Always have a trust worthy backup

Always have a trust worthy backup

This came up in the Google Photos Help community today and it highlights why backup is so important to manage yourself and understand exactly how it works before relying on it.

I really feel for Susan who it seems has lost her photos. Never mind that they're phone photos they are important to her and as I always say the right camera for the job is the one you have in your hand at the time.

I will not use any cloud backup solution because they all have limitations but the main issues are that they could go out of business (not too likely with Google) or get dropped as a product (highly likely with Google) or simply take months or even years to get all your images back onto your machine.

Never trust a free or low cost solution. Either their business model is wrong or there is a way they get their money you have not experienced yet. Some solutions for example charge you thousands to have your backup put on a drive and mailed to you if you don't want to download them all.

In this case Susan is victim to what I consider poor design that has not considered the end user in its use case. Users will always do something you don't expect. To me a backup solution means the images won't go away if you delete them from the primary source - that's the whole point of a backup. Ergo Google Photos is not a backup and not to be relied upon unless this "feature" is changed.

You can find out how I do my workflow and trust worthy backups at http://photographersstudy.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/my-workflow-digital-asset-management.html
I know mine work, not only do I test and verify the copied files, but I've also had to use the backup twice after catastrophic drive and computer failures. I'm confident that by keeping it simple, by keeping everything under my control, by using the principal of at least three copies on different hardware in different physical locations that I will never lose anything.

Originally shared by Susan Rericha

HELP! All of the photos I uploaded from my iPhone (via back up and sync) are no longer in my account - online or in the app.  Where could my pictures have gone?

I downloaded the app, turned on back up and sync, waited 3+ hours to upload photos, confirmed the photos were all uploaded to my Google Photos app, and then after I deleted them from my Apple Photos app they're all gone online!