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A NAS for your Mac: when network storage solves a full disk, and when an external drive is better

A network drive gives every Mac in the house shared space, but it is slower and costs more than a USB drive. What belongs on one and what should stay local.

6 min read

A NAS, network attached storage, is a small box with drives in it that sits on your home network. Every Mac and phone in the house can reach it. For a family with several full Macs, it can be the right answer. For one person with one Mac, it usually is not.

NAS versus external drive

External SSDNAS
Cost for 2 TBLowerHigher, box plus drives
SpeedFast, over the cableLimited by your network, often much slower
Shared by several MacsOne at a timeYes
Works away from homeYes, it is in your bagOnly with remote access set up
Survives one drive failingNoYes, with two or more drives mirrored
Time Machine targetYesYes, for several Macs

What works well on a NAS

  • Finished archives. Old projects, scanned documents, past years of photos exported as files.
  • Media you stream. Films and music, played from the NAS by a TV or a media server. See Plex and media servers.
  • Time Machine for the whole family. One box backs up every Mac.
  • Shared family folders, instead of copying the same files to every Mac.

What does not

  • The Photos library. Apple does not support a Photos library on a network drive, and it can be damaged by a dropped connection. Keep it on the Mac or an external drive plugged in directly.
  • Anything you edit live, like a video project or a Final Cut library. The network is too slow and too easily interrupted.
  • App data and caches. They expect a local disk.

Checking your network is fast enough

Copy a large file to the NAS and time it. Over Wi-Fi, speeds of 20 to 100 MB per second are typical, compared with several hundred MB per second or more from a USB SSD. Over a cable to the router, a standard gigabit connection tops out near 110 MB per second.

# Time copying a test file to a mounted NAS share
mkfile 1g /tmp/test.bin
time cp /tmp/test.bin /Volumes/YourShare/
rm /tmp/test.bin /Volumes/YourShare/test.bin

For a single Mac, moving files to an external drive is usually cheaper and faster. External SSD or hard drive helps pick one.

Common questions

Is a NAS good for extra Mac storage?

For several Macs sharing files, backups and media, yes. For one Mac, an external drive is usually cheaper and much faster.

Can I keep my Photos library on a NAS?

It is not supported and risks damage if the connection drops. Keep the Photos library on a drive plugged directly into the Mac.

Can Time Machine back up to a NAS?

Yes, if the NAS supports Time Machine over SMB, which most current ones do. One NAS can back up every Mac in the house.

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