If you took a ton of photos and videos while on vacation, chances are your phone is working. little storage space. So what now? You might be tempted to just upload all your files to the cloud, but if you do that, you'll have to pay a pretty penny.
Cloud storage hasn't been expensive before. When Google Photos debuted in 2015, it promised free, unlimited storage. I happily uploaded all my photos and videos knowing they were safe in the cloud and accessible from anywhere.
Then, in 2021, Google pulled the rug out from under us. The free ride is over. All these thousands of photographs were safe, but each new photograph began to destroy this pathetic 15 GB free storage. Suddenly my photography habit became expensive and I had to pay for a Google One subscription if I wanted to keep uploading.
All those photos and videos took up a lot of space because what's stored in the cloud doesn't actually disappear into the sky. These files exist on physical servers here on Earth. Essentially, they are stored on someone else's computer.
And now I'm being charged for using this storage space. I've always hated the idea of ​​paying for a monthly subscription: $10 a month turns into $120 a year, and after 10 years turns into $1,200.
And Google One wasn't a subscription I could just cancel like Netflix or Spotify. If I stop paying, I will no longer be able to upload new photos and videos, and potentially I'll lose access to all my files in two years.
How could I back up all my memories without the cloud?
Over the years, I've developed a system for managing my files and storing copies on my hard drive. external hard drive. While it does take a little more work to manually transfer everything, for me it's the best long-term solution and doesn't require paying a subscription.
Why do I use an external hard drive to store photos and videos?
If you don't want to pay for cloud storage, you might be tempted to buy a phone with more storage capacity. After Google Photos stopped letting me download files for free, my first thought was that I'd rather pay more up front for a device with a terabyte of storage than pay indefinitely for a Google One subscription.
But even the most promising 1TB phone will eventually have to be replaced. And if I want to transfer all my old files, my next phone should have at least as much memory as my current one, plus extra capacity for future photos and videos.
Compounding this problem is that image file sizes continue to grow. As phone cameras improve, the footage they capture is turned into higher resolution files.
My iPhone estimates that each 12-megapixel image is approximately 2 MB, and each 24-megapixel image is 3 MB. Video takes up even more space: a minute of 4K video can easily exceed 1 GB. At these prices, even a phone with 256 GB of memory (a new minimum for iPhone 17 series) can fill up quickly.
Digital storage on an external drive doesn't have to be expensive. You can easily get 1TB solid state drive for less than $100. (For context, Apple charges $1,399 for 1TB. iPhone Airwhich is $400 more than the $999 256GB model.)
The best part about using an external drive is that you can save files across multiple devices. You can also continue to use it long after you switch to a new phone. Typically, HDDs last between three and five years, and SSDs last at least five years.
Using an external drive requires more effort than backing everything up to the cloud. You need to wait for your files to transfer from your device to the drive and then sort everything into folders. Then, once the file transfer is complete, you must delete those files from your phone or computer.
Luckily, once you understand this process and do it a few times, it becomes quite simple. This is how I do it.
My Photo Backup Process
When I need to back up my photos and videos (or my phone runs out of storage), I like to make two copies of each file: one for my laptop and one for my external SSD.
My MacBook runs fewer apps and has more memory than my iPhone, so it gets copies of all the photos and videos from my phone. The Photos app on my Mac also has a handy “Delete items after upload” checkbox that I recommend checking.
Once all the files have been transferred, I connect the external drive to my computer and select all the photos I want to back up. The Photos app conveniently sorts everything by upload date. I can select all the images from the newest batch by clicking the first photo, holding down the Shift key, and then clicking the last photo. Then I drag them to the external drive. If I have a lot of photos (over 500), I usually split this step up and select 200 to 300 at a time, otherwise there may be some interruptions in the transfer process.
I try to back up my photos at least once a month or after a special occasion such as a vacation. Sometimes, just in case, I also make a backup before a major software update (eg. iOS 26). This process became a way for me to mark the end of one period and the beginning of another.
I used to have problems organizing files on my external drive. However, now I just create a folder for each batch of photos and videos I upload. I'll label these folders with either a date (eg July 2025) or an event (trip to London, summer 2024).
You may find that a similar system works for you. You may choose to back up more or less frequently. Either way, I highly recommend this last step: back up your backup to a separate external drive. This way, if one of your drives fails, you still have the other one.
I'm more careful about the images I take
One of the problems with storing all my files on external drives is that I don't always have access to them. But I think it's a reasonable compromise. I don't have to carry every image I've ever taken in my pocket. I can usually find the photos I need on my Instagram page or in my inbox.
I leave certain photos and videos on my phone indefinitely, but only those that I need to access frequently (like a screenshot of my insurance information). I also keep a few photos that I like to look at from time to time: family gatherings, a day out with friends. It's a carefully curated collection, much like the one or two images people kept in their wallets.
Yes, managing all those files on an external drive can be cumbersome, but it's worth it. Not only do I spend less money in the long run, but I also feel more confident that my memories are stored on a physical object that I own, rather than dumped on someone else's computer.
Even if I paid for Google One or other cloud storage, it would feel like my files belonged to someone else. What if Google Photos makes another change to its storage policies or raises prices again? I would have no choice but to go along with it. My memories will be at the mercy of the corporation. What if Google ever shuts down? Indeed, it is currently one of the largest companies in the world. But this also applied Kodaknot so long ago.
There's another unexpected benefit: being responsible for manual backups has made me more intentional about image capture. I realized that I don't have to photograph everything I see. Most of the time I just remember it.
