My Phone Photos & Videos Backup Strategy

Background

I keep the “primary” copy of my photos (and other files) on my own hard drives at home.

I use a Cloud Backup service in order to make it nearly impossible to lose my photos/video, documents, etc. It’s less than $10/mo to backup an unlimited amount of data.

I don’t pay for much Cloud Storage such as Google Photos/Drive (aka One Google), Apple iCloud, or Microsoft OneDrive. While I do have photos/videos taken on my phone automatically uploaded (at original quality) to cloud storage, it only serves as a “backup” temporarily. Once I have a copy of the original quality photos on my primary storage, I reduce the quality of photos stored on Google Photos in order to reduce my cloud storage needs/cost. A cloud storage plan that could store everything that my online backup service stores would cost $20-30/mo.

Cloud Storage ≠ Cloud Backup

More importantly, Cloud Storage usually lack features (or are at least less strong) that make it not as good as Cloud Backup for backup, such as:

• Client-side encryption so the Cloud Storage provider can’t read your files.
• Richer retention rules that allow you access deleted or older versions of files.
• Richer exclusion rules to exclude temporary files.

Overview

Stage 1: Photos just taken are on my phone/camera only

This usually doesn’t stay the case for long; they’re usually immediately uploaded to cloud storage (Stage 2), which serves as a temporary backup. They might not have made it into cloud storage before losing my phone if:

• I was somewhere without connectivity (e.g., camping or roaming),
• I took a lot of photos/video, and they didn’t upload quickly enough, or
• I took a lot of photos/video, and uploading was paused for mobile data limits.

This also applies to photos and videos taken on non-connected devices, such as a DSLR or GoPro.

So, these photos are at-risk during this time and there’s not a whole lot that can be done about it (other than copying them to another device while on the move)…

Stage 2: Photos have been uploaded to Google Photos (automatic)

Usually within seconds — but sometimes not until late in the day — photos taken on my phone will have been uploaded to Google Photos (at original quality).

If something were to happen to my phone (lost, stolen, broken, etc.), I can “recover” those photos (at original quality) from Google Photos.

Stage 3: Photos are moved to my computer (manual)

Every couple of months — and sometimes soon after taking lots of photos and video for a special occasion, and for non-connected devices — I move photos off of my phone and onto my computer.

Once on my computer, they’ll immediately begin to be backed up to my cloud backup service, which is one of the most important reasons I move photos onto my computer (the other reasons are detailed below).

Stage 3½: Photos are backed up to a Cloud Backup service (automatic)

Stage 4: Reduce quality of copy in Google Photos (manual)

Now that I have the original photos on my computer and in the cloud backup, I can reduce the amount of space they use in cloud storage.

Summary

Stage	Description	On phone	In Cloud Storage	On Computer	In Cloud Backup
1. Photos are only on my phone	Photos just taken and not yet automatically uploaded to cloud storage	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
2. Photos are on my phone and in the cloud storage	Photos recently taken that have been uploaded to cloud storage but not yet moved to my computer	✅ Yes	✅ Yes; original quality	❌ No	❌ No
3. Photos have been moved from phone to computer	I have moved photos off of my phone to my computer. This state is brief, only until they’ve been uploaded to Cloud Backup	❌ No	✅ Yes; original quality	✅ Yes	❌ No
3½. Photos have been uploaded to Cloud Backup	Photos on the computer are automatically uploaded to Cloud Backup	❌ No	✅ Yes; original quality	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
4. Cloud Photos Quality Reduced	Now that I have originals on my computer and cloud backup, I can reduce the quality stored in cloud storage, freeing up space there.	❌ No	✔ Yes; reduced quality	✅ Yes	✅ Yes

As you can see, except for stage one, there is always at least one local copy (on phone or on computer) and one remote copy (in Cloud Storage or Cloud Backup) at original quality at any given point in time.

Deeper Dive

Photos on Phone and Other Cameras

I think it’s indisputable to say that your phone isn’t the best device for long-term storage of your photos.

• It’s easy to lose. It’s also something that gets replaced relatively frequently.
• It has limited space.
• It’s likely to not be the only source of photos.

So, it’s best to have the photos stored and backed up elsewhere…

Cloud Photo Services / Cloud Storage

Fortunately, most people have the photos and videos (just “photos” going forward, for simplicity) that are taken on their phone automatically uploaded to a cloud photo service, such as Google Photos (Android phones) and Apple iCloud Photos (iPhones), so their phone doesn’t have their only copy.

What’s Good

• Real-time: Photos taken on your phone are often uploaded immediately; though sometimes later in the day if you don’t have internet connectivity, or when it waits for WiFi connectivity (in order reduce mobile data usage).
• Bonus: Online features: Such as sharing and web-based browsing.

What’s Not Good

• Doesn’t automatically cover photos from other sources, such as a DSLR or GoPro.
• Possibly not original quality. Because of cost, many people are likely to have their cloud photo service store reduced-quality photos.

• Might have slower local access and possibly no offline access from your computer. Depending on which service you use and what your settings are, the photos and documents in your Cloud Storage might not be synced to your computer. So, browsing through them are subject to the bandwidth and latency (and throttling) you have with the service.
• Might not be as convenient for backing up other files. If you have other files on your computer that you would like backed up (e.g., documents), you may have store them in a different place than you’d prefer (e.g., in the Cloud Drive rather than a regular folder on your computer) or configure them to sync some of your computer’s folders.
• Not the most cost effective above 2 TB. Apple and Google plans range from about $5-20/mo per terabyte. Many backup services, meanwhile, offer unlimited plans for $8-10/mo; so the more you have the more cost effective it becomes.
• Possible hard limits. These services don’t typically have unlimited plans. On the other hand, most people are unlikely to reach the limits of their highest tier offerings (≥12GB) for personal usage.
• Not a bona fide backup service. They may lack important features that backup services offer, such as restoring, versioning, retention, and encryption.

Cloud Storage as a temporary backup

I see such services as a great real-time, temporary backup. Photos are uploaded right away, or at least the next time you’re on Wi-Fi, so if something happens to your phone (lost, stolen, or broken), it’s likely to have the photos you recently took.

So, this is the first key element of my storage and backup strategy.

Cloud Storage as a long-term backup?

I think Cloud Storage is adequate as a backup if:

• You don’t have more than 2 TB to back up, and/or you’re okay with not having original quality photos to reduce/avoid costs -or- you’re okay with paying more per TB for the convenience;
• You’re okay with these cloud services having the ability to read all of your backed-up data;

• You don’t care about more advanced versioning, retention, etc; and…
• You’re okay with possibly having to jump through some hoops to backup files from other sources.

I don’t fit any of those criteria, so I have a different storage and backup strategy…

Computer

I want my computer to be the primary place of storage for all of my files. This is because:

• I want fast (near-instant) local access (using my computer’s native file browser). I find browsing through folders on Cloud Drives painfully slow, especially through web interfaces.
• I want reliable offline access. I want to be able to access my files without internet.
• I don’t want all of my files stored and available in cloud services, especially unencrypted.
• All of my files in one place. My computer is also home to several TB of other data, and I find it most convenient to have all the data in one place.
• It’s the most cost-effective way to store many TB of data.

And last, but not least:

• I use a cloud backup service, and everything that I want to be backed up needs to be in once place (lest I have to pay more to backup more devices; it’s also just easier to maintain few things/places to backup)

So, everything — including photos and videos gets moved to my computer.

Cloud Backup

This cannot be understated, so I’ll call this out in red:

There are so many ways that you can lose your copy of your data:

• Hard drive failure, whether it goes bad by itself (happens all the time), or by accident (e.g., hit/drop it, power surge).
• Natural disaster, such as fire, earthquake, or flooding.
• Theft or lost.
• and more!

Even if you have do backups locally (like to a NAS or other computer) — which is good and which I do — something (e.g., fire) could destroy that copy, too.

So, if you don’t want to possibly lose your files forever, back it up somewhere off-site. Almost as equally important, the backup should be automatic. Counting on yourself to do it manually regularly is fraught with pitfalls.

Some of you could set up your own, non-cloud off-site solution, of course (e.g., back up to a friend’s place or your office), but that isn’t a good solution for most people.

Personally, I use CrashPlan, but there are many other services that work just as well.