If you are somebody who takes a whole lot of images throughout a trip, there is a good probability you again them up within the cloud. That’s what I used to do with Google Photos. The service promised free, limitless storage for each photograph and video, a digital Fort Knox for my recollections. It was excellent: My whole life’s photograph library, protected within the cloud and accessible from anyplace, regardless of what number of occasions I dropped my cellphone.Then, in 2021, Google pulled the rug out from underneath us. The free trip was over. All these 1000’s of photographs have been protected, however each new image began chipping away at that measly 15GB of free storage. Suddenly, my photograph behavior got here with a price ticket, forcing me to pay for a Google One subscription if I needed to maintain importing. None of the above was a shock. Even for an organization that makes as a lot cash as Google, providing free limitless storage is not a sustainable enterprise mannequin. All these photographs and movies have been taking on quite a lot of area, as a result of what’s saved within the cloud — not like the identify suggests — does not vanish into the sky. Those information exist on bodily servers right here on Earth. Essentially, they’re saved on another person’s laptop.And now I used to be being charged to make use of that space for storing. I’ve at all times disliked the thought of paying for month-to-month subscriptions: $10 a month turns into $120 a 12 months, which turns into $1,200 after 10 years. And Google One wasn’t a subscription that I might simply cancel like Netflix or Spotify: If I finished paying, I would not have the ability to add new photographs and movies, and I might doubtlessly lose entry to all my information after two years.How might I again up all my recollections with out the cloud? Over the years, I developed a system for managing my information and preserving copies saved on an exterior arduous drive. While it takes just a little extra work to switch every little thing manually, it is a greater long-term resolution for me, and it does not depend on paying for a subscription service.Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content material and lab-based evaluations. Add us as a most well-liked Google supply on Chrome.Why I take advantage of an exterior arduous drive for storing photographs and moviesIf you do not need to pay for cloud storage, chances are you’ll be tempted to get a cellphone with a better storage capability. After Google Photos stopped letting me add information without cost, my first thought was that I’d somewhat pay extra up-front for a tool with a terabyte of storage as a substitute of paying indefinitely for a Google One subscription. But I quickly realized that even probably the most future-proofed 1TB cellphone will finally have to be changed. And if I need to carry over all my previous information, my subsequent cellphone might want to have a minimum of as a lot storage as my present one, plus extra capability for my future photographs and movies.To complicate this challenge, picture file sizes proceed to develop. As cellphone cameras enhance, the footage they seize leads to higher-megapixel information. My iPhone estimates that every 12-megapixel picture is roughly 2MB and every 24-megapixel picture is 3MB. Video takes up much more area: a minute of 4K footage can simply exceed 1GB. At these charges, even a cellphone with 256GB of storage (the brand new minimal for the iPhone 17 sequence) can replenish quick.There’s some excellent news: Digital storage does not need to be costly. There are loads of choices for exterior arduous drives, and you’ll simply get a 1TB solid-state drive for lower than $100. (For context, Apple expenses $1,399 for the 1TB iPhone Air, a $400 premium over the $999 256GB mannequin.) Western DigitalThe finest a part of utilizing an exterior drive is which you could save information throughout a number of units. You may maintain utilizing it lengthy after you have upgraded to a brand new cellphone. Generally, HDDs final three to 5 years, whereas SSDs final a minimal of 5 years. Using an exterior drive requires extra effort than backing up every little thing to the cloud. You want to attend in your information to switch out of your machine to the drive, after which type every little thing into folders. Then, after file switch is full, you should delete these information out of your cellphone or laptop. Fortunately, as soon as you have discovered the method and executed it a couple of occasions, it is fairly simple. Here’s how I do it.My course of for backing up photosWhen I’m on account of again up my photographs and movies (or my cellphone is working low on storage), I prefer to make two copies of every file: one for my laptop computer, and one for my exterior SSD.My MacGuide runs fewer apps and has extra storage than my iPhone, so it receives a replica of all my cellphone’s photographs and movies. The Photos app on my Mac additionally has a helpful “Delete items after upload” checkbox, which I like to recommend deciding on.Once all of the information have been transferred, I plug my exterior drive into my laptop and choose all of the photographs I need to again up. The Photos app helpfully types every little thing by add date. I can choose all the photographs from the most recent batch by clicking on the primary photograph, holding the Shift key, after which clicking on the final photograph. I then drag and drop them into the exterior drive. If I’ve quite a lot of photographs (over 500), I have a tendency to separate up this step and choose 200 to 300 at a time, or there will be some interruptions to the switch course of. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETI attempt to again up my photographs a minimum of as soon as every month, or after a special day like a trip. Sometimes, to be on the protected facet, I’ll additionally make a backup earlier than a serious software program replace (like iOS 26). The course of has develop into a method for me to mark the tip of 1 interval and the start of one other. I used to wrestle with organizing the information on my exterior drive. However, I now merely create a folder for every batch of uploaded photographs and movies. I’ll label these folders both by the date (e.g. July 2025), or the event (Trip to London, Summer 2024).You might discover {that a} comparable system works for you. Maybe you may select roughly frequent backups. Either method, I extremely suggest this last step: Make a backup of the backup on a separate exterior drive. That method, if certainly one of your drives fails, you may nonetheless have the opposite.I’m extra intentional in regards to the photographs I seizeOne challenge with preserving all my information on exterior drives is that I do not at all times have entry to them. But I believe that is an affordable trade-off. I need not carry each single picture I’ve ever captured in my pocket. I can normally discover the photographs I would like on my Instagram web page or in my electronic mail inbox. I do go away sure photographs and movies on my cellphone indefinitely, however solely ones that I have to refer again to typically (a screenshot of my insurance coverage info, for instance). I additionally maintain some photographs that I get pleasure from seeing infrequently: a picture from a household reunion; a day trip with mates. It’s a curated assortment, a bit like these one or two photographs that individuals used to maintain of their wallets. Jason Chun/CNETYes, it may be a trouble to handle all these information on an exterior drive but it surely’s nicely price the additional effort. Not solely do I spend much less cash in the long term, however I additionally really feel reassured: My recollections are saved on a bodily object that I personal, somewhat than being dumped onto another person’s laptop.Even if I did pay for Google One or one other cloud storage choice, I might really feel as if another person owned my information. What if Google Photos makes one other change to its storage coverage or raises costs once more? I might haven’t any alternative however to associate with it. My recollections can be on the mercy of a company. And what if Google shuts down sometime? Sure, it is one of many largest firms on this planet proper now. But that was additionally true of Kodak, not too way back.There’s yet one more surprising profit: By being liable for creating these guide backups, I’ve develop into extra intentional about capturing photographs within the first place. I’ve realized that I haven’t got to take an image of each single factor I see. Most of the time, I can simply bear in mind it.
More