[SmartCat]

A decade ago, I lost hundreds of digital photos because of my carelessness. All the photos from my old point and shoot digital camera were on my hard disk and I lost it all when it crashed. Since then, I have always been extra cautious maintaining my digital photo collection.

My favorite smartphone app for managing photos is Microsoft Onedrive.



The app is free to download (5 GB storage) but I'm currently paying Rs. 5k per year (because I get to use MS Office on multiple devices + I get 1000 GB Onedrive space). Along with the photos, there is room for my entire MP3 collection too.

Onedrive app is installed on my phone and also my wife's phone and linked to single account. So whenever a photo/video is taken on either phone, it is automatically uploaded to Onedrive & the .jpg/.mpg shows up in "Onedrive folder" on my windows desktop/laptop within a couple of minutes.



From here, I just select all the files and copy to my desktop HDD + laptop HDD + an external USB hard disk (triple backup!). It is a 2 minute job and is done once every 2 or 3 months.



Now, we have a Windows desktop/laptop app called MICROSOFT PHOTOS which is a Google Photos-like digital photo gallery. If you don't have it, go to Microsoft Store and download 'Microsoft Photos'. The photos taken on your phone or your spouse's phone automatically shows up in Microsoft Photos gallery of your Windows desktop/laptop. It dates the photo (like Google Photos) - so if you want to check photos taken in 2010, you can use the slider on the right. Unlike Google Photos, images here load with full resolution and details.



As a bonus, Microsoft Onedrive app has a photo/document scanner feature like camscanner. You can scan and save documents in either PDF or JPEG format:

[SmartCat]

Of course, I also have a paid subscription to Google drive + Google Photos + Gmail, for which I'm paying around Rs. 150 per month. All photos taken on a smartphone is also stored in Google Photos too.

Silly question, but can we assume that 30 years from now, we will still be using JPEG format? What will happen to all our digital photos? That's why I'm considering buying a 'photo printer' like this from amazon.in, and take prints of atleast 100 photos a year. After all, print photos can last for 50+ years.



Any feedback on photo printers this? Realistically, how many photos can be printed with one cartridge? Is the printer ink reasonably priced or a rip-off? How is the quality of prints? Is print paper easily available?

Yes, I know one could take photos in an USB stick, go to the nearest photo studio and get prints done for Rs. 10 per photo. But this has always been in my to-do list and I've never got it done. Perhaps having this printer at home will probably get me to take prints often.

[Samfromindia]

All my media (Photos + Videos + Music) are stored on my Laptop + External HDD + Mobile. I keep all of them in sync using a tool called FreeFileSync, at least once a month. So far I stayed away from cloud backup, only time I use them are during my travels where phone gallery is synced so that I can at least recover my pictures in case the device gets lost / stolen / broken. Sometimes the pictures are worth more than the device itself

My laptop has 2.25TB space, External HDD 2x1TB, Mobile has 640GB. So I normally export old pics and videos in lower res and keep them on mobile.

Even if JPEG is not used in future, which will make way for more efficient and lossless formats, support to view them will always be there so no need to worry on that. One tip I will like to give is to convert your travel videos taken using phone camera to a more space efficient format like H265 which will reduce size by as much as 70% without any noticeable drop in quality. If you have a decent GPU, use fast encoders like NVENC along with handbrake and see your video conversions done within moments.

https://youtu.be/ldR84yty14s

[NaXal]

Hello,

After Google back stabbed us all by pulling the plug on their Unlimited storage for Photos, I have moved to selfhosted home cloud server setup.

I have documented the entire setup here -> https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadge...ml#post5228017 (Cloud File Sync & Backup : Google Drive vs Dropbox vs OneDrive vs?)

There has been some upgrades to that. My need and number of users have outgrown the laptop-based server. So present setup is now on a secondhand Dell Business Desktop with following configuration,

Intel Core i7 4790
Dell Motherboard / PSU
4 x 8GB (32GB) DDR-III RAM
256 GB Samsung Boot Drive
2 x 2 TB HDD (For data storage)

I have replaced & added an extra CPU cooler since Dell given stock cooler is really poor and fan is super loud. So replaced the Dell cabinet with a local cheap but large cabinet and added a Rs. 800/- Deep Cool CPU cooler and fan.



The system came with Windows license so upgraded it to Windows 11 Pro and moved my server setup into Hyper-V VMs.

I have further purchased a domain for easy access & SSL and alongside NextCloud, running PhotoPrism for frontend gallery viewing.

Setup is extremely stable, highly reliable & requires no maintenance or upkeep. Once the setup is done, just keep on using. With my 250Mbps home broadband fiber connection, compared to most free solutions, I am getting far better speed when accessed via internet.

Many of my friends and family have started using it.

I am no longer dependent on any cloud service provider. My data, within my control, with my own rules, always on and accessible from anywhere.

Thanks.

[GTO]

Am very, very particular about my digital files (including photos). As an aside, I'll add that I HATE physical files & physical paperwork.

- Whatever I click on my smartphone is instantly backed up to Dropbox.

- On my computer, I have 2 TB subscriptions to Dropbox (preferred & primary) as well as Google Drive (very buggy syncing).

- Two laptops that are identically setup in terms of OS, software & files.

- Every weekend or two, I backup my laptop to different hard-drives on a rotational basis.

- I have also downloaded the final version of Picasa. I feel it's the best facial recognition photo software to run locally on Windows. Can instantly find all pictures of Dad (as an example) whenever I want.

[deep_bang]

I have a Raspberry Pi hosted NAS with 2 drives connected to it. All my family phones run an app called foldersync that regularly backs up the data onto these drives.

Further, I have another disk that will do a backup of the above disks just in case. This is done once every few months.

I have an app called photomap gallery which hooks on to this server and does a one time indexing and shows me the photos just like the photos app. Once you click the thumbnail, the photo is retrieved and shown in full resolution.

Next, I have an app called tailscale (suggested to me by a BHPian) that runs on our phones and the raspberry Pi which creates a VPN so these files/data can be accessed from outside my house (via the internet). This means I have access to about 20 years of photos that I have on my drive, right on my phone.

My main motivation to build the above system was to not pay subscription to Google/onedrive etc as they slowly become more expensive and more importantly we get tied to one of these providers and being at their mercy as they revise their charges. This also helps me use the obsolete HDDs and SSDs that lie around after we upgrade them on desktops and laptops.

[atulsian]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

A
As a bonus, Microsoft Onedrive app has a photo/document scanner feature like camscanner. You can scan and save documents in either PDF or JPEG format:

Attachment 2381059

Why not buy the family plan which comes with 6 tb of storage up to 6 members. You can use apps to sync across multiple accounts.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/micr...ot:overviewtab

[vb-saan]

I have all the photos (now clicked exclusively on phones) backed up on iCloud and Google Photos. Even the occasional clicks using the DSLR are backed up in Google Photos.

I prefer Google Photos (compared to iCloud) because of the absolute ease of access. And I find Google's search functionality the best compared to all other options - be it by face, location, date, or objects.

[Gannu_1]

Here's what I do:

- Backup the photos from my phone every 3-4 months.

- Batch resize them using FastStone. Resizing reduces the size of the images. I prefer 2 MP (like 1080p); don't think I would ever need a higher size to view these photos later on.

- Delete the unwanted snaps. You'll be surprised at the amount of unwanted snaps that you've clicked. Just preserve what you really need - family, cars, outings, special occasions etc. 9/10 times, I haven't bothered referring to anything else.

- Have multiple Google accounts. Google doesn't have a problem with a user having multiple accounts. Each account gets 15GB of data. Copy them to the Google Drive.

- No storage on physical drives as those drives may fail. No such worries with a cloud storage and when internet is fast and cheap today.

[greenhorn]

I have a Pixel which I've kept alive because the older ones have unlimited storage in regular quality

[rajeevsulu]

I store all my photos on google drive. I also have a couple of harddrives. I check all my photos once a month and throw out the ones I don't need. Then I load them up to Drive

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Batch resize them using FastStone. Resizing reduces the size of the images. I prefer 2 MP (like 1080p); don't think I would ever need a higher size to view these photos later on.

Would strongly recommend not doing this. Storage space is cheaper than coffee today. Never know when you might want to blow up a picture or view it on your high res screen / TV.

In the last few years, we framed up a lot of family images and I was so glad to have stored files in the original resolution.

[swoosh]

I have been storing photos on an external hard disk for more than 15 years. It is an arduous process to move the photos/videos from phone to laptop, scan all photos, delete unnecessary files, edit them, and finally move them to the hard disk. As the number of photos/videos keeps increasing, it is becoming difficult to do this task at regular intervals, so recently I decided to simplify the process of managing the photos and videos.

Before:

• When phone memory is almost full, sit once in two months with the laptop, USB cable, hard disk, phone, and sd card.
• Move the photos to the laptop, scan all the photos and delete unnecessary files.
• Organize the photos and move them to the relevant folder
• A big challenge was some trip photos would be on my wife’s phone, so I also need to collect them from her phone and move it to the respective folders on the laptop
• Finally, move the organized folders to an external hard disk
• This whole process used to take a lot of time and effort



Solution:

• I created a new Gmail address which would be used for storing all travel and family photos/videos in google photos
• I added the same email address to my wife’s phone
• There were 20000+ photos and 500+ videos on my phone. I sorted it by date and deleted duplicate and unnecessary files
• Created a new album in google photos by event or trip name (20210502 – Ooty) and moved the files to the respective album
• After moving it to google photos, I deleted all the photos/videos from the phone
• Did the same with my wife’s phone
• After following the above process, phone memory become 80% free and all the photos were properly organized in Goole photos
• I also spent time moving some important photos from an external hard disk to google photos. This was relatively easier since I already had the folders organized on an external hard disk

Now:

• After every trip and family event, both my wife and I can move the photos to Google photos in a few minutes.
• No need to transfer any files between phone or laptop
• I can view all photos from childhood to recent photos in one place.
• I can stream photos/videos from google photos to smart tv anytime anywhere which was not possible with the external hard disk. Earlier, whenever we wanted to view old photos with family, I used to connect the hard disk to the TV through HDMI cable which was a time-consuming process as navigating between folders was not easy
• I can share the google photos link with my family and friends instead of sharing the photos/videos files through Whatsapp. Others can also upload to the same photo album if they have access.



Backup plan
• I am planning to take a backup of google photos to a hard disk once a six-month or a year. This is a simple process; all I need to do is connect the external hard disk and directly download the google photos album into the hard disk. This is to ensure I don’t lose everything if something happens to google cloud

[The Mechanic]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Attachment 2381060

Any feedback on photo printers this? Realistically, how many photos can be printed with one cartridge? Is the printer ink reasonably priced or a rip-off? How is the quality of prints? Is print paper easily available?

Yes, I know one could take photos in an USB stick, go to the nearest photo studio and get prints done for Rs. 10 per photo. But this has always been in my to-do list and I've never got it done. Perhaps having this printer at home will probably get me to take prints often.

I do a reasonable number of photo prints at home as part of my work, I don't know about this particular printer other than that here goes:-

1. People in my field only prefer 2 brands Epson followed by Canon.
2. Don't buy cartridge printer, buy ink tank printer.
3. I use Epson L3210, so does most of my friends in my field.
4. My previous printer was HP Ink Tank 319, lasted a full 3 years before colour head got damaged, part was unavailable and would have cost Rs. 4000. Hence bought the Epson.
5. For ink tank printer you can buy ink bottles and just pour to fill the tank. Ink is not too expensive.
6. Photo paper is easily available online or in stationary stores in multiple forms.
7. You can take print regular ( Passport size??) type pictures also, I don't go to studios for these now, I have the soft copy of my photo taken by the studio, I arrange it on to an A4 size word file and print it on to an A4 size photo paper. When I need 1, I just cut one off using scissors.
8. Check local price of printer, I got mine a lot cheaper than amazon.
9. Printers recommended by me are basically slightly fancier home printers. These can be used similar as any ink jet printer with cartridge. It's more expensive to buy, but works out much cheaper in long run due to having ink tank and not cartridges.

If and when you buy a printer:-
1. Use only genuine ink as bad ink damages print head and it is an expensive repair.
2. Buy good quality photo paper if you want to keep the photos for long time, in my experience some photo paper degrade over time.
3. Select settings correctly for the paper - Gloss, Matte etc., photo paper instead of regular A4 paper etc.
4. The higher the GSM photo paper you use, the shorter will be the life of printer - as per service personnel - although this will come into action only if you are taking 100s of sheets in a month. Even then you will get multiple years from a printer.

[anjan_c2007]

- Edit your images from the 'my pictures' folders, selecting only the important ones for long term preservation. You are your own editor here, though it's good if family members help to select.

- Though out of fashion, have them stored in pen drives that need to be used from time to time. Else all rest and no work makes pen drives tired enough to retire.

-Back up the pictures in every desktop at home. All of them cannot crash at the same time, unless these desktops collectively decide to go on strike protesting gruelling working hours of the concerned person especially on teambhp.com.

- Have at least two external HD drives of at least 2 TB each to store your images. These also store numerous downloaded movies beautifully. No wonder why cinema halls are groaning for lack of movie audiences. My oldest external hard disc has a 0.5 TB memory and is already about eight years old. It's of Seagate make and is doing its jobs flawlessly. Do not drop EHD's nor allow dust or heat to in any way come in contact with these. Use a good quality transparent plastic cover to cover each EHD.

- Google Drive is a "Brahmavtaar" that is above all the earlier cited storage devices. As GTO has said, each Google account gives you 15 GB space.

- Lastly, do not under any circumstances believe your mobile phone at all, as a very good image storing device. A back up of memorable images in as many other devices and cloud space is essential. Mobile phones get wet, get lost or stolen, get jittery with the slightest provocation and so on. Mobile phones are like Small Cap shares in the stock market which usually take the worst hit when bears rule supreme on the Mumbai streets.