Digital Photos for Dummies

[b2bailey]

I can't understand how/why it is that my digital photos are stored in several different places.
I have Android phone and Amazon Kindle that I use to take photos.
I receive photos in text messages and emails.

I seem to have photo storage through various "cloud" accounts -- Amazon, Google, Outlook.

Today I was searching to find a photo of my couch -- which I took last week in response to someone asking for a free couch.
(From a trusted site.)
Could not locate it.

I've seen a gizmo advertised for sale that supposedly can gather photos from many sources -- has anyone used that method?

Are there others frustrated by similar predicament -- or am I alone in this?

 

[ScoopKona]

Are there others frustrated by similar predicament -- or am I alone in this?

• My computer has a folder in the root directory called "BackMeUp."
• There is a subfolder "Pictures" in BackMeUp.
  There are MANY subfolders in Pictures -- starting with the year, and then location or what's happening. So "1992 Africa" or "2023 CarmelSFNapa"
• And then all the photos go in those subfolders.
  

There are other folders besides Pictures -- taxes, documents, instruction manuals. Anything financial is encrypted. (I don't worry about the government accessing my documents -- they already have that information. But if someone steals the hard drive, I want them to see some vacation pictures and that's it.) And then, every couple months, I back up BackMeUp. Once a year, I back it up three times and mail two drives elsewhere.

When, not if, I have a hard drive failure or my operating system goes sideways thanks to a faulty update, I have everything back in a matter of hours. Reinstalling the OS and programs I use takes the longest amount of time. Restoring BackMeUp takes little time at all. And BackMeUp is backed up in three locations in three states.

Fire? So what. Flood? So what. It turns out the only time we look at vacation photos is to show friends some ideas if they're going to one of the countries we've visited. "Yes, you really can walk right up to the stones at Stonehenge. Here's pictures of us doing that." We keep at it in case one of us develops memory issues down the road.

 

[Tacoma]

I'm not sure how to quote your post b2bailey which will explain why I too hate that all photos are digital. I have not learned how to find them or store them etc. I am equally inept at digital music and am happy that my cars have CD players so at least I can have music on long drives. I'm good at finding and booking vacations online but transferring pictures from my phone to other places escapes me. I really do have to find someone who will have the patience to show me and then watch as I do it myself. My husband is great on computers but has no patience to teach anyone.

 

[b2bailey]

• My computer has a folder in the root directory called "BackMeUp."
• There is a subfolder "Pictures" in BackMeUp.
  There are MANY subfolders in Pictures -- starting with the year, and then location or what's happening. So "1992 Africa" or "2023 CarmelSFNapa"
• And then all the photos go in those subfolders.
  

There are other folders besides Pictures -- taxes, documents, instruction manuals. Anything financial is encrypted. (I don't worry about the government accessing my documents -- they already have that information. But if someone steals the hard drive, I want them to see some vacation pictures and that's it.) And then, every couple months, I back up BackMeUp. Once a year, I back it up three times and mail two drives elsewhere.

When, not if, I have a hard drive failure or my operating system goes sideways thanks to a faulty update, I have everything back in a matter of hours. Reinstalling the OS and programs I use takes the longest amount of time. Restoring BackMeUp takes little time at all. And BackMeUp is backed up in three locations in three states.

Fire? So what. Flood? So what. It turns out the only time we look at vacation photos is to show friends some ideas if they're going to one of the countries we've visited. "Yes, you really can walk right up to the stones at Stonehenge. Here's pictures of us doing that." We keep at it in case one of us develops memory issues down the road.

I almost understand the concept of "one place to store all" --- and backing up.
My problem is retrieving them from where they are currently stored.
It's like popping corn without a lid on the pan.

 

[b2bailey]

I'm not sure how to quote your post b2bailey which will explain why I too hate that all photos are digital. I have not learned how to find them or store them etc. I am equally inept at digital music and am happy that my cars have CD players so at least I can have music on long drives. I'm good at finding and booking vacations online but transferring pictures from my phone to other places escapes me. I really do have to find someone who will have the patience to show me and then watch as I do it myself. My husband is great on computers but has no patience to teach anyone.

Thank you for letting me know I am not alone.
It's been bugging me for at least a year -- but came to a head today while looking for a photo I snapped in the comfort of my home.

 

[ScoopKona]

I almost understand the concept of "one place to store all" --- and backing up.
My problem is retrieving them from where they are currently stored.
It's like popping corn without a lid on the pan.

The way most people have their system set up is to have a ridiculous amount of folders scattered all over the place -- scanned documents, documents, photos, music, pictures, movies, etc.

If it's worth saving, it goes into BackMeUp. To move things around, you will need to send yourself the files. (Since I won't use Apple anything I can do this easily with a cord and a free app.) Same goes with music and videos. Just move everything to the central location. Then that central location is dead simple back up. There are ways to back up a computer where everything is scattered. But why? Unscatter first.

This way requires keeping up on basic maintenance (file maintenance is part of basic maintenance). But it's free and you're not relying on some other company to keep your files safe in "the cloud." Wait until that fails...

 

[Brett]

I can't understand how/why it is that my digital photos are stored in several different places.
I have Android phone and Amazon Kindle that I use to take photos.
I receive photos in text messages and emails.

I seem to have photo storage through various "cloud" accounts -- Amazon, Google, Outlook.

Today I was searching to find a photo of my couch -- which I took last week in response to someone asking for a free couch.
(From a trusted site.)
Could not locate it.

I've seen a gizmo advertised for sale that supposedly can gather photos from many sources -- has anyone used that method?

Are there others frustrated by similar predicament -- or am I alone in this?

you might be in the minority
I use the 'cloud' and portable external drives for storage / backup

 

[TheHolleys87]

We receive photos from multiple sources - mostly from our phones and via email now, but our digital collection extends back to the mid-1990s when DH bought his first digital camera. At that point I created a filing system in the Photos folder on our Windows computer, and whenever we receive new photos, I move them there. How I move them depends on how they come to us, but the point is that we go through whatever steps are needed to add new photos to the Photos folder, where they’re backed up to the cloud, at the time we receive them.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

The way most people have their system set up is to have a ridiculous amount of folders scattered all over the place -- scanned documents, documents, photos, music, pictures, movies, etc.

If it's worth saving, it goes into BackMeUp. To move things around, you will need to send yourself the files. (Since I won't use Apple anything I can do this easily with a cord and a free app.) Same goes with music and videos. Just move everything to the central location. Then that central location is dead simple back up. There are ways to back up a computer where everything is scattered. But why? Unscatter first.

This way requires keeping up on basic maintenance (file maintenance is part of basic maintenance). But it's free and you're not relying on some other company to keep your files safe in "the cloud." Wait until that fails...

That is a great idea to have a "BackMeUp" folder. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[klpca]

Thank you for letting me know I am not alone.
It's been bugging me for at least a year -- but came to a head today while looking for a photo I snapped in the comfort of my home.

Unless you deleted it, it should still be on your phone. On your Android, look for an icon called "Gallery". Once you tap it to open, it should be organized by date and theoretically, your photo should be easy to find. If you back up to the cloud it should be there too, but there are situations where the syncing doesn't happen (it may be set up to sync over wifi, but you haven't been connected to wifi, for example).

 

[davidvel]

you might be in the minority
I use the 'cloud' and portable external drives for storage / backup

Agree. We back up everything to a 2TB Google drive account. All docs, media, etc. I also backup these files periodically to multiple hard drives. If Google fails, we have bigger problems than lost files.

Manually backing up a hard drive only monthly is a recipe for disaster.