I am currently thinking about my own setup for photo and video backup, and was curious what other people are using as their own backup systems.

Do you use online photo hosting like Google photos? Do you use self hosted backup system / network accessed storage? How many backups do you have in total? Do you split by medium and location?

Apologies if there is such a question on lemmy already.

  • franzbroetchen@feddit.org
    0·
    9 days ago

    I use a self-written tool to extract my images and videos from Apple Photos and back them up incrementally as files and directories using Borg Backup.

    Using this approach I retain full ownership over my data without having to look for alternatives to Apple Photos, which I really enjoy using.

    As a result, I have a “live” copy on my iPhone/Mac/iCloud, a backup on my NAS and a remote Borg Backup repository in a data center.

      • franzbroetchen@feddit.org
        0·
        9 days ago

        Sure! There’re actually a couple of things I like:

        • It’s actually one of the few apps that still work like a traditional photo management app: It works on the base of a file-based library that has synchronization added on top. This enables me to freely move my library around, easily create backups of it or even reverse-engineer it. I’m aware there are brilliant foss apps like DigiKam (KDE/Linux) but they lack other aspects like synchronization and are not as tightly integrated.
        • I’m still able to be somewhat independent on Apple: Since the library is file-based and I can extract my images using either my own tool or one of the tools available on GitHub, I can easily migrate away from apple should they start doing fishy things.
        • Privacy-wise Apple seems to be one of the better options: Metadata like face recognition are computed locally on-device. I know there are more privacy oriented options like Ente, but their feature-set is not quite as mature as I need it.
        • I just really like the apps: They’re well-integrated, easy to use and I like the editing capabilities. I also like the way they handle edited photos etc.

        Organization-wise there’s nothing special. The only thing I do is to organize my images into albums.

        To sum it up: It’s highly subjective but for my workflow it’s a good mix of autonomy and still good user experience.

  • Libb@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I don’t use GAFAM storage.

    I barely take any photo anymore, but I use Filen.io fully encrypted cloud storage (they’re made in Germany) to keep a copy of all my files, including the occasional picture. It’s a simple copy of the files and folders on my drives. I also have local backups on external storage (two differents) that are simply encrypted and rotated on a bi-monthly basis.

    For non-confidential work-in-progress I use a different cloud, Swiss this time: Infomaniak KDrive. It’s working real nice but there is no E2EE (if they wanted they could see the content of the files, unlike with Filen).

    Edit: I should have mentioned both services also offer an app that can backup the photos on your phone, if you need one.

  • snoons@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I use r-sync to compress and store them on two external drives. Same with all my other personal files.

  • gigachad@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I just have set up synching between my mobile and my PC. The DCIM directory is getting synchronized, together with a “share” directory that contains random stuff and my KeePass database. It is my only backup, photos are so omnipresent, if I lose them it’s not a big problem.

  • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
    0·
    9 days ago

    I have Immich running on my home server. That file system get regularly backed up to an external HDD. The photos are also rcloned to BackBlaze B2, including retention for deleted files for a bit.

  • fascicle@leminal.space
    0·
    9 days ago

    I use immich for all mobile/old jpg and video stuff.

    For raw photos I use syncthing to keep a synced copy from my nas to my external drive so I can edit on the go in full speed vs network connection.

    My previous laptop had two m.2 slots but current tablet only has one so I had to move the 4tb external

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      I had to move the 4tb external

      Caution if that’s an off-the-shelf external rig: the disks in there are apparently of lower quality. Sorry to nag you if you did the right thing and got a reliable USB<->SSD adapter and a high-quality disk.

  • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 days ago

    I did Film & TV in uni. One of the things they told me as a newbie was “keep three physical copies, two in your home and one in a different location”

    So I keep three physical copies, all in my home, cause none of my friends wanted to keep my external hard-drive clearly labeled “high-res dick pics”

    EDIT: Nah, but seriously, before you consider online storage, do physical. SSD if you can, they last longer.

      • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        0·
        8 days ago

        I think they need electricity to prevent bitrot? There are advanced methods of storing parity data to recover but idk how

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      before you consider online storage, do physical. SSD

      A stashed SSD isn’t physical: it’s an on-prem digital copy. Printed sheets would be ‘physical’.

      if you can, they last longer.

      Comma splice, by the way.

  • s3rvant@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I have 2 external SSDs that I rotate keeping them offline and one offsite.

    I backup weekly though my most used files are synced online so is sufficient for my use case.

    Edit: I use Syncthing to backup photos/videos from phones to my laptop so they’re included in the above.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      I have 2 external SSDs that I rotate keeping them offline and one offsite.

      I was going to point out that in many arrangements like this - which used RAID - the disks are stressed a lot due to the full synch a lame raid1 would have required; but you’re not doing that. I think you’re just bringing in the disk and synching files over to match it up, and I think that’s a better move. If you’re using syncthing for that, then that may be a pretty good setup. Are you doing the synch of the travelling disks via syncthing too?

  • Dave@lemmy.nz
    0·
    9 days ago

    Oh boy.

    So myself (and others) use Nextcloud to back photos up to my self-hosted Nextcloud instance.

    This creates it’s own incremental backups on a backup drive on the same server as the actual installation. I also sync the files to another drive just using the Nextcloud sync client, and these can then be read cleanly by Immich, Photoprism, whatever else I’m running that day.

    I sync the photos into a paid Ente plan that I got cheap paying for 2 years to get a 5 year plan in what they said was their last ever black friday sale. End to end encrypted but hosted by them.

    I then have a borg backup of all files across all the Nextcloud accounts as well as all my other self hosted stuff. This is stored on a backup disk but is also synced to Backblaze B2 storage for offsite.

    I then also burned all files to Mdisc 100GB disks including a duplicate copy stored offsite.

    The photos and videos I have collected over my life are very important to me, as you might be able to tell.

  • myrmidex@belgae.socialEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I signed up for a plan over at ente.io a couple of years ago, has been smooth ever since. Great app, great sync, I don’t self-host but I believe they offer that option.