user wants to do.
The shortcomings you have found in ReadyCloud are among the reasons I choose to use other means of remote access. I prefer having more options than relying just on Netgear, and I'd rather they spend their time on upgrades to the basic OS instead of remote access.
The problem is ReadyCloud limitation - not even the readycloud app on my mobile. It is also when you use readycloud on the web browser anywhere around the world on any machine.
Few thing I do not want:
1) I had downloaded the NextCloud app but it cannot find my SMB3 network. It looks like a limited version of My Files or the File Commander.
2) Plex and Emby are not suitable - that would be good if you are into streaming your music and films but I am only intrested in Photos and Documents.
3) I want my own cloud, otherwise I would have never bought this 6-bay NAS. So no options such as ONEdrive, GoogleDrive and all of them.
4) I do not want to modify the admin web ui as the ReadyNAS itself is perfectly fine.
5) ZeroTier is not an option.
I did made some progress yesterday as I managed to link my NAS via the File Commandar App, which almost resolves the problem if I could access this externally. So currently this completely bypasses ReadyCloud and that is what I want. Now I need to manage to access my internal network externally.
How can this be done with the VPN? I already have a PureVPN account - just do not how to create this connection? I run a D-Link Cobra DSL-5300 which I assume should create some sort of route.
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