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Last updated on April 25th, 2024 at 07:48 am
Should you be backing up your photos? In the first part of this photo organizing series, I explained why you should create a single hub for all of your photos. If you have that, is it necessary to put them in another place?
Absolutely yes, and here’s why:
I mentioned in that same post that another external hard drive we used is no longer accessible. We can’t recover our files.
When it comes to photos & videos, the rule is to always have a Plan B & C.
In this post, you’ll learn where you should be backing up your photos and a strategic method for doing it.
The 3-2-1 backup rule
If you’ve read other posts in this series, your first question may be “Why bother backing up my photos in so many places?”
The 3-2-1 backup rule recommends having three copies of your data, stored on two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite. No matter what happens, your digital memories will be protected!
I have photos backed up on an external hard drive, my Dropbox, and now Amazon Photos. Here’s why:
- Hardware failure & data corruption: I don’t know about you, but I’ve had external hard drives fail or the files get corrupted. Having your files in another place will decrease the likelihood of all the files becoming corrupt.
- Theft or loss: If your phone, computer, or hard drive are stolen or lost, you’ll still be able to recover files from one of your cloud services.
- Natural disasters: This is the one I think of most. Living in Southern California, we have earthquakes, floods, and fires. If I lose all my devices due to natural disaster, I can still access my memories!
Use and flexibility: What’s the use of storing digital photos and videos if we can’t look at them? Using a cloud service like Amazon Photos, Google Photos, or Shutterfly makes it easy to browse and enjoy your memories.
Where to Back Up Your Photos
Google Photo
In the past, I’ve used Google Photo as a failsafe. The app automatically uploads all new photos and videos each time it’s opened. Convenient, right?
On June 1, 2021, however, Google changed its terms of service so that new photo uploads will contribute to your free storage space. In other words, if you take a ton of photos, you might end up having to pay for your Google storage.
Google gives you the option to upload high-quality photos but, again, it contributes to your storage.
Shutterfly
Another place to create a photo backup is Shutterfly. Shutterfly provides unlimited photo storage. But if you want to upload video files, you have to pay for storage.
Uploading photos isn’t as convenient as Google either. Photos must be manually uploaded.
Amazon Photos
As far as photo & video specific cloud storage, Amazon Photos is the easiest, most convenient photo organizing app I’ve ever used because of the syncing and uploading capabilities.
All Prime members receive unlimited high-resolution photo uploads. By upgrading your plan, however, you can get more video storage.
Here’s a full post on why I think Amazon Photos is the best photo organizing app.
Dropbox
Dropbox isn’t specific to photo and video storage. It’s cloud-based storage for all types of files.
A free account gives you 2 GB of storage. Upgrading to the Plus plan gives you 2 TB of storage. To me, that seems worth it. Since you’re not limited to only uploading photos and videos, you can upload anything else you want!
Uploading can be automatic. By downloading Dropbox to your desktop, you can set it up so that your files are automatically uploaded.
Since I can use Dropbox as multipurpose cloud storage, this is the space I chose for backing up my photos.
Backing Up Your Photos
In this post, I’ll explain the why and how for manually uploading your photos to Dropbox as an additional backup.
I did find various articles on syncing Dropbox with an external hard drive. But it appears that Dropbox “can’t guarantee full functionality” when this is done.
I prefer not to automatically sync because of the process I’m using to organize my photos. To keep my photos online only, I used the “Selective Sync” feature.
I don’t need my photos stored locally (that was the point of getting the external hard drive). All I need is an extra copy of my photos.
It’s like the olden days …I’m going to age myself a bit. When you’d have roll of film developed, you could choose to get one or two+ copies of each photo. It’s a similar idea, just digital.
Here’s an article from Dropbox about using Smart Sync to choose which files you’ll see locally.
My process for backing up photos to Dropbox
Once I’ve completed decluttering and organizing one year of photos (see Part 2 of this series), I manually upload them to Dropbox.
I only want to upload the final, decluttered and organized versions. If something happens to my external hard drive, I don’t want to repeat the process of organizing my photos again!
Here’s how to upload photos to Dropbox:
Uploading your photo and video files is easy. If you’re keeping your photos online-only, open Dropbox on an internet app.
Next, create your photo backup folder.
Then, you can drag and drop (or click the “Upload” button) to upload an entire year. Or create a folder for the year and upload month-by-month.
For my process, I’ve decided to go month-by-month so my computer isn’t working so hard.
As I complete decluttering and organizing each year, I’ll add them to my Dropbox failsafe backup storage.
How To Back Up Your Photos
Backing up photos is the last step in my photo organizing process. Should something happen to my external hard drive or my prints, I’ll still be able to recover my photos.
Because when it comes to digital files, you never know what might happen.
Read other parts of the “How To Organize Your Photos” series:
Part 1: Setting Up Your Photo Hub
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