Flickr, Google Photos, Photobucket and more: Which photo storage service is right for you?

RV_ · June 11, 2015

I am just beginning to appreciate the ease of using Photobucket and MS One Drive for easy access to photos from my Windows 8.1 Phone, android wife's phone. all our tablets and desktops. In the case of Photobucket, the ability to use pics on any forum with their auto encoding copy paste features.

I also subscribe to Amazon Prime and likely will for life since I have switched from the library to Kindles for me and my SH. I use the Amazon Fire device for streaming and viewing Netflix as well as my Amazon Prime videos, music, etc. But never realized I was missing free storage there too. Unlimited free actually for photo storage as long as we are Prime members, and a max of 5GB of videos free. So I found this article with quick charts at the top of features, then full reviews of the pros and cons of each and prices if applicable.

Excerpt:

"Editors' note, June 10, 2015: This guide has been updated to include Google Photos and Apple iCloud Photo Library.

If you're like many others, you habitually turn to Facebook when you want to share photos online. Arguably, that's perfectly fine -- after all, your photos are not only stored in a place you access often, but are quickly shared with friends and family who use the social network (so, basically, everyone).

The downside? Facebook doesn't offer much beyond tagging, likes, and comments. What if you want to order prints? Or search for photos by date, name or tag? Most importantly: what happens if you ditch Facebook and close your account?

The benefits of storing and sharing your photos on a dedicated photo storage site are clear. Not only do these services offer more robust organizational tools, editing and privacy options, but you also have the option to order prints, and, for the avid photogs, sell your prints to the masses. They also act as a central place to wrangle and backup photos from your phone, tablet and camera into a single photo library.

In this guide, we'll compare five of the most popular photo-sharing and photo storage sites, and take a look at some advanced solutions for professional photographers who are looking for more storage and flexibility.

But first, a word to the wise: If you upload your photos to the cloud and the company you use shuts down, you may lose your photos too. This isn't a common occurrence, and most services give you a heads up if they will cease operations, but it's smart to keep a backup of your photos on your computer or an external hard drive."

That is just the intro the article is very complete yet concise here: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/comparing-the-best-ways-to-store-your-photos-online/?tag=nl.e214&s_cid=e214&ttag=e214&ftag=CAD3c77551

Mark and Dale Bruss · June 11, 2015

I use Picasa 3 (Google) as the off-site store of our photos. It turns out the Android system can pull any of the photos from the Albums I store.

I choose Google because I think they will out survive the smaller operations. I lived through a loss of photos for the HHRV Resource Guide because many members stored their photos on a web site that reorganized from free to charged and the people didn't pull their photos.

GeorgiaHybrid · June 11, 2015

Photobucket here.

jerryneal · June 12, 2015

I used Dropbox and still do for client pictures needed for website development. But for personal use and back up, I've become a Flickr addict. Slight learning curve for setting up albums and how to share with others, but once learned no issues. Easy to share with friends and family. I have it set for auto sync for wifi and cell for the iPhone. Works great. Loose or break the phone, I don't loose the pictures. Couple other points is the download of a picture from Flickr. Flickr gives you multiple sizes if you don't need the original picture size. If you blog, there are a couple good Flickr plugins you can use that automates the picture sharing effort. Hard to beat these features and 1Tb of storage for free.

Mike and Claudia · June 12, 2015

Good thread Derek!

It will be interesting to see the thoughts that come up. As I get older and my brain gets weaker, it will be good to tap the "Brain Trust" here to see what my fellow RVers come up with.

Kirk W · June 12, 2015

I have always in the past used my own network hard drive as my backup but as the free storage sites have grown and become more useful I am rethinking this as well. Pictures are one of those things that once lost can be impossible to replace so a good backup is of great importance. In addition, when we were fulltime we always had our complete network with us but now that we have downsized that is no longer true so it has brought in some new factors to be considered. It is also complicated by the ease of taking some pictures with my phone due to the improvement in quality of phone photos as well as its ready availability. I am just beginning to look at such storage systems and to me it seems that dropbox is a great way to transfer pictures but not so much for long term storage.

Does anyone out there have much experience with storing on one of the services from their phone, and with an I-phone in particular. I too am new to the photo storage use on the net.

Also want to say Derek, thanks for sharing that article as it is a great tool for checking them out! The subject timing was especially applicable so read one that I don't usually look at.