The Benefits of Digitally Storing Photos Permanently in the Cloud

Snap and upload–I can show you how to upload easily to a permanent online album; photo by Photo by Zhaocan Li from Pexels

What’s your favorite social media platform? How many of them do you typically use? They’re great for staying in touch with friends and family, but they’re not great for storing your photos long term.

You need a simple digital strategy that will serve you and your family for decades to come.

Why?

Read on so you can feel good about safeguarding your memories.

What’s happening with storing and organizing photos

We’re living in a digital age and are suspended between previous decades of slipping photos into photo albums and trying to store our pictures digitally. Digital and hard copy photo organizing and storage are both valid.

Know your goals and reasons for choosing either option.

Hard copy photo albums and prints—framing favorite prints and placing a few around your home are a touch of art and allow a glimpse into your life for you and those who visit.

It’s nice to sit down, grab an album from a bookshelf and leaf through some of the pages and soak in the memories.

Photo albums can have artistic touches with colored paper and notes. Photo books, too, can make nice gifts for birthdays, Christmas and holidays all year long.

But this isn’t a long-term storage strategy for your memories.

The digital storage I use gives your photos, videos, slide shows and other media a permanent home in the cloud.

And then you can access those images to make copies and create photo books.

How we use media

When new media is introduced, it doesn’t mean old media fades away. A moving company in Buffalo, New York sponsored a study of 2,000 Americans to understand why certain items have long-lasting value.

In a 2018 article titled, The Results are In: Millennials Like Printed Photos, Too, the estimate was that more than 90% of us have printed photos in and around our homes. They’re here to stay and so is social media.

But, again, hard copy storage and social media storage are only temporary storage options.

The social media dilemma

Here’s a quick word about thinking of social media sites as photo storage solutions: you don’t own the sites and your information can be used for marketing purposes.

Uploading pictures and videos to social media is quick and easy, but have you ever met anyone who’s been locked out of their account for a day or two? Or, for some reason, you can’t remember your password and you’re using an old email account that you can’t access.

Person holding smartphone, taking picture of people at a table

Photo by: Askar Abayev, Pexels

Social media connects you in a community, but it’s not a long-term storage option for your photos and videos.

Cloud storage services

The prices sound great for the popular cloud storage services and they offer lots of free storage.

Amazon, iCloud, Dropbox, and Shutterfly offer from 2GB to unlimited free storage.

Google Photos is generous enough to offer practically unlimited storage of photos for free. You can read more in a Consumer Reports article at the end of this post.

Get real. These companies are set up as for-profits, not community non-profits. So free and low-cost storage comes with a … price to pay.

What do I mean?

You risk having your data used for marketing and advertising purposes. Also, the companies can change their terms and then your memories are gone.

I’ve been a photo coach for 26 years and if those were the best options for my clients, then I’d definitely recommend their use.

But there’s a better option.

A Complete Digital Storage Solution

An all-in-one solution to scan your old media and upload your current digital photos offers efficiency and piece of mind.

If you have some photos that you want to print as hard copies but also upload them to the cloud, then it’s possible.

You can label your online albums, make them available to the friends and family you choose, and use them for old slide shows, video tapes and your current digital photos. You own the space so you won’t lose it, there will never be advertising so your data is private.

The cloud service is also guaranteed for a lifetime, plus 100 years. This is possible because while there’s a free version, there are also fee-based options. A portion of the fees is used for on-going research and development so that the service won’t become obsolete. The pledge is to stay up-to-date with technology.

How can I Help?

Melody Whitehead, Safeguard Your Memories

Your photos and videos represent your family’s story and become part of the legacy that you’ll leave. I enjoy helping families organize these treasures that are so important.

But I’m also grateful that there’s a true solution to safely storing and safeguarding the memories for generations.

Imagine your grandchildren some day showing their grandchildren about you, your life and important times that you helped them through.

Contact me and I’ll be glad to answer your questions.