CLEVELAND — Everyone enjoys taking selfies and family photos with their phones. It’s convenient and simple.
But are you taking the steps to make sure those memories last forever. If not, you should change your ways.
Bad luck hits when you least expect it. You never know when you'll drop your phone on the ground or, even worse, in the toilet.
Using a cloud storage solution is probably your best bet for backing up the thousands of photos you likely have on your phone or computer.
There are a few different options.
iCloud:
This is probably the best option if you're part of the Apple ecosystem of devices. It's simple to use and allows access to your photos online on all of your devices. You get a minimal amount of storage free, but you'll probably want to opt for a paid option.
Google Photos:
My favorite choice for Google users and anyone who wants to store a lot of photos free of charge. Google allows uses to store an unlimited number of compressed photos at no charge. You also get 15GB of free storage with a Google account using Google Drive.
If that's not enough, you can pay for more. Options start at $1.99 each month for 100GB of storage.
Dropbox:
Mainly known for file sharing, Dropbox is also a top-notch photo storage solution. They'll start you off with 2GB of free storage and offer a couple paid options. The most used is probably the 1TB plan which is $9.99 each month.
You can also set your device to auto-upload photos and sync across multiple devices included your computer.
Microsoft OneDrive:
If you already pay for Microsoft Office, this is an awesome solution. They'll give you 1TB of free storage with a personal account. Even if you don't opt for the paid option, they'll give you 2GB free or 100GB for just $2 each month.
This is also a great option for those with Windows-based computers since it will automatically sync photos and files via the cloud to your computer and phones with the app installed.
Amazon Photos:
This is probably Amazon's best kept secret. If you already have a membership for Amazon Prime, you'll probably be glad to know that you already have an unlimited photo storage option. As long as you're a member Amazon will keep as many photos as you can take with no extra cost to your membership. They also have apps for Android and iOS for you to easily set your device to auto-upload new photos.
External Hard Drive:
In addition to one of the cloud solutions above, I also recommend that you keep your files on an external hard drive that you physically have access to. This drive will serve as a back to your cloud solution.
The price of hard drives have come down lately. And I highly recommend you choose a Solid-state drive, which are more reliable than moving disks.
Bottom Line:
The process of backing up your photos and videos can be tedious at first. But in the long-run, you'll appreciate having those memories last a lifetime -- and hopefully pass them down a few generations. Buying photo books and archiving printed photos may be a thing of the past, but you'll want a way to remember your best days (or maybe not).