Recently you may have received a notice from Google stating they are ditching the free lunch when it comes to photo storage.. (see insert)
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Even though this company makes Billions of dollars and lived on the basis that if they give something away for free, after a while, if you like it and it benefits you, you are likely to be signing up to advanced features like google storage. They are now pushing Google One as you can see from the insert below.
So what should you really be doing at this point?
I suggest using Google Photos to the fullest until you can't! In fact if you haven't already been using it (for all of your devices, iphone,ipad, mac/windows/android, it really does not matter).
Remember, once June 1, 2021 hits, it is no longer free and you will then see all of your future photos get uploaded where it will start to count against your free 15GB. Therefore probably the week before you will need to decide if you want to dole out the $30 per year (Canadian Dollarettes) for the additional 100 GB which may or may not be more as we grow closer to this time.
Personally, at this point I think they know how good their service is and how it will probably be a no-brainer for most people to just sign up to the basic paid plan. I would agree, it is worth it!
That being said, most people know I am a strong proponent of Backblaze off-site backup which is nothing more than installing and forgetting about it. While you are online it is backing up.
So what's the difference?
Backblaze is backing up your computer in realtime.. that is all of your data like documents, photos, music, etc. Whereas Google photos is basically backing up photos and videos only (although you can choose to synchronize more of your computer-there are much more efficient ways). The big plus here for Google is that you can now DELETE the photos that have been uploaded to your account, freeing up what could be hundreds of gigabytes of data that has been sitting on your computer hard drive (that could fail at any moment).
If by June 2021 there is a better alternative, you will always be able to export your own photos to whatever service you found to be better.. and, if that service is truly better than the first thing they should be providing is a very simple way to export/import your photos from Google Photos to this new service you have found. Otherwise I would be thinking twice about it, especially if you are dealing with hundreds of gigabytes of photos.. why not just leave them on Google in that case but now start using your new service for all new photos. Bottom line at that point should probably be price point.
There are far too many cloud storage providers that come and go which can leave you wondering if you are in fact covered with backup data that is NOT on the one and only place. Put a value on your data. Quite simply ask yourself how upset you would be if you never saw it again?
Think of having a house fire where you lose all over your personal possessions which would include all of your photos. If your computer was in the fire as well then you now have absolutely nothing. Unless you were using a cloud based backup.
Backblaze is your best friend..and quite honestly, your computer's life insurance policy!
Google Photos was your Photo's life depository for free and it still is for 6 months so take advantage of it! But also plan on some alternative if you don't want to start paying.
Regardless, contact me if you have any questions, especially as the time grows nearer. If you are subscribed to this blog then you will be informed here for sure so just keep checking.
