The Best Online Photo Storage & Photo Backup Options

By Author: Maria Kurganova
Total Articles: 28
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Digital cameras have done more to revolutionize amateur photography than anything else. The digital format not only eliminated the need to buy film, but people no longer have to pay to develop and print every photo. With 10+ megapixel cameras and simple editing tools built into every smartphone, nearly everyone can snap quality digital photos and shoot video all day long. Being able to take endless photos so easily presents shutterbugs with a new problem: Where do I store all my pictures? What's the best way to back up photos to keep them safe? People frequently use one of a few online photo storage solutions, but most of them fall short when it comes to protecting your pictures.
Social Media
One of the best things about digital photography is the speed and ease with which you can share pictures with your friends and family. For many people, their social media page has become a de facto photo library, but relying on Facebook and Instagram as your online photo storage can be a serious mistake.
One concern is image quality. People upload 350 million photos to Facebook every day, while another 60 million go on ...
... Instagram. To accommodate all of those pictures, the sites compress them, which degrades image quality.
More importantly, photos uploaded to social media are not secure. Accounts are frequently hacked and profiles get deleted by accident, both of which compromise your ability to retrieve your photos.
Photo management sites
As cloud storage matured, several websites have popped up to provide online photo storage. There are countless companies vying to be your digital photo library. However, there are several issues with using such sites.
First, they are photo management sites, not backup services. As a result, they have wildly different levels of security.
Second, because they are providing a service to you, these sites hold all the cards. If they decide a photo you've uploaded violates their terms or is somehow offensive, they can block you from your account and you'll be unable to access your own photos.
Finally, the site can go out of business. When EverPix closed down in 2013, it created a tremendous headache for customers who had to recapture all of their photos from the online archive.
Is there a role for photo management sites when you're sharing and editing photos? Definitely. Are they the best way to back up photos? Not really.
Native backup options
If you want to back up your photos, you might consider using a native solution like iCloud Photo Library for your iPhone or Google Photo/Google Drive for your Android. While these options are convenient, you should be aware that there are concerns regarding their security, flexibility and cost.
One of the biggest limitations, is the fact that these systems are built for specific platforms. Want to switch from an iPhone to an Android after storing your photos in the iCloud Photo Library? Good luck. It is not a simple process.
Also, these programs might be promoted as free, but those "free" versions offer severely limited amounts of data. With iCloud photos you only get 5 GB for free, while Google Drive caps their free offering at 15 GB. A typical digital photo library is larger than that, which Apple and Google rely on to sell that additional cloud storage.
Dual protection backup
When deciding how to back up photos, you should look to do it in a way that assures they are preserved, secure, and accessible. That dual protection means your digital pictures are accessible from anywhere and protected against data loss.
In addition to dual protection, Acronis True Image includes several unique capabilities not offered by other photo management services and backup solutions. For example, you can automatically back up your mobile phone to your home computer via Wi-Fi, so the photos you took during the day are instantly protected the moment you walk in the door. It can also back up your Facebook profile, including contacts, photos and posts, so if your Facebook account is hacked or accidently deleted, you won't lose anything. Instead, you'll be able to quickly restore your profile.
Plus, with just one license of Acronis True Image, one family can get backup for an unlimited number of mobile devices and 1 TB of cloud backup storage in the secure Acronis Cloud for a quarter of what they'd pay to iCloud Photo Library to cover five mobile devices with 200 GB of cloud space each.
Final Thought
Using photo management sites can be helpful and social media is definitely a fun way to share your favorite pictures, but they can't replace the security and flexibility of a real backup solution. To protect your online photo library you'll want to use a true backup software solution with cloud storage, like Acronis True Image.