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Other Photos: Backup to iCloud or backup Locally?

ATEspo

ATEspo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 29, 2012
278
103
Pittsburgh, PA
I use iCloud but do not backup any of my photos to iCloud. Now that my 512gb 11 Pro is in route, I need to figure something else out because my SSD MBP will not have enough space for what I have on my iPhone X and what I will put on my iPhone 11 Pro, so my question is:
Backup ALL my photos/videos to iCloud or get an external drive and back them up locally?
Right now my iPhone X photos are NOT backed up anywhere and I need to figure it out to prepare for iPhone 11 Pro!

What do you guys do?
Thanks!
 
jbachandouris said:
I vote both. You never want a single point of failure.
Click to expand...

Yep, been reading about the 3-2-1 backup rule, I made the decision I’m going to cleanup my camera roll on my X, backup to iCloud, use a SDD to Keep in my computer bag with the latest photos/videos backed up and then find a good reliable 4TB+ HDD to keep at home that stores everything for both my wife and I.
 
I have my photos in iCloud
They also sync to my windows pc
That folder in my windows pc is also my OneDrive folder so they get backed up to OneDrive too

(That goes in reverse for photos from my DSLR- lightroom exports to OneDrive folder and to iCloud uploads folder)
 
If you back-up your phone to iCloud, then your pictures are also back-up there. It actually states that in the Back-Up App on the phone under settings.
 
The problem with an iCloud "backup" is that everything that gets backed up (including pictures) can't be accessed individually from the back up later like a Time Machine backup. The only way to get those pictures out of an iCloud backup is to completely wipe & restore the phone from that back up. Not a good option.

Personally I use a iOS file transfer app and copy all photos & videos over to my Mac or another hard drive. It's easy and you can pick through it later to get what you want to put back on your phone.
 
reppans said:
If you back-up your phone to iCloud, then your pictures are also back-up there. It actually states that in the Back-Up App on the phone under settings.
Click to expand...

I have "photos" turned off, otherwise i'd have almost no room left out of 200gb I pay for.

now i see it said:
Personally I use a iOS file transfer app and copy all photos & videos over to my Mac or another hard drive. It's easy and you can pick through it later to get what you want to put back on your phone.
Click to expand...

This is what I did with every iPhone i've used up until the X I am using now but the amount of memory ALL my photos takes up is much more space than I have available on my new MBP which is why I have to get into a large external portable hard drive.
 
I would personally feel a little wary trusting 100GB+ of precious photos to a phone I could lose/get stolen and a physical HDD/SSD. These days I’d always want some kid of cloud storage or at least one more remote backup
 
mrklaw said:
I would personally feel a little wary trusting 100GB+ of precious photos to a phone I could lose/get stolen and a physical HDD/SSD. These days I’d always want some kid of cloud storage or at least one more remote backup
Click to expand...

Went to Best Buy tonight, got a 4TB usb-c drive as a backup of my backup. Got a 512gb SSD for the backup that will stay in my computer bag and I’ll backup my photos to iCloud as well.

Thanks for the help!!
 
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I recommend iCloud Photo Library. Don't recommend Google or other cloud services like what other people have said.
 
All of the above. I backup to iCloud (we pay for extra storage), Google (the "High Quality" option lets you upload unlimited high quality JPEGs for free), and local computer + a couple of backup drives I rotate and store one at the office.

Most of my photos are taken with my Olympus gear anyway, but I upload some of them to iCloud and the best all end up on my Smugmug site.
 
Help me out since I'm still not exactly sold on iCloud as my Cloud Service of choice, since I want my cloud service to be more like a file locker, or the Google Method, versus the straw service (cloud to device) that Apple seems to utilize. Since everything is 1:1, meaning add a photo, it'll be added everywhere and same with deleting, how do I make it if iCloud is the master. Say I buy 2TB of storage in iCloud but my iPhone only has 64gb or if I swap phones? Do I just sign up from my phone and just always sign in? Obviously using feature where a thumbnail resides on the phone.
 
I use Apple Photos and iCloud Photo Library. My library is over 85,000 photos/videos and about 750GB in size - combination of DSLRs and iPhones. I keep everything downloaded to my iMac on an external SSD HD and that is then backed up to an additional external HD.
On my iOS devices (currently my iPhone XS, my wife's iPhone 8+ and my iPad mini 5) the entire library is viewable and takes up - at least on my iPhone XS - about 15GB of it's internal storage. Only time the full res photos are downloaded to any of the iOS devices is when you want to edit the photo either in the Photos app or another app.
The only "negative" to using iCloud Photo Library is that it is not a true "backup" solution as any changes on any of the devices/computers to a photo (be it editing or deletions) happens on all the devices. Now, you do do have 30 days to recover a deleted photos and depending on the program you are using for editing most changes can be reverted back to the original photo. (And you can always create a copy of a photo if you want to try stuff out in a program/app that is not non-destructive.)
 
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