31 Days #12: How to Back Up Your Photos

by Lain Ehmann on July 12, 2012

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Today’s video provides input regarding one of our most important challenges as scrapbookers, namely:

How to Back Up Our Photos?

Links in today’s video (some are affiliate links):

Picturekeeper

Available in 4K, 8K, 16K, and 250K versions!

Other remote backup options:

Mozy Online Backup – $5.99/Month

“The Cloud” from Apple

DropBox (free and paid accounts – not “automatic,” but still a great way to start)

simple scrapbooking layouts

P.S. Would you like me to continue this series after the month is over? Maybe once a week…??
  • Cheryl Warren

    I think this is a great idea to keep our little hobby alive and kicking!  Please continue!!

  • Lainehmann

    Thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!

  • http://www.losingitandlovingit.com/blog Angie Newton

    Great tips, Lain!  I use Mozy but I am going to get that Picture Keeper, Kev will love it.  Thanks!

  • Janet

    GREAT and IMPORTANT information Lain! Just great!
    A weekly Q&A sounds wonderful to me!

    Question: What are the top 5 (or top 10) things should every scrap SPACE have?
    Those things that just make this wonderful hobby so much easier on us.
    (I already was Day 2 winner, so if you choose this question, pick a winner from
    the previous day commentors). Awesome Q&A series!

  • http://www.facebook.com/BridgetJGreenwood Bridget Greenwood

    I use snapfish to develop my photos and they also have free online storage.   I usually burn my photos yearly to a dvd and put them in a fire safe with my documents but that picture keeper looks pretty cool, I will have to try it. 

  • Jeniruthjov

    Lain,

    Question??

    My husband was a bit outraged, so to speak, when he learned that I intended to scrap each child, each year of their lives. I only have two children. Currently I am on my fourth book for the older child (age 3). At what age should I start combining the two kids? Originally I wanted to do separate books for eachchild through the end of high school. In addition to that I was going to do an additional book for family vacations, and special events–i.e. a book for my hubby and me. Am I truly a glutten for punishment?

  • LauraZM

    Aahaa – Love the picture keeper idea, esp the portability and non-overwrite which’ll keep it speedy to back up. Love this series too, and think weekly or some regular basis would be great! Thnx.

    PS – Your shirt is adorable today, but you look beautiful even in your work-at-home tops! :)

  • Miss Niki

    I’m not sure this is a question really but what I struggle with is using my time in the morning to scrapbook.  I am a night owl but seem to have more time in the mornings to scrap.  I putter around…watch the Today Show, start a load of laundry and hang out at the computer checking email / surfing sites like yours! I wish I could figure out a way to make myself use this morning time! I guess I could try coffee?!?! 

    Lovin’ your work so far…keep it coming if you can!Miss Niki

  • JudyP

    I just started watching your videos and have enjoyed them immensely, so yes, please continue! Thanks for all the great tips.

  • mj

    i have never heard of the picture keeper … SO glad i have now!  off to order one! :)

  • Just as I Am

    I’m not Lain, but perhaps I can make some suggestions. Yes, I think you should do an album for each child until they are 18 so they can take them with them and show their own children. I make three albums per year, one for each of my children until they graduated from high school and one for general family pictures and events. It is indeed do-able, especially if you do the children’s layouts at the same time…I would do a layout for my daughter’s album, featuring both kids and then highlighting a few of her alone, and then right away for the same event, I made the same layout for my younger child, a boy, featuring those same photos and highlighting a few of him alone. That way I didnt have to think constantly of different layout ideas and could duplicate photos right away. Does this make sense? My kids, who are now 18 and 22 love their photo albums and cant wait to keep them once they have their own homes. I plan to divide the family album between themlater…each gets every other year. It was well worth the work, especially when you use some time and work saving tips.

  • Libbyw

    I am really enjoying this series and am new to this sight.  Another online backup is Carbonite, which I use; the basic service is about the same cost as Mozy, with upgrades available like being able to save a mirror image of your whole computer.

    My biggest issue is getting the pictures from the camera to the computer and then into the scrapbook – they’ll be a year in the camera, then once in the computer, I just don’t always get them printed.  How to motivate the printing process???  I’ve done scrapbooks since before it was so popular and therefore have things from years and years so I just never seem to catch up except for very special trips…

  • http://www.facebook.com/sktbaker Susan Traub Baker

    Four summers ago our family experienced a house fire and my AMAZING level headed hubby was home at the time, I was at the grocery.  Once neighbors came and took possession of our kids and dog he went into the house and grabbed the external hard drive and many other important items.  I realize that his response is NOT the norm but I am sure glad he did what he did.  I had backed up many photos on CD just a month before, we were in the process of moving, and they came out without a scratch.  That being said…. A Picture Keeper would be a helk of a lot easier! I wonder how many pictures it would find on my computer?

  • http://www.facebook.com/sktbaker Susan Traub Baker

    I would love to share my technique.  I never considered one book per child per year.  My plan was a baby/first year book then a series of school books for each kid (pre-school – high school).  Everything else, vacations, birthdays, holidays, every day fun, etc goes into a series of family albums which are chronological.  The school albums include portraits, class photos, holiday parties, programs and fieldtrips so about 4-8 pages/year.  Every now and again I will make a mini album for Baseball or a special camp experience but all of the FAMILY stuff goes into FAMILY albums.  They can duke it out for their favorite volumes when I’m long gone.  They may not even care, but knowing my boys they will, and since I will be interviewing their intended spouses I’ll be sure to put that in the marriage contract!

  • http://twitter.com/NevillesMom Mary McCarthy

    Thanks for answering this, Lain! I’ve been planning on buying an external hard drive, but now I’m thinking a Picture Keeper is a better idea (for photo backup, anyway). Thanks for the great tips! =)

  • Lainehmann

    You are so welcome! :) Let me know how you like it. 

  • Lainehmann

    Oh my gosh! That is very scary. I am glad all was well. 
    We had a fire in the Santa Cruz mountains about 10 years ago that was about a mile from our house – we were getting prepared to evacuate if we had to and before I left for work I told my husband (who worked at home at the time) to grab the scrapbooks. :)  

  • Lainehmann

    Glad to introduce you to something new!

  • Lainehmann

    Thanks for the referral!
    I have two SD cards that I swap out on a regular basis. One is ALWAYS plugged into the computer while the other is in the camera. Then I just swap when I think of it (but copy to hard drive first). 

  • Lainehmann

    Thank you, Judy! :)

  • Angela A

     Another idea is to make copies of your pages.  That way you are only doing say one layout but you would include all children in the pictures and then make copies of the pages for each child’s album if you wanted to make a separate album for each child and keep one for yourself/family one.

  • http://profiles.google.com/laurenzrose Laurie LaRose

    I’ve been away on holidays and what a treat to come home to this! Wonderful Lain!…I haven’t had a chance to see most of the Q&A but I’m positive I’d like to have this as a regular feature from you!

  • SueG

    Libby, I have made uploading photos to the computer and then printing them a part of my monthly back-up routine.
    Last Saturday of each month, I make sure all current photos are uploaded to the computer before I do the back up. Then, I also upload the new photos to snapfish or photobox, so that I can order them – sometimes I’ll place the photo order straight away; other times it waits until a more conveneient time. It does mean I have a large photo box of unscrapped photos, but I love that I have the variety to choose from when the scrapping urge hits.

  • AmyZ

    Check out backblaze.com – very easy (automatic!) offsite backups that are affordable. What if you don’t have the chance to save something? What if you haven’t backed up for a few weeks? Effortless! Sleep well at night!
    Also I would not consider apple’s cloud as a backup- it is for syncing multiple devices but has storage limits too. (Maybe more from Apple soon??)

    Thanks for the good Q&A Lain!

  • Lainehmann

    You are sweet. Thank you! :)

  • falwyn

    I used to use Mozy – even had a hard drive failure and used them for recovery. They were good, but when they changed their pricing plan I had to switch (I have 500 GB to backup). Now I use CrashPlan – another option.

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