Backing up Photos Q

[NickCW]

Hope this is in the right section, might be one for the Computers area but it is photos related..honest!

I currently have all my photos backing up automatically on Google photos from my phone, I don't double save these anywhere as it was a right faff downloading from a phone and organising these to a backup drive, etc etc - so I guess my question is should (or can I) backup my photos from Google elsewhere, preferably automatically? Or are they plenty safe enough?

Now I have a little one I realised I really should have the photos safe. so thought I would check with the experts as google doesn't overly help with answers other than how to backup to Google from a phone...

Thanks.

[Matt..]

Depends how paranoid you are.

Personally I'd say a "backup" to Google isn't anywhere near good enough if the photos are critically important to you.

It's worth noting that if you have Amazon Prime it comes with unlimited photo storage.

[Tycho]

I have all my photos on Google Photos but also use the Takeout function that will allow you to download a Zip (or multiple) file with all your photos. This gets kept on my desktop hard drive and I also upload the zip files to Onedrive so I have a local copy and 2 cloud copies.

[StevieBee]

For 'treasured' photos, I would suggest keeping the original files on a drive that is in your physical possession in addition to a cloud storage.

If you use a Mac, I find their Mac Photos very good. The library which stores the original images remains on your hard (or external) drive but automatically syncs with their iCloud which you can share with others via their friends and family setting.

[NickCW]

Interesting as I do have Prime, didn't realise they offered unlimited photo storage.
What is the quickest way to backup from Google to Prime, downloading everything would take me forever..

[sgtBerbatov]

I use Mega to back up videos I record for my YouTube stuff, and the negatives I scan in from the films I develop.

I use the phone to record the films and take photos in situ, and these are then shifted to Google photos automatically. But, I've got the Mega app installed on my phone, and that too then syncs them automatically to Mega.

But cloud storage is just someone elses computer, so files I then download to my computer for editing, I then copy across to a USB hard drive. That's the only bit I can't really automate.

[eein]

I had thought that Prime unlimited photos at any resolution actually recoded (compressed) when it stores the file. However I just did a quick test and uploaded a very high res jpeg (50MB) and downloaded it again. The hashes match, so exact backup.

Personally I use OneDrive as I also pay for that and you get 6TB of backup.

I do recall some previous controversy about photo ownership - I think Amazon has the right to use anything you upload, whereas Microsoft does not. However that was a few years ago and may have changed since. You also may not care!

[Matt..]

eein said:

I do recall some previous controversy about photo ownership - I think Amazon has the right to use anything you upload, whereas Microsoft does not. However that was a few years ago and may have changed since. You also may not care!

I do not believe that is true at all.

[Matt..]

I have several TB of photos.

I am paranoid about data loss.

I use at least this:
- iCloud
- Amazon Drive
- Apple TimeMachine (using multiple drives)
- I also have multiple machines so photos get stored across those, but that's not reliable as a backup solution!