iCloud Photo Storage - Would This Work?

[purdnost]

I want a place to store all of my wife’s and my photos and videos from the last several years.

Currently, everything is on a portable hard drive, but we don’t have a way to access the content on the fly. I’m also worried about data corruption and drive failure.

I’m not sure I want NAS because it’s expensive, I’ve read that it can be complicated to set up, and the Synology photo software doesn’t have the best App Store ratings.

None of the third-party cloud storage services (SmugMug, Dropbox, etc.) appeal to me because they either don’t support unconverted HFS files or they’re expensive.

I currently subscribe to Apple One where I’m using only about half the storage. iCloud would be ideal, but there’s currently no library sharing, and the thumbnails (even with photo optimization enabled) take up too much storage on my 64 GB iPhone.

I was considering creating a separate iCloud account under Family Sharing to store all of our media there, but not sync it to any of our devices. We would access it via the web when needed. I’m not sure this is a practical solution, or if I’m overlooking any potential drawbacks.

Something else I’m considering is “My Photo Stream”: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317

If I understand correctly, with this enabled on my iPhone, all media is automatically saved to iCloud, but only the last 30 days appears on my device? That might be the best option for me. My storage doesn’t get used up with library thumbnails and I can still access all of my content via the iCloud web portal. Is my understanding correct here?

Any insights, suggestions, of advice are welcome.

 

[USAntigoon]

I want a place to store all of my wife’s and my photos and videos from the last several years.

Currently, everything is on a portable hard drive, but we don’t have a way to access the content on the fly. I’m also worried about data corruption and drive failure.

I’m not sure I want NAS because it’s expensive, I’ve read that it can be complicated to set up, and the Synology photo software doesn’t have the best App Store ratings.

None of the third-party cloud storage services (SmugMug, Dropbox, etc.) appeal to me because they either don’t support unconverted HFS files or they’re expensive.

I currently subscribe to Apple One where I’m using only about half the storage. iCloud would be ideal, but there’s currently no library sharing, and the thumbnails (even with photo optimization enabled) take up too much storage on my 64 GB iPhone.

I was considering creating a separate iCloud account under Family Sharing to store all of our media there, but not sync it to any of our devices. We would access it via the web when needed. I’m not sure this is a practical solution, or if I’m overlooking any potential drawbacks.

Something else I’m considering is “My Photo Stream”: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317

If I understand correctly, with this enabled on my iPhone, all media is automatically saved to iCloud, but only the last 30 days appears on my device? That might be the best option for me. My storage doesn’t get used up with library thumbnails and I can still access all of my content via the iCloud web portal. Is my understanding correct here?

Any insights, suggestions, of advice are welcome.

I store all my pics in Flickr and my videos in Vimeo..Never had any issue accessing them..

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

You could also just store everything in an iCloud folder, and share it between you. You don’t get the Photos optimization and such, but it also just leaves your existing file system in-tact. Also, have a look at pCloud for easy, one time payment for secure cloud storage.

 

[jwolf6589]

I want a place to store all of my wife’s and my photos and videos from the last several years.

Currently, everything is on a portable hard drive, but we don’t have a way to access the content on the fly. I’m also worried about data corruption and drive failure.

I’m not sure I want NAS because it’s expensive, I’ve read that it can be complicated to set up, and the Synology photo software doesn’t have the best App Store ratings.

None of the third-party cloud storage services (SmugMug, Dropbox, etc.) appeal to me because they either don’t support unconverted HFS files or they’re expensive.

I currently subscribe to Apple One where I’m using only about half the storage. iCloud would be ideal, but there’s currently no library sharing, and the thumbnails (even with photo optimization enabled) take up too much storage on my 64 GB iPhone.

I was considering creating a separate iCloud account under Family Sharing to store all of our media there, but not sync it to any of our devices. We would access it via the web when needed. I’m not sure this is a practical solution, or if I’m overlooking any potential drawbacks.

Something else I’m considering is “My Photo Stream”: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317

If I understand correctly, with this enabled on my iPhone, all media is automatically saved to iCloud, but only the last 30 days appears on my device? That might be the best option for me. My storage doesn’t get used up with library thumbnails and I can still access all of my content via the iCloud web portal. Is my understanding correct here?

Any insights, suggestions, of advice are welcome.

You must have allot of photos and videos to fill a 64GB iPhone! If I were you I'd figure out a way to use iCloud so that all your media syncs to all your devices. This may require you upgrading to a 128 or 256GB model iPhone.

 

[jwolf6589]

I store all my pics in Flickr and my videos in Vimeo..Never had any issue accessing them..

Then the user has to deal with 2 different websites. This is not a practical solution. It may work for you, but it will work for few others. I store al my media in the photos app. All my iPhone and iPad media in iCloud, and my media from my Powershot and Camcorder in a separate photos library.

 

[r.harris1]

Then the user has to deal with 2 different websites. This is not a practical solution. It may work for you, but it will work for few others. I store al my media in the photos app. All my iPhone and iPad media in iCloud, and my media from my Powershot and Camcorder in a separate photos library.

It’s great you are participating in a thread started by another person here in the Photography sub forum. There are around 112 million users of Flickr and about 200 million users of Vimeo. Clearly a lot of people think storing stuff there and sharing via those platforms is both practical and that it works well for them . Your approach clearly works for you (great!), but it’s only your approach. There are lots of others.

 

[purdnost]

You could also just store everything in an iCloud folder, and share it between you. You don’t get the Photos optimization and such, but it also just leaves your existing file system in-tact. Also, have a look at pCloud for easy, one time payment for secure cloud storage.

I suppose my only concern is the thumbnails, when viewing content, take up a ton of space on my nearly full 64GB iPhone. I wonder how iOS handles this. But, I do really like the idea of maintaining all of the metadata (I can go back and and make edits later) whereas a third party service would convert HEIF to JPEG and there goes my ability to undo any edits, adjust filters, portrait mode settings, etc. And, a shared folder with my wife would be ideal.

 

[jwolf6589]

I suppose my only concern is the thumbnails, when viewing content, take up a ton of space on my nearly full 64GB iPhone. I wonder how iOS handles this. But, I do really like the idea of maintaining all of the metadata (I can go back and and make edits later) whereas a third party service would convert HEIF to JPEG and there goes my ability to undo any edits, adjust filters, portrait mode settings, etc. And, a shared folder with my wife would be ideal.

UPGRADE.Apple no longer sells iPhones with 64GB.

 

[jwolf6589]

It’s great you are participating in a thread started by another person here in the Photography sub forum. There are around 112 million users of Flickr and about 200 million users of Vimeo. Clearly a lot of people think storing stuff there and sharing via those platforms is both practical and that it works well for them . Your approach clearly works for you (great!), but it’s only your approach. There are lots of others.

Yeah and I bet many of those users are Android.

 

[Clix Pix]

Many photography enthusiasts use a website such as Flickr, Smugmug, Zenfolio, etc., as a place to share and store their valuable images. It, however, should not be relied upon as the sole place to stash things, and backups of all images should also be retained, at home and at an additional off-site location. For instance, I use Zenfolio as a way to stash and also share my images, have been using it for a number of years now. I can access it from anywhere I am, any device (computer, iPhone, iPad) and look at my images and if need be, download one or share it somewhere else. I also use external drives to safely back up and store my image files at home and as well I have one set of them in my safe deposit box at my local bank. Those drives are rotated on a monthly basis so that they are kept up to date.

I know Zenfolio accepts both RAW and .jpeg formats -- I'm not sure about HEIF, as that is fairly new.

 

[r.harris1]

Yeah and I bet many of those users are Android.

OK. I use Flickr. I don't use Android.

 

[USAntigoon]

Then the user has to deal with 2 different websites. This is not a practical solution. It may work for you, but it will work for few others. I store al my media in the photos app. All my iPhone and iPad media in iCloud, and my media from my Powershot and Camcorder in a separate photos library.

Nothing wrong with having more than one website to deal with as they both serve a well defined purpose. Keep in mind Flickr is a nice home base for stills, (they do allow some minimal video uploads)
However, video material requires quite different techniques in website hosting to allow for nice playback. (4K videos are quite massive in file size and rendering.. )

Anyway, my answer is a reflection of what I feel comfortable with. The OP will shop around and find a solution satisfying his needs..