Cost of cloud storage

Thought I'd just flag this up jeanie.

I'll bump this up too. I'm the same, lots of memory taken up with photos.
Are there any knowledgeable people on GN who can advise please?

You can buy a photo stick, plug it in and download up to 3,000 photos onto it

I have 50GB from Apple for 79 pence/month as that’s all I need.
I also use Dropbox (their free storage, they also have paid for storage but I have no idea what they charge) but I use two different email addresses therefore can store twice as much.

Thank you Avalon. I knew there would be someone out there who could help.

We pay 79 p a month fir my old iPhone.
Being tech phobic Dh sorted it out.

I have the same deal as thisisnotme for my iPad/phone, but without Dropbox.

Of course, you know that 'cloud' storage isn't in the clouds at all? It's massive computer banks using unfeasible amounts of energy to keep them functioning and using ever dwindling resources in their production.

I'd go for the photo stick option myself. It feels more environmentally sound (though I'm open to persuasion)

If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you get unlimited photo storage along with all their other perks.

What is a Drop box ?
I don’t uze my phone much other than for photos. No music or games or anything other than photos.
I have deleted a lot of them but still can’t edit them anymore. No idea why.

MaizieD

Of course, you know that 'cloud' storage isn't in the clouds at all? It's massive computer banks using unfeasible amounts of energy to keep them functioning and using ever dwindling resources in their production.

I'd go for the photo stick option myself. It feels more environmentally sound (though I'm open to persuasion)

What Maizie said.

I store my pics on icloud but worry that they could all be lost once anything happens to me if my family can’t or don’t access them. I’m sure many lovely family photos are just forgotten about or lost this way.
I do a printed book each year with Photo-box, I just upload a selection of the best pictures I’ve taken over the months. The books don’t take up too much room and are lovely to look back on, my eldest daughter does the same, this ensures we have at least some record of our memories if all our icloud pics are ever lost. The photo stick is a good idea as a back up too 25Avalon

I use two external hard drives (belt and braces) plus the free cloud storage you get with gmail, hotmail, etc. I have some videos on Vimeo - again free up to a point. I reckon if you spread the load at least you won't lose everything at once.

Is anyone aware of how the cloud is damaging the environment. Where do you think all the electricity is coming from.
Where is the water coming from.
One Google unit in Iowa used 3 billion litres in a year
www.computerweekly.com/blog/Ahead-in-the-Clouds/Why-water-usage-is-the-datacentre-industrys-dirty-little-secret

But carry on paying for photos that your probably never going to look at again and in the meantime using up the planets precious resources.
Don’t be surprised if you happen to live near one these facilities and your water pressure drops or even goes off, Mr Google gets priority.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s leading cloud computing service provider. Apple spent $300 million (2019) a year securing cloud services from Amazon.

These are the companies on record as users of AWS. Many are household names:

Aon, Adobe, Airbnb, Alcatel-Lucent, AOL, Acquia, AdRoll, AEG, Alert Logic, Autodesk, Bitdefender, BMW, British Gas, Baidu, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Canon, Capital One, Channel 4, Chef, Citrix, Coinbase, Comcast, Coursera, Disney, Docker, Dow Jones, European Space Agency, ESPN, Expedia, Financial Times, FINRA, General Electric, GoSquared, Guardian News & Media, Harvard Medical School, Hearst Corporation, Hitachi, HTC, IMDb, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, International Civil Aviation Organization, ITV, iZettle, Johnson & Johnson, JustGiving, JWT, Kaplan, Kellogg’s, Lamborghini, Lonely Planet, Lyft, Made.com, McDonalds, NASA, NASDAQ OMX, National Rail Enquiries, National Trust, Netflix, News International, News UK, Nokia, Nordstrom, Novartis, Pfizer, Philips, Pinterest, Quantas, Reddit, Sage, Samsung, SAP, Schneider Electric, Scribd, Securitas Direct, Siemens, Slack, Sony, SoundCloud, Spotify, Square Enix, Tata Motors, The Weather Company, Twitch, Turner Broadcasting, Ticketmaster, Time Inc., Trainline, Ubisoft, UCAS, Unilever, US Department of State, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, UK Ministry of Justice, Vodafone Italy, WeTransfer, WIX, Xiaomi, Yelp, Zynga and Zillow.

Top ten users based on monthly spend are:

Netflix: $19 million
Twitch: $15 million (gaming and sports)
LinkedIn: $13 million
Facebook: $11 million
Turner Broadcasting:$10 million
BBC:$9 million
Baidu: $9 million (Chinese AI)
ESPN: $8 million
Adobe: $8 million
Twitter: $7 million

Source www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws

I take your point, Meryl Streep, but we are all part of the problem. We want digital data, digital entertainment and e-commerce at our fingertips and this is how it is done. I doubt anyone’s domestic photo collection is going to make much of a difference.

There was a tv programme recently about the land which is being built on to accommodate the harmless sounding cloud.

I plan to print mine out.
Went to a photo shop a few months ago.
For the amount I have the cost may be £180.
If they are on paper, I then have them, rather than them being on the internet in one form or another.

I pay Apple 79 p a month for a lot of extra storage far more than I lever need and I too have thousands of photos

Fancythat why not use one of the free print sites you can get 45 prints free a month just pay the postage and if you joined two different sites that would be almost a hundred free prints a month surely that would sort you out for very little money

I went the opposite way in lockdown, fancythat, and got rid of hundreds and hundreds of the photos I used to have printed as a matter of course. A lot of them were duplicates, many of views even we didn’t recognise. We’ve still got a lot left - now sorted into date order and in boxes - but the only photos I’ve printed for about 10 years now are ones I want to send to other people or ones I want to display. I just use Boots self-service machines, which are so easy and quick.

I must sort my digital photos into albums though and get rid of the dross. I get Alexa to display them and the number of times we’re treated to a document I’ve saved for some reason or a grinning ex partner of one of the DC…..

Thanks both.

Sorting my photos situation has always been at the bottom of my to do list.
Even getting myself to the photo shop was an achievement for me!
I cant keep putting off actually sorting it all out.
Getting them for free, except for postage sounds a good idea!

The (alternative) cost of storing data in the Cloud: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hzb3/panorama-is-the-cloud-damaging-the-planet

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If you have a Samsung phone your photos are automatically uploaded onto 'photos' as well as your phone.
I personally always print hard copies of special ones using Snapfish. I wait for their 1p a print offer to come round. I store them in old video cases and make a cover with the year and contents in each one.