Digital photo storage - Mac or cloud?
Discussion
Chaps,
My digital photo storage is getting stupid.
My iPhone has loads of pics on, the wife’s has so many on its grinding to a halt, and between my home Mac mini and NAS I reckon I have maybe 30k photos.
I reckon the true number is maybe 1/3 of that as there have been so many duplicates created over the years.
The question is twofold..
1) Do I fire everything in to my Flickr or Google photos account? I think Flickr has some de-duping ability, I don’t think google does though. I’ve already cleared both phones to google pics but should have local copies. And another copy in Dropbox...
2) ultimately, do I keep them ALL in a cloud solution with a backup, or use the photos app on the (newish but really slow) Mac mini?
I want to be able to access them all from phones and my mba, and am usually on Wi-fi although we have reasonable data allowances, so cloud storage doesn’t bother me.
It’s been bugging me for a long time now, how do you guys handle it?
Thanks muchly
Simon
My digital photo storage is getting stupid.
My iPhone has loads of pics on, the wife’s has so many on its grinding to a halt, and between my home Mac mini and NAS I reckon I have maybe 30k photos.
I reckon the true number is maybe 1/3 of that as there have been so many duplicates created over the years.
The question is twofold..
1) Do I fire everything in to my Flickr or Google photos account? I think Flickr has some de-duping ability, I don’t think google does though. I’ve already cleared both phones to google pics but should have local copies. And another copy in Dropbox...
2) ultimately, do I keep them ALL in a cloud solution with a backup, or use the photos app on the (newish but really slow) Mac mini?
I want to be able to access them all from phones and my mba, and am usually on Wi-fi although we have reasonable data allowances, so cloud storage doesn’t bother me.
It’s been bugging me for a long time now, how do you guys handle it?
Thanks muchly
Simon
I transfer photos from my camera or phone to the iMac using Lightroom, work on them as necessary and export them to a folder on the hard drive. I then import them to photos.
I have no idea if there is a better workflow but that works for me!
Anyway, I also use LR to upload keepers to Flickr with its 1tb free storage. Using LR for upload means if I alter them the Flickr copy gets updated too.
In addition I use the 1tb fusion drive on the iMac for local storage, backed up to 2 time machine hard drives.
The camera takes fairly hefty size photos, I’ve been using it for around it years now and still have lots of storage space left locally and on Flickr.
Plus Flickr allows you to view them on other devices and show them off as required!
Others will have different ways, but that works for me.
I have no idea if there is a better workflow but that works for me!
Anyway, I also use LR to upload keepers to Flickr with its 1tb free storage. Using LR for upload means if I alter them the Flickr copy gets updated too.
In addition I use the 1tb fusion drive on the iMac for local storage, backed up to 2 time machine hard drives.
The camera takes fairly hefty size photos, I’ve been using it for around it years now and still have lots of storage space left locally and on Flickr.
Plus Flickr allows you to view them on other devices and show them off as required!
Others will have different ways, but that works for me.
RRH said:
I reckon the true number is maybe 1/3 of that as there have been so many duplicates created over the years.
Duplicate Photos Fixer is going for a quid, may be worth a punt. It puts dupes into a folder so you can decide what to do with themAt least backup the photos library. Then back it up lots and take one hard drive off site.
Have to check my photo de duplicator but it drops suspected into a Photos album you can review them to delete, that is it keeps them where they are and allows you to delete photos out of the apples Photos correctly. Don’t mess with the photos library masters directly. It may throw its toys out the pram.
I keep mine (photos library) on an external hard drive. That does not tie up the hard drive in the iMac. I set my Mac to download originals. But it keeps a copy in the cloud for showing off etc.
I only use Flickr for jpeg. I don’t like Google’s T+C. If Flickr goes the same way then I am out of that as well. I like apples iCloud, it ties all the idevices together and a reasonable cost for 2tb.
Have to check my photo de duplicator but it drops suspected into a Photos album you can review them to delete, that is it keeps them where they are and allows you to delete photos out of the apples Photos correctly. Don’t mess with the photos library masters directly. It may throw its toys out the pram.
I keep mine (photos library) on an external hard drive. That does not tie up the hard drive in the iMac. I set my Mac to download originals. But it keeps a copy in the cloud for showing off etc.
I only use Flickr for jpeg. I don’t like Google’s T+C. If Flickr goes the same way then I am out of that as well. I like apples iCloud, it ties all the idevices together and a reasonable cost for 2tb.
What do cloud vendors promise wrt backups/file loss?
Also remember that in the cloud you are subject to other people's security/patching/data privacy/etc policies.
There's a possibility that policies for all the above are better than your own default ones. But I'd take the view that the solution to that is to improve your own rather than rely on someone else.
The biggest factor for me in this sort of decision is how much do you want to share the files with people outside of your own immediate circle? If "a lot", then get them up into the cloud (and assume that anyone can see them). If "not much", keep them local and get a backup regime going.
Also remember that in the cloud you are subject to other people's security/patching/data privacy/etc policies.
There's a possibility that policies for all the above are better than your own default ones. But I'd take the view that the solution to that is to improve your own rather than rely on someone else.
The biggest factor for me in this sort of decision is how much do you want to share the files with people outside of your own immediate circle? If "a lot", then get them up into the cloud (and assume that anyone can see them). If "not much", keep them local and get a backup regime going.
iPhone photos go into iCloud, which syncs between all of my Apple devices. I also use this for some shared albums with my family.
Other camera photos go onto Lightroom on my iMac, the absolute best ones are synced with Adobe's cloud service, but this is more for sharing/convenience than backup. Others go to Flickr/iCould to be shared. The HDD on my iMac is backed up to Time Machine, with a weekly Carbon Copy Cloner copy to another hard disk stored away from the house.
Having multiple backups is a good thing, as long as they are structured.
Other camera photos go onto Lightroom on my iMac, the absolute best ones are synced with Adobe's cloud service, but this is more for sharing/convenience than backup. Others go to Flickr/iCould to be shared. The HDD on my iMac is backed up to Time Machine, with a weekly Carbon Copy Cloner copy to another hard disk stored away from the house.
Having multiple backups is a good thing, as long as they are structured.
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