Photo backup that does not mean buying more Google storage
Photos are the one thing on a phone that is genuinely irreplaceable, and they are also the thing most likely to be sitting in exactly one place. The good news is that the alternatives are mature. The decision is mostly about whether you want to pay a little each month or run something yourself.
What the options actually cost
| Approach | Cost | Effort | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google One | Monthly, tiered | None | People who want it to be invisible |
| Another commercial cloud | Monthly, often cheaper | One-time setup | People already paying for storage elsewhere |
| Your own server at home | Hardware only | A weekend, then nothing | People who want no recurring cost |
| Manual copy to a computer | Nothing | Regular and easy to forget | Nobody, honestly, as a sole strategy |
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Commercial options
Camera upload is reliable and has been for years. The free tier is small, so this is for people who already pay.
Often already included with an Office subscription, which is a large amount of storage people forget they own.
Full-resolution photo storage is included with Prime, which makes it the cheapest option for a large number of households.
Sells lifetime plans rather than subscriptions, which suits people who dislike recurring charges.
Still the best search and organisation of any of them. Worth keeping for the library view even if the backup happens elsewhere.
Automatic camera upload with end to end encryption and a large free tier.
Camera upload is available, though it is really built for sharing files at work.
TeraBox. A very large free allowance. Read its terms and treat it as a secondary copy, not the only one.
For a Synology drive at home. Your own hardware, no monthly fee, and backups over WiFi.
Running it yourself
A machine at home with a couple of disks removes the monthly cost entirely. The app on the phone uploads over WiFi when you are home, and you own every copy.
Automatic camera upload to your own server, with file sync and sharing alongside. The most complete self-hosted option.
The older project Nextcloud forked from, still maintained, still perfectly workable.
Immich. A self hosted photo library that feels remarkably close to Google Photos, including face grouping.
Syncthing. Copies the camera folder to a computer directly, with no server and no cloud.
Synology Drive. Folder backup to your own network drive for anything that is not a photograph.
- Set the server up first On a spare computer or a small network drive. Two disks, not one.
- Enable auto upload on WiFi only Then check the server actually received the files before you trust it.
- Add an off-site copy A fire or a theft takes the phone and the server together. One copy elsewhere, even a cheap cloud account, closes that gap.
- Test a restore Pick a photo from two years ago and get it back. An untested backup is a hope, not a plan.
Moving years of photos out of Google
The export is straightforward and the details matter, because a careless export loses dates.
- Use Google Takeout, not the app Request Photos only, in reasonably sized archives.
- Keep the JSON files Takeout puts the original date and location in sidecar JSON. Without them, everything appears to have been taken on the day you downloaded it.
- Import with a tool that reads those sidecars Nextcloud Memories and several desktop tools do. Copying the images alone throws the metadata away.
- Verify the count before deleting anything Compare the number of files against the number in your library, then wait a month before removing the original.
- Keep three copies in two places
- Automate the upload
- Check the dates after an import
- Test getting one photo back
- Delete the source before verifying
- Rely on one cloud account with no export
- Trust a backup you have never restored from
- Use the phone as one of your copies
Automate the upload, keep the metadata when you migrate, hold three copies in two places, and restore one photo to prove it works.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Photos still free at all?
There is a free allowance shared across the account, which most people exceed within a few years of photographs.
Does backing up delete photos from my phone?
Only if you ask it to. Most apps offer a separate free-up-space action once the upload has been confirmed.
What is the cheapest reliable option?
If someone in the house has Prime, Amazon Photos. If nobody does, a small server at home plus a cheap off-site copy.
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