I never want to lose photos I’ve taken over the years. What’s the best solution to make sure they’re saved?
Follow the storage rules:
3-2-1
3 or more copies
2 or more different medias
1 or more off siteThere is a 3-2-1 tactic for backups, which should be pretty safe. Lots of articles if you search for it. Basically I backup all my data to two SSDs and one HDD. And once more to cloud, which is iCloud in my case.
NAS + Syncthing
I have a Synology server. I have an external drive. I have an extra 2TB drive on my PC. I have two large storage thumb drives. I have a Google photos account. I have an Instagram, I have a pixelfed account. I have a drop box account. I have a mega account. They all hold my photos. Do you want more? 😂
Some sort of order. Chronological will do, but maps are also nice
I use Google drive to backup my pics and memes because I don’t have enough to warrant getting anything bigger. I have the $2/month Google One subscription because the free one was barely too small. I can’t get rid of memes tho.
Backup to Synology Photos / Drive which backs up to AWS Glacier
I have a server in the garage with a big RAID array, and I run a Nephele WebDAV server on it. All my PCs, and my family’s PCs back up to it every 3 days.
It also streams all my movies and TV shows on a Jellyfin server.
Also, to be extra cautious, I have a server at my in laws’ house with a 20TB hard drive that I periodically sync that RAID array to.
(Full disclosure: I am the author of Nephele.)
deleted by creator
Both.
Though i don’t really care if the HDD is external or internal, just that it stores data physically.
i fire up syncthing every once in a while, mainly because of pictures of my cat. i store it all on my main PC, and am planning to implement my NAS as well soon.
Apple ecosystem so: iPhone > iCloud Photo Library (imported all digital photos over the years through iPhoto, later Photos) > Mac Photos app (set to download all originals) > Time Machine backup on my Synology NAS with redundancy
And because I’m a belt and suspenders kind of guy:
iPhone > Synology Photos backup > Synology C2 cloud backup
Tip: Have a look at osxphotos, an open source software you can run on your Mac and export all your Apple Photos to your own full structure, including any metadata. So you get a copy that is independent on Apple photos and can be used in any photo library system later, if need be. I send that export to my Synology and C2 every day. I guess I just don’t liked Synology photos backup from phone, had to manually open it all the time.
I wouldn’t necessarily trust a cloud so I would encrypt my files before uploading and wouldn’t use the cloud as my only solution. Because they guarantee for nothing and could just delete your account or their service. But it can expand your backup with another layer.
(Haven’t found my perfect solution, just some thoughts)
What do you use instead?
Like I said I haven’t found my ideal solution yet. I’m using multiple offline harddrives at my home and at my parents home. So my backup is more or less save from most problems/attacks. But its not really up to date and its a lot of manual work always pluging them in when I want to make a backup und copying the files.
When I reached Google Photos max capacity, I invested in a good 4 bay Synology NAS with 16TB. I left the old photos and documents in Google Cloud but all new ones go to the NAS.
I’m really happy with the NAS. I’m aware I could have saved money with a homebuilt one, but I wasn’t botheres tinkering.
Syncthing
deleted by creator
Always do both. Ideally have three copies of your data at all times. For the most important stuff, I also sent a drive to a family member in a different part of the county in case of natural disaster.
