Photo Organizing: Cloud Backup

Our to-do lists always seem to expand exponentially with the approaching winter holidays and new year celebrations. This is a great time to make sure you do one thing if nothing else – check to verify that your photo collection is backed up. One highly recommended way to do this is via a cloud backup. Whether you are using the Apple ecosystem or a third-party provider, the cloud is arguable the best way to back up and is part of our 3-2-1 method (more on that below). Holiday food, fun and festivities = unlimited photo opportunities and new memories. Backing up your current content is the best way to make sure you don’t lose any past images while potentially making room for more. For example, with Apple, if you have a device that is low on memory, one of their cloud solutions is to “Optimize iPhone Storage” which automatically manages storage on that device by keeping originals (high res) in the cloud and an optimized low res on your device. This can significantly add to the amount of memory available to you, allowing for more photos and videos without getting those pesky prompts saying you don’t have enough memory to save the files.

People don’t back up their phones to the cloud for a variety of reasons. Maybe they don’t know how, or don’t understand it, or they are out of cloud storage space. Apple iCloud, for one, comes with 5 gigabytes of free storage and offers extra (which you’ll undoubtedly need) at an inexpensive rate.

The cloud is an integral part of our recommended 3-2-1 method: 3 copies total, 2 backed up to external hard drives, 1 backed up to the cloud. This method ensures that if for whatever reason (natural disasters, the hard drives have expired or become corrupted, etc.) you can always be rest assured your photos are safely backed up to the cloud. So remember your ABC’s… Always Backup Content!