Storing Photos Help
@BelleStarr (61047)
United States
July 20, 2018 8:17am CST
I have thousands of photos. Hundreds of thousands actually, I am a travel writer so when I visit places I lover do it in the photo department. I have finally decided that I must find a cloud or online photo storage place in order to not only have access no matter where I happen to be but the guarantee the safety of my photos.
I am looking for suggestions. I do have an external hard drive but I want online access. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount for this service. Does anyone on here use a cloud? Or a website?
Thank you inadvance for your help.
16 people like this
15 responses
@Juliaacv (48437)
• Canada
20 Jul 18
I know that you've mentioned that you take a lot of photos in past discussions.
I wouldn't know how to advise you on this issue of storage as I don't take so many, and I am always backing mine up to thumb drives-those are my "photo albums".
I'm sure that there will be some assistance, maybe @daddyevil will be able to shed some light on the situation or JJ, they're both tekkies.
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (48437)
• Canada
22 Jul 18
@DaddyEvil You're welcome. I though of you right away and hope that you're able to offer Izzy some guidance on her choice of the correct storage.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
22 Jul 18
@Juliaacv I don't use the commercial cloud storage locations. But I did offer her a link from PC Magazine that gives a good breakdown of the different clouds available and what they offer.
I hope it helps her.
3 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
22 Jul 18
Thank you for mentioning me, Julia. I really do appreciate that you remembered that about me. 
2 people like this
@DianneN (246831)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I have hundreds of thousands of photos, too, mostly from travel and my grandkids. Two years ago we bought a My Book from Best Buy. It is absolutely amazing and holds more photos than the cloud would. So I use My Book, the Cloud, flash drives, and my hard drive to hold my photos. I don't want to lose even one of my precious photos.
2 people like this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I have an external drive, flash drives, 5 laptops and a desktop and now the cloud. I even have some CDs. Sometimes I just wish that we printed them like the old days and didn't have to worry about losing them!! lol I am OCD about my photos.
2 people like this
@DianneN (246831)
• United States
21 Jul 18
@BelleStarr Oh, I do print many of mine, but ran out of storage space in our old family room for the thick binders they are stored in. I do love My Book. Photos from my laptop, computer, iPhone, and two iPads are all stored there. I still find it easier to open a binder to see the photos. lol
2 people like this
@rebelann (111177)
• El Paso, Texas
20 Jul 18
I store mine on a seagate external hard drive. If you use a laptop that can be very useful because the external drive is not bogging down your system plus if anything happens to the online services you'll still have access to your photos.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111177)
• El Paso, Texas
21 Jul 18
Mine are portable so that I can take them with me if I'm planning to use a laptop @BelleStarr
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I do have 2 external hard drives but I want a safer place that I can access from anywhere.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
@rebelann But the external drives are one more thing to carry, on the cloud I just can use any device and access them
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I am still actively writing travel articles so I need my photos plus all the grandkids
@Marilynda1225 (79731)
• United States
20 Jul 18
I can't offer any help but I'm sure you'll find the answer here. Mylotters are a wealth of information
2 people like this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
They are and I answered my own question so I guess that counts lol
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I do have the icloud and I figured out today how to add photos from my PC so I guess I answered my own question lol
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325758)
• Rockingham, Australia
21 Jul 18
@BelleStarr Sometimes if we just keep struggling away we get there in the end.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Jul 18
Yes I think the cloud is the answer.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (130066)
• India
21 Jul 18
You can go for external memory. A few pen drives may be or one with a huge memory?
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
Yes I do have a 2T one but it is just one more thing to worry about. On the cloud they are safe and I don't have to carry anything.
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
That's okay I do have an icloud and I figured out today how to make it work for me.
@Tampa_girl7 (48958)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I usually print my favorites out and I also use Dropbox
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
21 Jul 18
I have been having fun with the icloud, once I figured it out I have been adding my photos. I don't know what dropbox is?
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
22 Jul 18
Hello Belle,
Honestly, I don't consider cloud storage (from online services) to be all that safe. I block cloud storage on all my devices. (My daughter and I built our own cloud storage and can access it from anywhere using any of our devices.)
I did see that you have started using iCloud and seem to like it, so you've given yourself the answer you were looking for. *grinning at you*
Had I gotten to your discussion faster, I would have offered you this link:
I consider PC Magazine a good place to ask questions and I like the thoroughness of their testing when they are reviewing products and services offered online. (I still gave you that link because you might want to check out another one or two of those services, since iCloud wasn't given their highest rating.)
If you choose to stay with iCloud, I hope it lives up to your expectations.
Why waste valuable storage space on your PC or phone when you can store your documents and media in the cloud and share it across devices? These top-rated services let you do just that.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
26 Jul 18
@BelleStarr Oops! I didn't notice the date on the article I linked for you. Sorry about that.
Yeah, I don't trust any of the cloud storage companies. Their security has proven to be not the best in the world.
I did see that Apple refused to give the government any back doors into their user's information. I was surprised and pleased to see that!
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Jul 18
I have an icloud so I just bought more storage and I am going to use it.
1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (66921)
• United States
3 Aug 18
I'm glad you got help with this.. I only use photobucket,and social media for my photos. But may try the cloud myself at some point, as my photobucket is only 30% empty now.. so will eventually need somewhere else to store photos.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
3 Aug 18
I am finding the iCloud very easy to use and I have downloaded several thousand pictures so far.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
23 Jul 18
Cloud seems to be the best alternative.Even hard drives get full and one drives.
Actually overloaded with images nowadays don't feel like deleting g as they hold memories
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Jul 18
That is where I am as well. but I downloaded tons this weekend and I plan to continue.
1 person likes this
