Where to store digital photos

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

Where to store digital photos

If you're like me, and most other smartphone and digital camera lovers, you probably have thousands of digital images in your collection. Organizing them all to safely store and find what you need can be a challenge. One of the first things to consider when setting up a photo and video management system is storage. How and where you store your media will determine how you organize, name, and access your images. In this video, let's look at some of the best practices for storage and an overview of the options available.

There are two main categories of digital photo and video storage: local and cloud-based. Local storage means your information is stored on a device or drive that's not transferred across the internet. This includes your computer's hard drive, external hard drive, phone internal storage, media card, USB, CD, DVD, and other physical options. The benefits of local storage are: your data's at a lower risk of being accessed through the internet by unauthorized people.

As a note, if your computer is connected to the internet and hacked, the drive and anything still connected to it may still be at risk. Also there's no concern of losing your data due to a change in an external company's service or operations. Your data's always in the place you store it, whether in a fire-proof safe, desk drawer, safe deposit box, or other location. Some of the limitations of local storage are: you can only access your photos and videos when connected to the device they're stored on.

For example, anything stored on your computer's hard drive can only be viewed from that computer. There's a higher risk of mechanical loss or failure. Hard drives, discs, and other local storage can be more easily damaged than off-site servers. Loss due to corruption, natural disaster, or a crash, can be irrecoverable. You can only transfer data onto the device when your connected to it. You can't upload and categorize images on the go as easily, and local media devices have a limited lifespan.

Even a CD or external hard drive may eventually degrade, losing valuable data. With any local media, you'll need a plan to review and update your device storage periodically. Cloud storage is any storage option that's off-site, meaning not in your physical location, and accessed through the internet. This would include services like iCloud, Dropbox, Google Photos, OneDrive, Box, and more. The benefits of cloud storage are: you can usually access your photos and videos anywhere you have an internet connection, no need to wait until you're connected to a specific device.

The risk of loss due to mechanical failure or natural disaster can be lower. Most of the larger cloud services have redundancy, meaning multiple servers in various locations that each hold a copy of your data. If one server has a failure, your data is still safely stored on another server. You can often upload and organize your photos from any computer or smartphone, and your uploads and backups can be automated. Some limitations of cloud storage are: despite some very high-grade security used by most major cloud services, anything transmitted via the internet, or connected to the internet, is more susceptible to data breach.

Some services limit the amount of storage available for free. Though many have very high quotas. With some services, there may be an associated fee. Consider which features are most important to you in your media storage. For a simplified system with easy access and less possibility of loss, consider the cloud storage options. If you want a tighter control of privacy and access, you may want to choose local storage. Both options can be the foundation for an organized and accessible media storage system.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/organizing-and-storing-digital-photos-and-videos/where-to-store-digital-photos