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Why I Quit Using Google

kylepiira.com

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Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#101

Post by xwowsersx »

boring_twenties wrote: post #98
xwowsersx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. What's the cheapest or most cost-effective way to backup all my photos? S3?

Buy an external hard drive or SSD, download the photos to it, put it in a safe place away from your other computer stuff.

That's viable for sure, but one thing I'd like is regular backups of the photos from my phone (where most I take most of my photos). That's the nice thing about Google Photos with Google One - all my stuff is backed up to the cloud regularly. I understand, though, that this comes with some risk.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#103

Post by vlttnv »

boring_twenties wrote: post #98
xwowsersx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. What's the cheapest or most cost-effective way to backup all my photos? S3?

Buy an external hard drive or SSD, download the photos to it, put it in a safe place away from your other computer stuff.

Do not rely on a single drive or you'll end up in a situation like me where one day your external drive decides to stop working and 20gb of photos are gone.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#104

Post by mceachen »

xwowsersx wrote: post #101
boring_twenties wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy an external hard drive or SSD, download the photos to it, put it in a safe place away from your other computer stuff.

That's viable for sure, but one thing I'd like is regular backups of the photos from my phone (where most I take most of my photos). That's the nice thing about Google Photos with Google One - all my stuff is backed up to the cloud regularly. I understand, though, that this comes with some risk.

I use Resilio Sync, and have tried SyncThing. Both work.

They both have an app you run in your phone, and a companion app you run on macOS, Windows, Linux, or your NAS, and it syncs (even through a NAT) whatever you've configured to backup on your phone to N servers.

If you're away from home, you can run it on your laptop next to you, so your phone is backed up quickly, and then throughout the day you laptop can sync with your home server while you're out exploring. It's nice.

I have two backups online, and an external drive I rsync to monthly then turn off.

Before you delete your originals in Google Photo, use Takeout to validate the files. Mine (at "original quality") were mangled.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#105

Post by mceachen »

xwowsersx wrote: post #102

For those who don't know (I didn't), you can create and download archives of any of your data on Google by visiting https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Just an FYI: if your Takeout archive fails with errors, try creating multiple archives, with only one large service selected per archive.

My photos archive didn't even work that way, I had to create albums and back then up one by one. But it did eventually work.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#106

Post by bruce511 »

creato wrote: post #81
ravenstine wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make matters worse, Google isn't known for their good customer service.

This is often repeated, and I believe it... but on the other hand, I've been using google services pretty heavily for over a decade, including some paid services, and I've never wanted customer service from google over all that time. Precisely the thing I like about google services is that their shit works and I don't need help from them to use it. I suppose there's a risk of account suspension as mentioned above, bu…

You are right. The risk of an account termination is very low. On the other hand the penalty for failure is absurdly high.

So ultimately it all depends on your willingness to accept the odds, and understand that it can, and does, happen - balancing that with the possible need to start over on the Internet one day.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#109

Post by spc476 »

Mistri wrote: post #85
beowulfey wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most times people get suspended for doing things that unsurprisingly go against the ToS. If you’re not developing software with googles API or anything a normal, everyday user doesn’t do you are probably fine. Of course it can still happen by random chance thanks to their algorithm going screwy but it’s not likely and if you’re still concerned Id consider at least starting the process.

I have an IoT device that pings the YouTube API every few days using my personal Google account API key, should I be concerned?

A snarky answer is "yes."

A less snarky answer is "is the IoT device made by Google or has a Google license?" If yes, then "probably no," otherwise "yes."

I have a theory as to why Google is so tight lipped about how their service works (and what actions will get you kicked off)---it's that Google employees have no idea. Google is so invested in AI and machine learning, that I suspect that their automated systems are as inscrutable to them as they are to us, but admitting such wouldn't look that great.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#110

Post by [deleted] »

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #23
xenator wrote: post #7

I love that other companies have sustainable alternatives to Google services. But these articles looks more like hype train and doesn’t really add any new value for me. You are not building something new switching from one big corp to another small company that want to become another big company next day. Probably I’m getting old but I remember times when Google doesn’t exists. We had software for files, messages, ca…

>May be for “millenials” you need to be brave to leave this circle, but I don't getting it. I don't think anyone is considering themselves brave for decoupling themselves from the Google-sphere. Leaving social media is a far greater step with ramifications, real, imaginary or simply comparatively, that I would commend younger people for being brave should they take the step. It's something that's truly going against…

[deleted]
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