Which Free/Paid Cloud Storage Would You Recommend ?

• 

  spackbace on 18/07/2017 - 21:07

  +2

  Using Google Photos free option here. 16MP backups, I'm fine with that

  • 

    tik tok on 18/07/2017 - 21:17

    Sure that works for everyone with a phone. What do you do for photos and videos from other devices ?

    • 

      spackbace on 18/07/2017 - 21:27

      +2

      Can upload it on pc, just takes a bit more effort.

      What sort of quality do you want to back up? Are we talking big RAW files or just standard jpegs?

      • 

        tik tok on 18/07/2017 - 21:38

        Just standard photos and videos.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 18/07/2017 - 21:31

  siacoin approx 1tb for $2 usd a month

  • 

    tik tok on 18/07/2017 - 21:38

    Thanks. I will check this out.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 18/07/2017 - 21:41

      see my next comment - was editing my original comment when you replied

  • 

    poboy on 18/07/2017 - 23:10

    +1

    Man. That looks way over complicated. I thought I could just pay $2.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 18/07/2017 - 21:39

  +1

  google photos free unlimited - if you are willing to limit photo resolution to 16 megapixels and video resolution to 1080p
  network storage devices - allows multiple users across multiple devices to store files on one centralised location but you would also need to back this up - $500+ for 4 tb
  cloud storage siacoin approx 1tb for $2 usd a month
  if your using a desktop computer an additional hard drive - $100+ would also do for 1TB

  • 

    tik tok on 19/07/2017 - 09:37

    Hard drives are going to be a hard sell, as they can fail over time and I cannot risk losing data.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 18/07/2017 - 21:52

  if you give me an idea of what devices you use e.g. Digital camera (number of megapixels) mobile phone, ipad, kids tablet, laptop, desktop i will be able to give you more precise advice

  • 

    tik tok on 19/07/2017 - 09:25

    Handy cam 1080, a couple of tablets, a few cannon point and shoot cameras, a couple of laptops (I think around 12 MP), an ipad and an iphone. We do use all of these for capturing photos and videos on a daily basis/or when on vacation. A couple of portfolios a year (birthdays, special occasions and stuff).

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 19/07/2017 - 22:15

      i would recommend that you use one of your laptops to consolidate all the photographs and videos onto the internal hard drive which you estimate to be 250gb. Then purchase a backup drive for example a 2tb usb3 portable drive for backups such as https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/toshiba-2t… this cost $99.
      You keep the mastercopy on your laptop and have 1 or 2 backups on the portable harddrive.

• 

  KitchenSink on 18/07/2017 - 22:06

  +1

  Google Photos is a great cloud storage option for mobile users. But if you're photos are larger than 16 MP it crops the files so that it fits the limit.

  If you don't want that have a look at Flickr which gives 1TB free storage for photos and videos with no photo restrictions like google photos i.e if you're photos are larger than 16 megapixels, it won't get cropped like Google Photos. Videos are limited to 1080p @3 mins or 1GB in size I believe.

  Can be a bit overwhelming to use and restricted to photos and video files only but that's fine for your use.

  • 

    tik tok on 19/07/2017 - 09:28

    I have only heard of Flickr recently. The videos being limited to 3 mins is a bummer.

• 

  flash659 on 19/07/2017 - 00:34

  Problem with Google Photos is obviously the size limit for unlimited storage and you don't get to keep them in folders etc as you would on your PC which can be a bit annoying using their browsing system. Can also be annoying if you want to download a large group of photos.

  Im just using Google Drive at the moment.
  $2.49 a month for 100GB plus whatever other bonus space you may have earned. Could be a good place to start. Can even pay that fee with Google Play credit from Google Rewards app. If you need more; 1TB is $12.50 a month which will no doubt be a lot cheaper by the time you need it in the future.

  • 

    tik tok on 19/07/2017 - 09:33

    +3

    This is my pet peeve. It is unbelievable how google photos doesn't let you categorise photos!
    I wouldn't have bothered with Google drive's pricing if you hadn't mentioned its price in this post. This is very affordable and exactly what I am after. This is the number one option for me now. Thank you for posting.

    • 

      spackbace on 19/07/2017 - 11:10

      Can add tags instead which in turn would create a 'category'. The face recognition is kinda cool too, or can search for 'beach' and it automatically detects all photos at a beach

    • 

      scotty on 19/07/2017 - 11:42

      +2

      You can actually create albums on Google Photo, each album can contain up to 500 photos, and you can "Download All" from album's menu.

      • 

        flash659 on 19/07/2017 - 21:32

        Thanks for the heads up; wasn't actually aware of that Download All option but the 500 photo limit is quite limiting if say you're wanting an album of a big overseas trip.

• 

  D C on 19/07/2017 - 08:08

  A DIY approach is to use BTSync aka BitTorrentSync. Looks like the marketers have taken over https://www.resilio.com/individuals/ and it's Resilio now.

  No fee, but no third party storage either. However there's no limits on space, file size etc. I got a Raspberry Pi and added a hard drive to it, that's my always-on 'private cloud' PC.

  You set it up to share specific folders, so on your phone you share the Photos folder, and sync that to a folder on your PC.

  You can also share folders with friends or family, you send them a 'key' so they get access. Access is either full control, or read only. You can't give out public links (eg to a specific photo) though.

  Performance is fine, it syncs without hassles and doesn't get in your way.

  It has an archive feature as well, this keeps a copy of edited & deleted files. It's not that sophisticated so don't get too excited.

  I went thru most of the cloud services (DropBox, SpiderOak, Copy, Google) and found the same as you, they just don't work after a while as the rules change (especially if you don't want to spend much money - and sometimes even if you do).

  I still use DropBox, mainly for files where I want to hand out a hassle-free public link which BTSync doesn't do (eg for the "Best hard rubbish finds" thread: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/4870422/redir & https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/4874344/redir) but also as a secondary option for certain files. Plus it's never given me any grief so I never bothered to uninstall it.

  • 

    tik tok on 19/07/2017 - 09:36

    Isn't this essentially turning folders on a hard drive to cloud folders ? If my understanding is correct, the problem for me with such a setup is the possibility of a hard drive failure. I know they are getting more stable-r but I don't want to risk a life time of memories.

    • 

      D C on 19/07/2017 - 09:51

      Cloned folders might be a better description. If anything in one folder changes then it'll copy over to all the others.

      You have as many copies as you have machines (so phone, PC, laptop, etc); if one dies you get another one, install BTSync and everything will copy over without you having to think about it.

      The advantage of BTSync is you have no space\size\price limits, the downside is there's no 'cloud' in the background that's always there to copy your files. If you never have your laptop & PC on at the same time then they'll never sync up, which is why I added the Raspberry Pi to act as 'the cloud' for me.

• 

  Hazzard on 19/07/2017 - 12:19

  Been using OneDrive from back when it used to be called skydrive. It was actually annoying when they dropped the free storage limit to 5gb. Fortunately, I was able to sign up at some site they setup that let me keep the 15gb free storage as well as the 15gb camera roll bonus. Phone, tablet and laptop all auto uploading photos and videos. Yet to run out of space. Not yet let me down performance wise. And now my office 365 subscription comes with 1TB onedrive storage.

  The smallest plan onedrive has is 50gb for $2.99 and in that case its cheaper to go with google drive as mentioned above by flash659 which nets you 100gb for $2.49.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 19/07/2017 - 23:42

  If you're really against hardrive back ups may I ask if your laptop have a dvd or bluray burner - ie can you make DVD or Bluray disks this is another way of backing up - you can get a save upto 25gb onto a bluray there about $2 to 44 dollars a disc- if you archive them by year - make several copies and keep a set with your parents or at the bank safety deposit box. The claimed life span of a properly stored bluray is between 100 to 200 years according to manufacturer. If you dont have a Bluray drive you can buy an external Burner - make sure you laptop is relatively recent though.

• 

  jsb on 22/07/2017 - 09:17

  +1

  You said "I am looking to be able to PERMANENTLY store photos and videos."

  When you say permanently and think about backup, just opting for one approach(cloud, network share) is never an option especially with the growing threat of ransomware which is only going to get worse. My backup strategy:

  1. A local network storage drive with 16tb in raid (effectively 8 tb of data) which is accessible only in read-only mode. When I have to copy data on the drive, I simply run a powershell script to mount all the folders in read-write mode and then unmount those after its done.

  2. I use Dropbox for cloud storage where my photos and videos are automatically backed up from all my devices along with other important data. You can simply copy the images and videos to dropbox synced folder from you camera etc. The reason I chose dropbox is because of its incremental backup for 30 days which no other cloud storage provides(that I know). In case of ransomware or accidental delete of files which are synced with cloud, I get 30 days to revert the delete and get all my files back from Dropbox website.

  This way allows me to have a local backup in Raid along with cloud backup that is accessible at all times.
  If one of the drives in local network storage fails, simply get a new one and raid will be reconstructed and give the faulty one for warranty claim(if applicable)
  I am happy with this setup for past 2 years and would recommend the same to everyone.

  • 

    tik tok on 25/07/2017 - 21:35

    I only have a laptop. Do you know if someone has implemented a RAID setup with a windows laptop ? Otherwise, this is an excellent option too. I would think using something like this : https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/320419 this can be achieved ?