Migration Guide Any NAS macOS

Migrate Google Photos to a NAS — Without Breaking Your Timeline

Google Takeout exports strip real dates and buries GPS in JSON files. Uploading directly to a NAS Drive causes thousands of photos to appear as "taken today". FolioSort completely restores your EXIF metadata locally on your Mac before your migration.

Google Photos ──── FolioSort ────→ 💾 Your NAS

Download FolioSort Free Takeout Guide First →

Free to download — 100 files free No account, no sign-up Runs 100% on your Mac

FolioSort on macOS importing a Google Takeout folder — restoring dates and GPS and previewing the organized Year/Month folders before transfer to a NAS over SMB

FolioSort fixes every photo's dates and GPS, then previews your clean Year/Month tree before transferring it to your mounted NAS share.

Works with any NAS brand via SMB

If your NAS can share a folder over SMB (which all modern NAS devices can), FolioSort can transfer to it.

Synology

DS & RS series

QNAP

TS & TVS series

WD My Cloud

EX & PR series

TerraMaster

F2 & F4 series

Asustor

Lockerstor series

Buffalo

LinkStation series

Netgear

ReadyNAS series

Any SMB

Custom Linux NAS

How to connect your NAS on macOS

Mounting your NAS in Finder makes it available as a destination in FolioSort automatically.

In Finder: Go → Connect to Server (⌘K)

Server Address: smb://192.168.1.x or smb://your-nas-hostname

Common NAS default hostnames:

Synology: smb://diskstation

QNAP: smb://qnap

Custom: smb://nas.local

After mounting, FolioSort detects it with a network badge.

The full migration workflow

Export & Fix Metadata

Export from takeout.google.com. Extract all zips locally. Open FolioSort, select Google Photos (Beta) in the sidebar, point it at your Takeout folder and click Scan to restore EXIF dates and GPS from the JSON sidecars. Duplicates removed.

Mount Your NAS

In Finder: ⌘K → enter your NAS address → connect. Your NAS Share appears in Finder's sidebar. FolioSort sees it automatically as a network location.

Organize & Transfer Direct

In the same Google Photos (Beta) panel, set the destination to your mounted NAS share, toggle Organise into date folders and pick a template such as {YYYY}/{MM}/, choose Copy or Move, then click Process. Every file is verified with a checksum and goes direct — your Mac is just the coordinator.

Why a NAS beats Google Photos for home users

No Storage Limits

A 4-bay NAS with 4×8 TB drives gives you 32 TB of capacity for under €700 in drives. At Google Photos prices, that's centuries of storage fees.

Gigabit Local Speed

Loading a 50 MB RAW file from a local NAS over gigabit ethernet takes under a second. No waiting for Google to "download from cloud" on slow days.

Your Hardware, Your Rules

No terms of service changes. No price increases. No algorithmic curation. Your NAS holds exactly the files you put on it, in exactly the structure you chose.

Family Sharing

Every device on your home network — phones, tablets, TVs, Macs — can access the NAS. No account sharing headaches or per-person storage tiers.

Build on your NAS library

🏠 Add Immich to Your NAS

Run Immich in Docker on your NAS and point it at your FolioSort-organized library. Get Google Photos' UI on your own hardware.

🖥️ Synology-Specific Guide

Have a Synology NAS? This guide covers the specific Synology Photos workflow and best practices for organizing your library on DSM.

🌐 Add S3 as Offsite Backup

NAS + S3 is the gold-standard home photo setup. Local speed + cloud durability. This guide covers the S3 upload step after your NAS migration.

Frequently asked questions

Migrating Google Photos to a NAS, answered.

How do I migrate my Google Photos library to a NAS?

Export your photos with Google Takeout, extract the .zip files into one folder, then open FolioSort and select Google Photos (Beta) in the sidebar to restore the real dates and GPS from the JSON sidecars. Mount your NAS share in Finder with ⌘K (smb://your-nas-ip), set that mounted share as FolioSort's destination, and click Process to transfer your organized Year/Month library straight to the NAS. The full walkthrough is in the steps above.

Why do my Google Photos all show today's date after I copy them to a NAS?

Takeout stores the real capture date in separate .json sidecar files, not in the photo's EXIF. When your Mac extracts the zip it stamps every file with the extraction date, so copying straight to a NAS preserves that wrong date. FolioSort reads those sidecars and writes the correct DateTimeOriginal back into each file before the transfer — so the timeline is right on the NAS.

Is FolioSort free to migrate Google Photos to a NAS?

Yes. FolioSort is free to download and the free tier processes up to 100 files per operation, so you can test the entire workflow end to end. Pro (€14.99, one-time — no subscription) removes the limit for large libraries and adds duplicate detection.

Does FolioSort upload my photos to the cloud?

No. FolioSort runs 100% locally on your Mac. It never uploads anything to a server or cloud — the only place your photos go is your NAS, transferred over your own local network to the SMB share you mounted.

Can I transfer straight to my SMB or AFP NAS share?

Yes. Mount the NAS share in Finder with ⌘K (smb://your-nas-ip or your hostname), and it appears as a normal volume. Set that mounted share as FolioSort's destination and it writes your organized Year/Month folders directly to the NAS, verifying each file with a checksum and retrying if the connection drops.

Which NAS brands does FolioSort work with?

Any NAS that can share a folder over SMB or AFP — which covers every modern device. That includes Synology, QNAP, WD My Cloud, TerraMaster, Asustor, Buffalo, Netgear and any custom Linux NAS. FolioSort writes to the mounted share, so it doesn't care about the brand.

Will FolioSort modify or risk my original Takeout files?

No. FolioSort uses a copy-then-verify approach: it copies each file to the NAS, verifies it with a checksum, and only removes the source if you explicitly choose Move. Your raw Takeout files stay untouched until you've confirmed the library on the NAS is correct.

Does this work on Windows too?

Yes — FolioSort runs on both macOS 14+ and Windows 10+, with the same Google Photos (Beta) import and folder organization. On Windows you map the NAS share as a network drive instead of using Finder, then set it as the destination.