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How do you backup your smartphone/tablet photos?

How do you backup your smartphone/tablet photos?

  • Dropbox

    Votes: 12 30.0%

  • Flickr

    Votes: 3 7.5%

  • Google+ Photos

    Votes: 14 35.0%

  • Google Drive

    Votes: 5 12.5%

  • iCloud

    Votes: 7 17.5%

  • Old school (direct transfer to computer)

    Votes: 12 30.0%

  • OneDrive

    Votes: 8 20.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 15.0%
  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .
O

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 27, 2011
1,615
577
Having tried multiple services, I'm undecided on which one to stick with for backing up and managing my photos. Hence I'm interested to know what service/method everyone else is using for backing up your smartphone/tablet photos.

Have posted in the alternatives forum because I'm particularly interested in the perspective of users who don't only use Apple hardware.

Some points for discussion:

Why do you use the service you have chosen?
Do you manage your photos within that service or do you transfer from the backup location and manage elsewhere?

Note: You can select more than one option on the poll
 
W

wannabepcuser

macrumors member
May 25, 2013
57
1
I use multiple backup methods. Each time my phone or iPad is connected to my iMac, a backup is made of all contents.

I have a 2 tb time capsule for local and versioning backup.

I have a portable hard drive that is used for offsite backups that I keep at work. For this backup I made up a unix script that keeps certain folders on the portable drive in sync with my iMac. I will update this drive every month or two.

I have another portable drive that gets updated less frequent that I keep at the bank in their vault.
 
rambo47

rambo47

macrumors 65816
Oct 3, 2010
1,361
986
Denville, NJ
As an alternative to iCloud, I prefer OneDrive. Some of the best cross-platform compatibility I've seen, and the interface is clean and simple.
 
E

Explicitic

macrumors 6502
Oct 26, 2012
455
11
Undecided
I have my phone set to automatically backup all photos to Google+ Photos/Drive, mainly because I use Google Apps Unlimited and don't have to worry about storage limits.
 
Phil A.

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
Phone automatically uploads to OneDrive. Computer syncs OneDrive and pushes them out to Google+.

The computer also gets backed up to CrashPlan online and an external HDD.

I then import the photos into Lightroom and export them out to Flickr and Adobe Revel

That all means I have 6 backup copies of the pictures I take :)
 
O

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 27, 2011
1,615
577
Phil A. said:
Phone automatically uploads to OneDrive. Computer syncs OneDrive and pushes them out to Google+.

The computer also gets backed up to CrashPlan online and an external HDD.

I then import the photos into Lightroom and export them out to Flickr and Adobe Revel

That all means I have 6 backup copies of the pictures I take :)
Click to expand...

Wow. I'm guessing what you export to Flickr & Revel is for sharing. I can understand why you would have Crashplan and external HDD in addition to OneDrive. But what I don't get is why you would bother with pushing everything on from OneDrive to Google+ :confused:
 
LSUtigers03

LSUtigers03

macrumors 68020
Apr 9, 2008
2,089
41
When I change phones I'll do a backup with Titanium Backup and Helium. I keep a copy on my computer and dropbox.
 
Phil A.

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
ozaz said:
Wow. I'm guessing what you export to Flickr & Revel is for sharing. I can understand why you would have Crashplan and external HDD in addition to OneDrive. But what I don't get is why you would bother with pushing everything on from OneDrive to Google+ :confused:
Click to expand...

It's all as extra backups (everything on Flickr and Revel is set to private) - my photos mean too much to me to trust them to a single or even a couple of points of failure

I actually forgot about a couple of steps too - I also have an iMac that downloads the images from Revel and then backs them up via Time Machine and again up to Crashplan
 
Last edited:
DanGoh

DanGoh

macrumors 6502
Apr 6, 2014
366
506
How do you backup your smartphone/tablet photos?

Back up at the end of the month to 2 external hard drives. If they both fail, then shoot...
 
slu

slu

macrumors 68000
Sep 15, 2004
1,636
107
Buffalo
I upload to Google+ and Dropbox. Dropbox is only temp storage until I import to iPhoto. I backup my computer to a local hard drive and to Carbonite.
 
SpyderBite

SpyderBite

macrumors 65816
Oct 4, 2011
1,262
8
Xanadu
Computer, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive. I move the photos I'm going to keep to my iCloud account cause I still have 500gb from when I was an employee.
 
tbayrgs

tbayrgs

macrumors 604
Jul 5, 2009
7,467
5,097
Phil A. said:
It's all as extra backups (everything on Flickr and Revel is set to private) - my photos mean too much to me to trust them to a single or even a couple of points of failure

I actually forgot about a couple of steps too - I also have an iMac that downloads the images from Revel and then backs them up via Time Machine and again up to Crashplan
Click to expand...

Yup, same sentiment here as well, why take the chance. My backups aren't quite as extensive as Phil--i automatically upload to Dropbox and Google+. My office Mac automatically imports any new photos detected in Dropbox to my photo library, which is subsequently backed up to two different locations via Time Machine. I then also upload everything to Flickr (hey why not when they offer 1 TB for free).

Heck, when Apple rolls out the new iCloud storage options I'll likely backup there as well.
 
O

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 27, 2011
1,615
577
Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I'm a bit surprised at how evenly spread the poll results are. I guess part of that is because most people are using multiple methods.

Some of you are mentioning how you do further backups once the photos are on your computer (e.g. to online backup like Carbonite, and to external hard drives). My original intention was for the question to be more about what method/s you use for the initial step of backup/transfer from your phone/tablet. But I guess my initial post was not worded clearly enough, and in any case its also interesting to hear what you do once the photos are on your computer.

I prefer to keep things simple and use a single method for the initial step of backing up from my phone/tablet and only have one web-based storage location to organise. I'm leaning toward OneDrive over Google+ because that way I can automatically get a local copy on one of my PCs (that I can then also backup elsewhere as part of my general computer backup method), and photos can be tagged privately in OneDrive which is not possible on Google+

There are a few things I don't like about using OneDrive for backing up my smartphone photos (which I why I have also been trying other methods), but hopefully they'll come with time:

1. I'd like better mobile apps for viewing the photos. The OneDrive app is pretty basic in comparison with dedicated photos apps like Google Photos and Flickr, and in comparison to the OneDrive website. Personally, I think Microsoft should have a dedicated OneDrive photos app instead of relying on the general purpose OneDrive app.

2. I'd like the option to only backup when the phone is charging (Google+ has this option)

3. I'd like the ability to organise photos into virtual folders in order to share sets of photos from multiple folders without having to create new regular folders and duplicate photos. Dropbox has this, but it has other limitations.
 
N

nixiemaiden

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2010
877
0
Currently I just copy to my computer from USB.

I plan on getting a personal cloud storage from Western Digital or something and use that.
 
mrex

mrex

macrumors 68040
Jul 16, 2014
3,458
1,527
europe
ozaz said:
I'm leaning toward OneDrive over Google+ because that way I can automatically get a local copy on one of my PCs (that I can then also backup elsewhere as part of my general computer backup method), and photos can be tagged privately in OneDrive which is not possible on Google+
Click to expand...

Not sure did I understand this correctly, but... Google drive keeps data on your local computer too. Im using google drive to sync my stuff between my Note and laptop. So the files are always in three different places (Note, laptop, cloud).

I keep my photos in google drive too. I dont even have G+ account.
 
O

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 27, 2011
1,615
577
mrex said:
Not sure did I understand this correctly, but... Google drive keeps data on your local computer too. Im using google drive to sync my stuff between my Note and laptop. So the files are always in three different places (Note, laptop, cloud).

I keep my photos in google drive too. I dont even have G+ account.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's true. However, IMO the OneDrive website provides a better photo viewing experience than the Google Drive website. I would say Google+ is better for viewing than OneDrive (and also provides editing tools), but using Google Drive & Google+ simultaneously is clunky (stuff you do in Google+ does not get reflected back to Google Drive). Also, neither Google+ nor Google Drive support private photo tagging.
 
JaySoul

JaySoul

macrumors 68030
Jan 30, 2008
2,629
2,865
slu said:
I upload to Google+ and Dropbox. Dropbox is only temp storage until I import to iPhoto. I backup my computer to a local hard drive and to Carbonite.
Click to expand...

I upload to Google+ and Dropbox too, but I keep forgetting to back up to iPhoto (literally haven't in 10 months, awful I know).

Is there an easy way to do it or automate it?
 
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