Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#1

Post by kareemm » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

I'm curious how others store their photos. Right now I use Arq to back up to an AWS Glacier instance. I also back up to Shutterfly. And I use Time Machine to an external HD.

Problems:

0. I'm using a ton of local HD space to store them. I want to free up a bunch of space.

1. But if I delete photos from my computer, Arq will eventually delete the backups that contained them. Could be months or years but if they're not local, they'll be gone when the cost to store them exceeds the monthly budget I've set with Arq.

2. Additionally, Shutterfly apparently will let you upload videos up to 2GB. But I've randomly found a couple of videos well under that size that just don't get backed up.

I think this is what a good storage situation looks like:

1. Photos and videos are automatically backed up to the cloud from my devices (nice to have)

2. Photos are retained forever in the cloud even if they're deleted from my devices. I have to go to cloud storage to delete something.

3. Very nice to have: photos are encrypted locally before getting sent to the cloud like with Arq.

4. Bonus points: the UI for browsing cloud photos is nice (Shutterfly bought the company I was using, which had the best UI I'd found).

What do you use? Have you solved any of the problems I've laid out with my approach?

edit: thanks for all the great replies. I'm in the middle of a lengthy process of moving off of Google services, so Google Photos sounds great but isn't something I'm into. Will look at iCloud and other solutions mentioned below.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#2

Post by Finnucane » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:22 PM UTC

My photos are mostly in archival boxes with ring binders, and portfolios. I admit that that is probably not the answer you were hoping for.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#3

Post by smileysteve » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

Also not the answers you're looking for;

i have my family use Google photos. I have old family videos on there, and most of have Google Android phones that have data storage boasts.

No privacy guarantees, few guarantees of never having a sunset.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#4

Post by itake » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

iCloud has been the simplest solution for me.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#5

Post by larrysalibra » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:35 PM UTC

I use iCloud Photo Library which solves most of your problems except client side encryption - which I agree is a big negative in its corner.

It works very well if you're all in in the Apple ecosystem.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#6

Post by Raphmedia » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

smileysteve wrote: post #3

Also not the answers you're looking for; i have my family use Google photos. I have old family videos on there, and most of have Google Android phones that have data storage boasts. No privacy guarantees, few guarantees of never having a sunset.

I'm also on Google Photo. Granted, I would not use it for, ahem, private photos. Otherwise, it works really well. I love how it automatically sorts my photos, how I can search by location, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#7

Post by nXqd » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:43 PM UTC

iCloud photo or Google Photos

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#8

Post by VladimirGolovin » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:44 PM UTC

Unfortunately, Google Photos. It's very convenient, but there's this background fear that if my account gets unexpectedly closed, as it happens with Google, there would be no way to recover my photos.

I try to download the Photos data regularly via their takeout tool, but the process is cumbersome. I wish there was an automated way of doing that. I'd even pay for that.

I moved from Gmail to Fastmail, but I still haven't found a good replacement for Google Photos.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#9

Post by internet2000 » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

iCloud Photo Library fits the bill.

Re: Ask HN: How do you store photos and videos?

#10

Post by AngeloAnolin » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

Dropbox and OneDrive only for the most important photos.

Storing all my photos online would require for me to get a very expensive plan. I do have offline storage of multiple external HDD where I regularly sync together.