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Take back photos from Big Tech in 2023

I’m guessing you took thousands, if not more, of photos and videos in 2022, because with a smartphone in our pockets, it was just so easy to do.

And like most people, if you thought about backup at all, you did what was easiest. You signed up for the automatic backup programs on Apple and Google, which made copies of the photos and videos on your phone, and placed them into the “cloud” for a monthly fee.

But as we talked about several times in 2022, what if Apple or Google stopped liking you? What if the companies, rightly or wrongly, decided you violated their terms of services and locked you out of your account? (Read this blockbuster piece in the New York Times for more about how this actually keeps happening.) What if you suddenly died, and forgot to leave your password behind for loved ones? All your photos would be unavailable to future generations and lost forever. (Please take a minute RIGHT NOW and share your digital photo passwords with loved ones!)

New Year’s project: Make 2023 the year you took back your digital footprint and control of your images. How to do that? Thanks for asking. I have several ideas.

Amazon Drive is going away but your photos are (probably) going to be just fine

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Amazon has sent out a notification to Amazon Drive customers reminding them that Amazon Drive is shutting down in December 2023. The news isn’t new, it was first announced back in July, and Amazon Drive apps for Android and iOS have already been taken down. But the notification serves as a reminder to make sure you’ve got everything downloaded and backed up and that you won’t be able to upload new files soon.

On January 31st 2023, Amazon Drive will no longer allow uploads of new files. You’ll still be able to download files, of course, and you shouldn’t lose any of your photos. The company is also urging people to not delete their photos from Amazon Drive as this will also result in their deletion from Amazon Photos. Photos from Amazon Drive were automatically saved to Amazon Photos a few months ago.

Google Photos is corrupting older images but here’s how to fix it

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It appears that Google Photos is having a bit of a moment. It seems that it’s corrupting some older images stored on the service dating from 2013 to 2015, according to reports from users. The phenomenon shows up as what looks like digital tears (as in rips through the image, not liquid that comes from your eyes) across the image, as you can see in examples posted to the Google support forums.

Quite a few people have reported the issue. As well as post on Google support, there are also a number of Reddit threads with more examples. There is some good news, though. It looks like Google is already on the case and some users have had their images fixed without them having to do anything. But, if you’re facing this issue and it doesn’t get automatically fixed, there is a way to do it yourself.

How to get your photos and videos backed up so you don’t lose them forever

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Backing up is always a hotly debated topic. Even just whether to back up or not is often a cause of conflict in a lot of social media photography groups. And even if you have chosen to backup your work, you’ll see three million responses describing exactly how you should back everything up in order to ensure you never lose anything – and they’ll all be different. Ultimately, everybody has the workflow that works best for them.

But what will work best for you? If you’re just thinking about backing up your photos and video, or even if you do already but you want to learn more about other backup technologies, this video from Gordon Laing will set you off on the right foot. In it, he talks about a whole bunch of different backup options along with the pros and potential cons of each.

Amazon, Google, SmugMug, Apple: what’s the best home for your photos?

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When last we met, I pointed out the perils of using Apple’s iCloud Photos for photo backup for one simple reason: if you delete an image off your iPhone, Apple will in turn also delete it from iCloud*.

This time I’d like to go over the best alternative photo backup options for you in more detail, because like it or not, in today’s world, just like paying for food, shelter and taxes, if you snap photos on your smartphone or camera, you will be paying for online storage. And paying more in the coming years as well, as you snap more images.

There’s no such thing as free backup anymore.

Don’t use iCloud to backup your photos

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My friend Bill just returned from a family vacation in Costa Rica and shot lots of photos and video on his iPhone, including some killer shots of breakfasts with local monkeys.

No surprise that once he got home, he checked his iPhone storage and found that it was 98% full. Just a few more snaps, and he’d be totally out of room.

His solution? “I’ll just put them all on iCloud, and then delete them off my iPhone,” he told me.

PSA: Google’s free cloud photo storage ends in 2 weeks – Here are eight alternatives

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Last November, Google announced that its free unlimited photo backup was going to end and it would all fall under the free shared 15GB get you with Google’s other services, like Gmail and Google Drive. Now, it’s almost upon us, with the service set to shut down on June 1st. You can, of course, upgrade to Google One (although there’s no “Unlimited” package), but what are your alternatives?

Well, none of the alternatives are really free, either. Not for unlimited storage, anyway. But with Google shifting over to a paid-only option with minimal free storage, the advantage they once had is now gone. Here we take a look at a few of the competing services for you to check out and see which best fits your needs.

PSA: Amazon Photos auto-save might not be auto-saving all of your raw files

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The whole cloud backup thing has been a hot topic for a while now as various services have been simultaneously killing off unlimited storage while others have been bringing it back and trying to outdo each other to win over your business. Amazon Photos is one such service that offers unlimited space as long as you have a prime account – including your raw photos. But it seems it’s not backing up everything – even if you think that it is.

Reddit user /u/somebodytoshove posted to /r/photography noting that the auto-save feature of the Amazon Photos iOS app has not been uploading the .raf files from his Fuji mirrorless camera. It thinks it has, and it looks like it has, but when you look at the uploaded files, they actually contain only the jpg preview.

Amber X is a privacy-focused in-home cloud storage for your photos you can access anywhere

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With all the goings-on at Google and people looking for alternate cloud storage options, sometimes it’s easier to just be your own cloud. I use Resilio Sync for this, but that does usually mean building up a dedicated PC. The Amber X wants to simplify that process with an inexpensive cloud-storage-in-a-box solution that lets you store your data and retrieve it anywhere.

Amber X is currently running on Indiegogo, where it’s long since passed its goal. It has a couple of days left to go, with pledges starting at $129. But we’ve got you a special link that’ll let you get your hands on one for just $119 – about the same cost you’d pay for a year of Google Photos or iCloud for the same storage, except there’s no subscription with this!

New Google Photos storage rules could delete your Gmail and Google Drive files too

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Google recently announced they were killing off free storage for Google Photos from June 1st, 2021. A lot of people haven’t been happy with Google’s track record on moves like this, and have been seeking alternatives.

Many users assumed that any images already there would remain safe, but it seems not. Google has started emailing some of its Gmail, Drive and Photos users to let them know that their content may soon be deleted without warning or permission. Like the new Google Photos restrictions, these new policies also come into effect on June 1st, 2021.

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