3 Ways to Back Up Your Digital Photos
You’ve heard the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That adage is so true when it comes time to back up your digital photos. Having only one copy of your pictures is just courting disaster and heartbreak. We’ve talked about the 3-2-1 backup system, having 3 backups of your photos in at least 2 different formats with one backup being off-site.
What can you do right now to start backing up your precious photos today?
Get Them Off Your Phone & Camera
Learn how to download your photos from your phone to a computer. If you don’t know how just Google your type of phone and ‘download photos’ and you should find detailed instructions on how to do this. Put a reminder on your calendar to download your pictures on a regular basis. At least once a month I see someone on Facebook lamenting the fact that their phone died or was lost, along with all the un-downloaded photos on it. It breaks my photo-organizer heart! You can also check to see if your provider offers a backup service that automatically backs up your contacts and your photos.
If you use an iPhone, I highly recommend turning on your Apple iCloud and storing a copy of your photos there, even if you don’t intend on using Apple Photos anywhere but your phone. Pay for the extra iCloud storage if you need it. At the current time, the monthly prices range from $0.99 for 50 GB (you get 5GB for free) to $9.99 for 2TB. That’s super cheap considering the invaluable images you are backing up. Just remember that if you sync your photos across your devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac), if you delete a picture in one place, you are deleting it in all places.
If you take pictures on a digital camera that is not wi-fi enabled, invest in a memory card reader. They are very inexpensive and a great solution if you can’t quite keep up with the cord for your camera. I like the multi-card readers which work with a wide variety of memory cards. And remember to set a reminder in your calendar to download on a regular basis.
“Backups that rely on humans, never get done.” – Ben, the Newtown Nerd
Make It Automatic
Automatically sync your photos to the cloud from your phone. This could be iCloud if you are an Apple person. Apps like Dropbox provide options for uploading your photos to the cloud. Once you set up your Dropbox account and download the app to your phone, go into Settings and turn on the Camera Upload feature. When your phone (or other device) is connected to WiFi, your photos will be uploaded to your Camera Uploads folder in your Dropbox. And since Dropbox syncs across your devices, you will now have your pictures stored, accessible, and backed up in multiple locations, including your computer.
In addition to these options please, please, please back up all of your files on your computer’s hard drive. I highly recommend using Backblaze. It is only about $50 per year and once it is set up and initially synced (which may take a while depending on how many files you have), it will keep your files on your computer and any attached external hard drives backed up automatically. As with any automatic backup, you’ll need to check it every once and a while to be sure everything is working properly.
Photo books are one way to back up your digital photos. Print them out!Click To TweetPrint Them Out
Another way to back up your digital photos is to (gasp) print them! Not what you expected, is it? Definitely don’t print all of them, but you can print your favorites either as individual prints placed in a photo box or album or make them into a photo book. I love the idea of making yearbooks of your favorite pictures from each year.
Don’t feel you need to do each of these things right now. But whatever you do, do something to safeguard your photos today
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I’ve been struggling a little since I switched from PC to Mac last year. It seemed all my systems were working, like automatic camera upload to Dropbox, automatic Carbonite laptop backup, etc. But now nothing seems to work. My point is that even if you have a system that works, things change and your system may need to be re-evauated. Thanks for the reminder, and the tips!
Yes, you are right, Hazel. Just like any organized space, you have to revisit it occasionally and make sure it’s still working. I switched to Backblaze from Carbonite a few years ago and it has worked well with my Mac. What I really like about it is that is will back up external hard drives as well. Recently I discovered the my Dropbox camera upload had stopped working (this seems to happen with iOs or app updates sometimes). When I reconnected it, it has over 1,000 photos to download. Sigh…
There was a phase where my husband would make a photo book for each family vacation. Now that our girls are grown, he doesn’t do that so much anymore. I have to say I am very glad to have those books, and to be able to look back and relive those special times!
I love trip photo books. I made one after our big trip to Europe a few years ago and it brings back so many great memories.