Photo Storage Organization and Back Up

At last check I had 14,448 pictures on my iPhone.

To say I am a photo junkie would be an understatement. Add that to the huge, layered Photoshop files I have of my artwork and you might see why I need convenient, safe, reliable photo storage and back up options.

For a long time, I chose to ignore the whole topic of photo back up. It just seemed so overwhelming, cumbersome and confusing so, if I didn't think about the threat of loosing everything it wouldn't happen, right? Seriously, that was my thinking. Crazy, I know.

Truth is, there was always this low level of stress every time I went to turn my computer on…what if it didn't startup this time? Then I saw a well established artist post on social media that her computer crashed and she lost everything…EVERYTHING.

That was my wake up call to take my head out of the sand and figure out a system for myself. (more reliable than my occasional back up to an external hard drive)

Now, I am by no means an expert and I am sure there are more steps I could be taking BUT I know I am doing more than I was before…so that's progress.

Below I will share what I do but I recently saw this tip for flash drive storage and I thought it was really simple and clever. 

CLICK HERE to visit the Driven by Decor Website

How do you save, store and protect your photos?

Until next week,

Pam

Dropbox

I expanded my storage size for my Dropbox account for a small fee and now work directly from that. It's so convenient to be able to store my pictures and documents in the same files and to be able to access them on all of my devices. I find it very easy to manage my content in Dropbox and I have downloaded their applications to my computer so it is included in my regular backup.

Backblaze

This is a remote backup service that works automatically in the background for an annual fee. Once you do the initial back up, it will continue to back up on a regular basis. Just a note that depending on how much content you have, the initial back up can take a LONG time…like days or weeks. You can still work on your computer and it just keeps running in the background. They send status emails on a regular basis.

External Hard Drive

I'm not as good with keeping up on this but I do have one and have saved a lot of work and photos to it. I only have one but I know others have several and keep them in different locations. They are pretty affordable now for HUGE storage amounts so it definitely makes sense to add this to your back up arsenal. Mine is a called "My Passport Ultra" by Western Digital and it comes in different size options.