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Google photos and cloud storage: Pay the fee or is there a better option?

omegaswisst
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I'm hoping there are a few tech savvy members on the forum who may be able to help.

Once you reach the 15GB limit is the best option to pay for extra storage with Google or is there another option which will allow you to view your images across multiple devices (ie) android phone, iPad and PC?

I have read details on downloading and saving images on local storage devices to free up space on Google but then the issue if access to photos across a variety of devices arises.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
ghce
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I am in the same boat as you and like many have been stung by multiple Photo storage companies changing limits, cost and in many cases ownership, ie Photo bucket, Flickr and others. Google seems a much safer bet to stick with you are less likely to be shafted in the same way as other companies have done to many users.
 
Dan S
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Isn't it only like $20 per year to upgrade to 100GB? Why would you even hesitate?
 
SkunkPrince
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I use iCloud with some success. I don't share many pics nowadays as a lot of web-boards seem to host as well (this one does) so less necessity to have to provide a link.
 
Walrus
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Probably unrelated but when I got my new iPhone I couldn’t transfer all my pics of my cats, watches and hikes as I used to much space. Apples fees were very reasonable and they said if I just go through my photos and delete some I can just call and cancel but I don’t think the extra cloud storage costs me a dollar a month gotta admit 50% of what I store is useless and the apple tech even offered to wait if I wanted to delete things, I like that no pressure stuff.
 
SkunkPrince
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I know many hate Apple and I am not trying to ire them. My experience is that they are quite nice people and they truly want you to succeed with their products. I store many things in iCloud such that I need not backup locally though I still do.

But, if you prefer Amazon/Google/Android, go with dog and my blessings.
 
omegaswisst
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Dan S Dan S
Isn't it only like $20 per year to upgrade to 100GB? Why would you even hesitate?

That was my thought process also.

It seems reasonable for what you get in addition to access to your content across all you devices.

I just wanted to see if there were any other viable options I may have been missing.
 
sokard
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I upgraded at 100GB first and then at 200GB!
I believe I would be soon out of storage again!!!

I am trying to find a way to manage my photos with using limited online storage but I haven't find something yet!!!
 
SkunkPrince
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sokard sokard
I upgraded at 100GB first and then at 200GB!
I believe I would be soon out of storage again!!!

I am trying to find a way to manage my photos with using limited online storage but I haven't find something yet!!!
1TB home storage and only upload when you need to share. 😀
 
mrbreen
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I use iCloud but have run into this issue with Google Drive. Out of curiosity OP, do you have a gmail account as well? It may be possible to free up a significant amount of space by mass purging promotional/social media emails.

But as others have said, cloud storage is cheap
 
ghce
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SkunkPrince SkunkPrince
1TB home storage and only upload when you need to share. 😀

My concerns have always been technology shifts, multiple storage redundancy, own device (1TB drive) failure.
Whilst these may seem overly unlikely in the short term I would like my images to be as accessible in 50 or 100 years time or even longer as they are today.
As much as I dislike cloud storage it does cover a lot of these eventualities but of course its the things that we dont know that will trip us up.
 
omegaswisst
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SkunkPrince SkunkPrince
1TB home storage and only upload when you need to share. 😀

Interested to know if you are out and about are you able to access the photos at home and if so is it an easy process?
 
omegaswisst
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mrbreen mrbreen
I use iCloud but have run into this issue with Google Drive. Out of curiosity OP, do you have a gmail account as well? It may be possible to free up a significant amount of space by mass purging promotional/social media emails.

But as others have said, cloud storage is cheap

Photos are taking up around 14.5GB of space at the moment on this gmail account 🙁

I considered just setting up another gmail account and continuing the storage but then that throws up issues of syncing and toggling between accounts. Surely, Google was not going to make this easy!
 
Dan S
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omegaswisst omegaswisst
Photos are taking up around 14.5GB of space at the moment on this gmail account 🙁

I considered just setting up another gmail account and continuing the storage but then that throws up issues of syncing and toggling between accounts. Surely, Google was not going to make this easy!

I know I sound like a broken record, but how much time and effort is it worth to save $20/yr? You've already got it set up and working. If you're happy with the features and performance of Google Cloud, then I think the cost is trivial. I would only consider other options if I were not happy with the service.

I was in the same situation with iCloud, and I happily upgraded.
 
mrbreen
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Having read your reply to my post, I’m gonna strongly agree with Dan’s reply above
 
SkunkPrince
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omegaswisst omegaswisst
Interested to know if you are out and about are you able to access the photos at home and if so is it an easy process?
My storage appliance allegedly provides that, though that's not how I'm using it.

It's a Western Digital MyCloud Ultra.
 
Foo2rama
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Custom NAS with backup to Amazon Glacier storage.
 
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