Storage workflow - help!

[silentbrown]

I need a bit of help in sorting out a storage workflow - primarily stills, but sometimes a bit of video too...

I've got a NAS with over 1TB of photos going back over 15 years - all amateur/family stuff.

Stuff gets (infrequently) added from there to Google photos.

I currently have the Adobe photography plan (20gb storage) and use Lightroom Classic for editing/tweaking. I don't yet use their cloud storage as it's too small.

Shooting is DSLR/Compact with (currently) SD Card import to NAS, but I'm using phone camera more and more, with backup to Google photos. I've tried Lightroom mobile for RAW capture on the phone, but I'm struggling to get it all sync'd and working together, so that all my photos can be viewed/edited/backed up with the same set of tools. Also one of the NAS discs is on the way out, so I need to spend some money regardless!

Any suggestions for a good way forward? I'm reluctant to go just down the Adobe cloud storage route as the costs are quite high and there's a 1TB cap.

Not sure if relevant, but I'm considering replacing a camera with one that has built-in Wifi rather than relying on SD card transfers.

[Beggarall]

I am not sure there is a simple solution to this that isn't going to cost you some money! Once you start saving all your phone photos the size of storage you need rises almost exponentially - unless you are very careful to review and delete all the stuff you don't want - very hard to maintain this discipline I think! Google storage looks like about $120 pa for 1TB and I will wager you would soon eat that all up and need more.
My system for storage is briefly s follows.
1. Images from DSLR go straight to an external HD and then imported to Lightroom. I make catalogues for all important events and an annual catalogue for random things. Sometimes I tag images - but mostly not. I do create collections within LR. I currently have 2HDs attached to my computer - total 6TB - with about 1TB remaining. I will buy another this year. I have a separate HD for my lap top. When I upload images from the camera I am careful to name the folders on the HD so that I can quickly review what is on each of them in Finder (I am an Apple person!).
2. Phone images go to iCloud. I have a 200GB plan (cost £30pa) that is about half full. From time to time I have a purge.
3. All my important images are backed up to Crash Plan £120pa
4. I have a Flickr Pro subscription which costs me about £50pa for "unlimited storage" - whether this gets limited in future is unknown. The original 1TB for free was a very good deal.
5. There are various other websites which provide some storage - I currently have Pixieset which is really excellent for storing collections you may want to share (3GB free). I also use Dropbox (free subscription) which is useful to share between devices.
6. I have a Smug Mug account which provides a website (about £80pa) but I may cancel this
7. I tend to keep the SD cards I have used for important events and travel.

Not sure if that is useful. I think everyone has their own preference.

[silentbrown]

Useful stuff. Thanks!

The large number of different online storage choices is bit of the problem. I'm hoping I can find "one ring to rule them all", but really I think I need to break my workflow down to stages, and work out the "right" answer for each one.

For ingest , how does you get images from (say) iCloud into LR?

[Beggarall]

Good luck with your quest! I think you will have to go to some sort of cloud storage to achieve what you want. Regards editing from iCloud I can take images straight into Photoshop but for some reason there is no direct link to LR - I have to "download" the image to the desk top (or other disc space) and then import separately. Bit of a pain. The editing facility on Photo (Mac app) is better than it used to be for simple stuff like cropping, exposure and colour so not much need for LR but I am not shooting RAW images of my phone.