Safeguarding Your Photos Amid Changing Terms
Shutterfly now requires that you make a purchase at least once every 18 months, or your photos will be deleted from their site.
Shutterfly Share Sites will be discontinued in March. All those memories – poof, gone.
Costco, who shut down their in-warehouse photo services a few years back, is now discontinuing their online photo services, and will be deleting your photos if you do not take action to transfer them to Shutterfly (who will delete them if you don’t make a purchase every 18 months…)
Maybe there’s more but who can keep up with all the emails??
What does all this mean?
In simple terms, do not rely on "free" storage as a main hub for your photos & memories. When you store your photos with a free service, that company likely has the right to use your photos however they wish, store your photos at a lower resolution, & delete your photos at any time. Overall, they are not dedicated to keeping your photos safe.
What should you do?
These days many people want to replace their bulky computers with lightweight laptops or notebooks, which often don't have enough storage for full-resolution photos. But the unreliability of popular cloud storage companies & hacking of online sites really highlights how important it is to keep a copy of your photos on a personal computer or external hard drive. It is risky to solely depend on a free cloud service that could change on a dime. Of course, these sites are great for photo products & gifts, but just don't rely on them for your photo STORAGE. When I get these types of notices from Costco & Shutterfly, I don't panic because the photos I have on their sites are just there because I ordered a product at some point, and my photo collection is safely stored and backed up in more reliable places.
Once your photos are stored on your computer, it's easy to create & maintain an automated local backup in case of hardware failure. Simply buy a large-capacity external hard drive (at a minimum, twice the size of your current drive), and use the built-in backup programs on your computer (Time Machine on a Mac, or File History on a PC). For a cloud backup of your computer (in case both your local drives fail or are lost in a disaster or theft), we recommend Backblaze. It’s easy to use, works in the background, and you can back up an unlimited number of files and external hard drives.
Here at Infinity Photo Solutions, we use & recommend SmugMug & FOREVER.com. SmugMug has unlimited photo backup, a beautiful photographic interface (originally built for photographers to showcase their pictures), and you can build custom pages (good if you’re the techy type). FOREVER.com is super user-friendly with the ability to tag, describe & "favorite" your photos, and it stores all the changes you make so that when downloaded, all of the tags, dates, filenames & stories stay with the photo. There are various ways to share your memories, including a simple link to a photo or group of photos. And unlike most services where you pay an annual fee and risk losing your photos should the subscription lapse, FOREVER.com is a one-time purchase and then you own the space for generations. You can also safely and securely store documents, recipes, children’s artwork, videos, and even voicemails.
Click here to try out FOREVER with a free 2GB Storage Account and receive a $20 coupon to use for storage or other FOREVER products & services.
