Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#161

Post by peterbraden » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:19 AM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #122

pindab0ter wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s your setup for that? How do you sync (incoming) photos to an arbitrary place outside of the Photos library?

I'm not the GP but what I do is all my camera devices will sync to a cloud drive, and my NAS then syncs the cloud drive. Google Photos seems to be able to see them. That way I always have two copies of the image, a cloud version and a local. The main failure mode I'm concerned about is if Google decides I'm no longer worthy of an account. In that case I'll still have my pics and I'll put in the effort to set up some…

How do you do this with iPhoto?

With an iPhone it doesn't seem that there is a way to sync with a folder anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#162

Post by oarsinsync » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:22 AM UTC

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #62

For backing up photos, I've used two solutions: 1. PhotoSync[0] - it can your photos and videos to a local NAS. It has a ton of options for how to connect to a local NAS, plus it will connect to a variety of cloud services. It is very configurable. This used to be my primary way to transfer photos to my NAS, but I've since started using iCloud which does everything I need. 2. iCloud - Turn it on, sign up for the appr…

> 2. iCloud - Turn it on, sign up for the appropriate storage plan, it basically just works, and I can access my photos from all of my devices. Obviously only useful if you're in the Apple ecosystem.

Note iCloud photos are not E2EE, and while data mining and tagging for your device occurs locally, Apple can and has demonstrated they will read your photos without your explicit permission. This happened to me when I raised a support case about a photos app bug on iOS, leading to them reviewing my icloud photos without asking first. I never got a response asking why they went in without permission.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#163

Post by binbag » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:27 AM UTC

CharlesW wrote: post #113

sverhagen wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not motivated by money Ummm, could you elaborate on this? It sounds great but it's at the same time so foreign to me...

To me, that’s a red flag for a service I don’t want to see disappear in a few years.

Why? Not motivated by money still means they can generate income and even grow. They might not personally become rich, and they are ok with that. What's the problem?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#164

Post by binbag » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:32 AM UTC

umvi wrote: post #58

OneDrive. If you can get 5 other people to go in on a family plan with you, it's $17/year for 1TB storage. You can get OneDrive app for your phones and tablets to auto sync camera roll, etc. to OneDrive. As an added bonus, OneDrive is really well integrated with Windows 10 (if you are a windows user) so your pictures will just magically show up on your system as files you can drag and drop.

Yeh I'm gradually moving from Google to OneDrive for photos. I'm a office 365 subscriber anyway, but the Google photos interface is a little better and Google's sharing facilities are much better. OneDrive need to work on that. But if I'm going to pay someone, it's going to be Microsoft.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#165

Post by gregoriol » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:40 AM UTC

umvi wrote: post #58

OneDrive. If you can get 5 other people to go in on a family plan with you, it's $17/year for 1TB storage. You can get OneDrive app for your phones and tablets to auto sync camera roll, etc. to OneDrive. As an added bonus, OneDrive is really well integrated with Windows 10 (if you are a windows user) so your pictures will just magically show up on your system as files you can drag and drop.

Not sure how switching from Google to Microsoft is a good idea.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#166

Post by lordnacho » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:40 AM UTC

peterbraden wrote: post #161

lordnacho wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the GP but what I do is all my camera devices will sync to a cloud drive, and my NAS then syncs the cloud drive. Google Photos seems to be able to see them. That way I always have two copies of the image, a cloud version and a local. The main failure mode I'm concerned about is if Google decides I'm no longer worthy of an account. In that case I'll still have my pics and I'll put in the effort to set up some…

How do you do this with iPhoto? With an iPhone it doesn't seem that there is a way to sync with a folder anymore.

I'm unsure how to do it with iPhoto. My guess is it syncs up to Apple cloud, from which the NAS should be able to sync? At least once it's off the phone you don't have the sandbox, which is a bit stronger on Apple devices, IIRC.

My cameras are all Androids, so I use FolderSync to put things in the cloud. It being Android there's still a filesystem that it can scan. I use an app on my QNAP to bring them back home.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#167

Post by em500 » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:42 AM UTC

1. Buy an USB Blu-ray burner and a stack of high quality BD-R (Panasonic Japan, single layer).

2. Sort your photo's by date and archive anything older than 1 or 2 years to disc. If you can't fit any year on 1 disc (25GB), consider tidying up, like our parents told us to do when we were toddlers.

3. Let go of the Fear of losing that sole precious photo from 10 years ago. There are more important things in life.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#168

Post by sva_ » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:52 AM UTC

pjs_ wrote: post #35

Not even remotely an alternative in terms of usability/reliability, but I can describe my DIY setup. I have a DIY NAS, based on a Raspberry Pi and an external hard disk enclosure, running in my kitchen. The disks are encrypted with LUKS. A combination of Syncthing and a cron job ensure that photos from my phone are constantly synced to the NAS without any input from me, and old photos are removed from my phone. A nic…

I'm doing pretty much the same thing with an rpi/syncthing. It's simple enough and "just works", while maintaining full ownership of my photos/videos. I looked into Shotwell and it seems pretty nice. I haven't really used anything to organize my Photos so far. One might say it's well worth a shot (sorry.)

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#169

Post by Superblazer » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:54 AM UTC

kevml wrote: post #142

Superblazer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fight for privacy is absolutely worth it. Those people have no idea about what they are getting into, they don't know anything. That is not something to base upon.

To assume that they don’t know “what they are getting into” is a bit patriarchal.

You think a random person who would never look or care about tech would understand the privacy issues? Absolutely not. All they'd know is what the companies say and advertise.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#170

Post by jamexcb » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:58 AM UTC

umvi wrote: post #58

OneDrive. If you can get 5 other people to go in on a family plan with you, it's $17/year for 1TB storage. You can get OneDrive app for your phones and tablets to auto sync camera roll, etc. to OneDrive. As an added bonus, OneDrive is really well integrated with Windows 10 (if you are a windows user) so your pictures will just magically show up on your system as files you can drag and drop.

OneDrive is terrible in windows to sync, is always trying to sync even if you are editing a file, so make you PC/Work slower. When you share and if add more files sometimes new files don't appear in the shared link. Shared Link URL are too big and your email will go in the URL.. I don't recommend at all. I'm just forced to use for work.