Cloud storage is an essential part of your 3-2-1 backup strategy to keep your photos safe. Depending on your needs, there are a range of options to consider when choosing affordable cloud storage.
Your first step is to decide whether you need two-way sync, or one-way sync, for your cloud storage.
Essentially, two-way sync keeps files on multiple devices in sync (i.e. keeps the files the same by duplicating changes on all devices). One-way sync is purely backup, copying your files into the cloud, without keeping those files updated elsewhere on another device.
Choosing affordable cloud storage with two-way sync
If you need your photo files to be accessible from multiple computers or devices, then two-way sync is the right choice. OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud are all well-established, secure options.
However, you need to be aware that you will get less storage space for the money than you will with a one-way sync backup service. Once you need more than about 2TB of space, these services shift into corporate pricing, which quickly becomes expensive. If you have a relatively small photo collection, and need them everywhere, it may be suitable.
Chances are you already have an account with one or more of these services, so to get your photos completely backed up is just a matter of making sure you have enough space in your account for your files.
Choosing affordable cloud storage with one-way sync
Cloud storage with one-way sync saves your files in the cloud, and that’s it. Instead of keeping things all the same everywhere, its purpose is backup in the case of data loss. If you lose your files, you download the backup and you are ready to go again.
Because there’s less moving parts, the storage space you get is a lot cheaper than for two-way sync services. For example, 5TB on iDrive (the cloud backup I use) is half the price of 2TB on Google Drive.
Choosing an affordable photos-only cloud backup service
Lightroom is an example of two-way sync cloud storage specifically for photos. If you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber then you have at least 20GB of cloud storage sitting ready to use. Using Lightroom as cloud backup for whole photo collection has it’s pros and cons.
First off, it keeps your photos and their edits in sync everywhere, which is a massive plus. However, your first 20GB of space will quickly fill up if you are shooting RAW (for reference, I fit about 700-800 files in my 20GB before it’s full). Keep in mind your space is shared across all your Adobe cloud files, so you may not have access to the full 20GB just for your Lightroom catalog. The price jumps up significantly to get more than 20GB.
It can also get very convoluted to clear out your Lightroom storage if you do hit the roof of your space. For me, it’s been more efficient to use my Lightroom cloud as an editing-on-the-go tool, not a backup tool.
There are other services that are designed to take just photos, such as iCloud Photos, Google Photos and Flickr Pro. In my experience these are effective options for backing up mobile phone photos, but less efficient and cost-effective for DLSR photos.
Another very affordable option is Amazon Photos. Subscribers to Amazon Prime in the US get unlimited (yes, unlimited!) full resolution photo storage (and 5GB of video storage, which can be upgraded to more space). Amazon Photos comes with desktop and mobile apps to get your photo collection into the cloud, so if you are already using Prime for shopping and entertainment, then taking advantage of the included unlimited photo storage is a no-brainer.
The most affordable way to back up a huge photo collection
If you’re like me and have a massive quantity of photos, then a one-way sync option like iDrive is likely to be the most affordable option and the easiest to use with automatic scheduled backups. Try out a few options and see what you like best: Ease of use is going to make a big difference to maintaining a consistent backup schedule and keeping your photos safe long-term.
Easiest and reasonable priced backup solution is Backblaze.com. 7$/month as much as you have in your Mac/PC + usb disks which you have to keep connected at least ones a month. My initial 5TB image backup took 40 days to create (PC was on 24/7 – obviously this depends your network speed) but after that it is keeping everything updated about instantly and it is automatic so I do not have to worry about it.
Backblaze is a great backup solution, agreed. But this article is more along the lines of storage, not backup. Meaning you can work off of the cloud or vise-versa.
I used OneDrive for years, it’s reliable. But, like many photographers, I have keywords and titles stored as IPTC metadata in my photo files, and I found out that OneDrive was sometimes messing them up.
I think OneDrive is using other metadata for its own purposes, and not properly synchronizing user changes to IPTC.
You might be skeptical; I have a blog post with the details of what I found:
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2020/11/13/onedrive-for-photo-backup-iptc-in-the-cloud/
Interesting findings Jim. I wonder if it’s something to do with confusing between the edited timestamp. E.g. does OneDrive think that it’s copy of the file is newer. Strange either way!
OneDrive now offers more than just storage; you can “organize” and “search by tag”. And I think you can add tags via OneDrive’s UI. So they’re clearly dipping into the metadata and I think they have (or at least had) a problem keeping it all straight when changes were detected.