Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Your use of these links is greatly appreciated!
Last updated on May 5th, 2023 at 02:55 am
What does your photo situation look like? Mine’s a mess. Or at least it was until this last week when I took the first step to organize my photos by setting up my photo hub.
I’ve been meaning to work on this project for a long time. Because it’s so daunting, I’ve put it off again and again. I’m forced to work on it now, however, because our laptop’s hard drive is nearly full!
Since this is a work in progress, I wanted to share the process with you while it’s fresh! At this point, I finished part 1.
In this post, you’ll learn how to organize your photos by setting up a photo hub. Plus, you’ll learn how to get your photos off your iPhone and onto your PC!
Organizing all photo files in one central hub.
The point of organizing is to be able to find what you’re looking for. By categorizing similar items together, you’re more likely to be able to find what you need.
For example, I thought our family photoshoot from 2015 was long gone. I searched through all our USBs in my container for photos but couldn’t find them anywhere.
As I was working on part 1 of this project, my husband, working on an entirely different project, came across the 2015 photoshoot! It was on a USB drive meant only for documents. No wonder I couldn’t find it!
Having all my photos in a single photo hub will prevent me from losing precious photos (and going crazy!).
With that said, let’s get into the process of Part 1.
Part 01. Setting up your photo hub.
Step 01. Choose a single photo hub.
The very first step in part 1 was to choose an external hard drive. Years ago, we bought a hard drive, but now we’re unable to retrieve any information off of it. This time, we bought a 1 TB Sandisk external hard drive that came with a free year 2-year subscription for file recovery.
Once I had the hard drive, it got tricky. My laptop didn’t have an input that fit the hard drive. I also learned that the hard drive needed to be reformatted to fit more files.
My husband saved the day (he’s done this a couple of times during the process) by tracking down the right input connector and reformatting the hard drive.
Here’s a quick video on how to reformat it if you go with the same hard drive. Reformat the drive before you save anything on it!
Step 02. Set up your filing system.
Before you begin transferring files to your photo hub, create folders for a filing system. I think of it as a digital filing cabinet.
1. First, create a main folder for each year (Ex. “2015,” “2016,” “2017,” etc).
2. Next, create a subfolder within each year for the month (Ex. “2020-01,” “2020-02,” “2020-03,” etc).
For now, don’t worry too much about getting photos organized by events (unless it’s easier for you to do it now). Right now, we’re focusing on macro-organizing like with like (years and months). Later, we’ll micro-organize by events.
Step 03. Collect all computers, devices, disks, and drives to upload to the photo hub.
The next part was to collect all my photo and video files to upload to the hard drive.
Most of my photos are saved on the hard drive of my laptop (not good). But I also had many on other disks and USB drives.
I wanted to collect EVERYTHING onto this one hard drive. I pulled out my old USB drives and disks from high school and all 3 disks of our wedding photos.
This part was incredibly slow due to all the transferring. It took a couple of days, but most of this step was hands-off, except when it came to downloading photos from my iPhone.
How to download photos from your iPhone to your PC
If you struggle to download your photos from your iPhone to your PC, use these instructions:
1. Open Windows Photos app on your PC.
2. On your iPhone, go to settings > Photos > scroll to “Transfer to Mac or PC” > check “Keep Originals.” (This step is the key to getting it to work!)
3. Plug your iPhone into the PC. Once your PC recognizes your iPhone, go to “Import” in the Photos app and choose Apple iPhone.
4. Change the file destination to your photo hub and choose the year and month you want to import photos to. (I recommend going one month at a time so you don’t have to shuffle photos around as much once they’re uploaded.) Click “Add this folder to Pictures.”
5. Select your photos and click “Import.”
If you’re using Mac, I recommend using Nancy Ray’s free guide to clear your iPhone photos.
That’s everything for how to organize your photos by setting up your photo hub. There aren’t many steps but the process takes time. Most files I transferred as I was doing other things. I’d leave while files were moving and come back and check every so often.
Transferring photos from iPhone to PC took the most time.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be adding posts as I move through my project to cover the next parts, including decluttering and organizing the photos and creating backup files and a print plan.
Go to Part 2: Decluttering and Organizing Digital Photos or Part 3: How To Print Your Digital Photos
Leave a Reply