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Each passing month I am more and more convinced that I should urgently get a) my mails out of my personal (non paying) Gmail account and b) get my associated ph

Each passing month I am more and more convinced that I should urgently get a) my mails out of my personal (non paying) Gmail account and b) get my associated photos out of Google Photos, mainly because of baby pictures which I cannot fathom to lose. But then I think about the convenience of my 2TB Google Drive and I can't do it. And I think, too, of the Polaroid pictures my parents took and gave me in a box once I got married and are now fainted. Mayhaps algorithms deciding that it's time to let go of your own data is just the modern form of yellowing.

pdntspa 4y ago
Mirror them to a external 2TB hard drive?
metters 4y ago
> I should urgently get a) my mails out of my personal (non paying) Gmail account and b) get my associated photos out of Google Photos, mainly because of baby pictures which I cannot fathom to lose. I highly recommend it. It feels like pure freedom, putting a price tag on my personal data. The migration is something done in two steps: set up your alternative service, but also keep the old one (gmail/gdrive/calendar/...) running. Then start to use the new email service, while keeping the old one. There are enough affordable options and you do not have to migrate everything at once. I started with my emails - gmail is still running and forwards all incoming emails, so I wont miss anything. I already updated all my accounts/logins to the new email address. The next step was copying all my files from Dropbox, GDrive, and so on to {service I am using}. The data in the other clouds are still there, but I am going to delete it all soon. There are things that are not perfect - like accepting appointments, which I still want to show up in my Google calendar. To those mails I still have to respond in google mail. But I am getting there, one step after another. The win so far is much bigger than the loss/pain.
Arnavion 4y ago
I take periodic backups of my Google data using Takeout, primarily for the GMail backup. When I took one a few months ago, I noticed that the Drive part of the backup had some mangled filenames that the backup from a year ago didn't have. I don't remember exactly what it was but it was something like long-filename.pdf got truncated to long-file~01.pdf, like back in the 8.3 DOS days. Luckily I already have a local copy of the Drive contents so I didn't need to rely on it, but anyone else should be worried.
igorkraw 4y ago
Smugmug pro my friend. Not even paid to shill, but it's reasonably priced for complete photo -freedom for me
lozenge 4y ago
You can put those on a service like AWS Glacier for next to nothing, the only challenge is keeping your billing details current.
cobertos 4y ago
a) was very freeing. I didn't realize there were services so much better than Gmail. Even ones I pay a small amount for and get as many custom domains as I want. b) did this a long time ago. Glad I did. I can sync any file I want too, not just photos. Really been liking Seafile + AutoSync (android) for this.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
justin_oaks 4y ago
I'm going through the process of switching off of Gmail and onto a Fastmail account under my own domain. I'm loving the freedom of having my own domain that I can switch to another email provider whenever I want. Also, Fastmail with a custom domain has some nice features that were unavailable with a Gmail account (aliases, masked emails, automatically snoozing certain emails so I get a bunch all at once, etc.) As for pictures, I do use Google Photos, but it's not my primary photo video store. It's more for the app that lets me lookup pictures. For storing original versions of pictures/videos, I sync from my phone to a home computer using Syncthing, and store backups of my files on AWS S3 using Restic for encrypted backups. If I lose Google Photos, no big deal. I still have local and cloud copies of my data.
- eek2121 4y ago
  This is definitely not a plug, but I'm actually working on an alternative to email, cloud storage, authentication/authorization/sso/etc. solutions from Google, Microsoft, etc. and one of my specific focuses is to allow free personal use and free smaller company use. It is refreshing to see I'm not building this in a vacuum. I started the project for no other reason except Google yanking out their free accounts. I absolutely do plan to commercialize it, however, I would still be happy with the result even if it failed, since under Google's pricing, I'd pay more than $1,000 a year vs. less than $10/year with my own solution.
  - wan_ala 4y ago
    How does it work exactly? This sounds pretty cool
  - evulhotdog 4y ago
    Please share more info about how we can follow your current or future project!
mancerayder 4y ago
>But then I think about the convenience of my 2TB Google Drive and I can't do it. Why not sync them to a cheap external drive on a regular basis?
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  Or use any of the hundreds of alternatives.. it’s not like a cloud drive is a distinguishing feature.
conception 4y ago
Pcloud is pretty great, lots of festures and lifetime plans.
- kcartlidge 4y ago
  Second this. Several years of use with nary an issue, plus Linux support. Speaking of which, as an aside there's no excuse for big tech to not support the Linux desktop (I also use macOS and Windows 11 so not a die-hard fanboy). It doesn't matter if the userbase is tiny. Linux enables massive profits in the cloud so any cloud provider that supports multiple platforms but not Linux, whilst also generating huge profits from it, is doing a very bad thing. And that includes MS, Apple, and Google - full support regardless of the (comparatively small) cost as thanks for the profits they generate from it.
wan_ala 4y ago
Burn everything important onto some old CDs or DVDs, that should be good enough. Filecoin seems cool too, but you have to pay in filecoin.
- mceachen 4y ago
  Most writable optical media use organic dyes that aren’t stable for more than a couple years—if you can still read the contents 10 years later, consider yourself lucky. M-DISC use a more stable media, and should last much longer, but are (much) more expensive and require more recent burners. There are dual-layer M-DISC with higher capacities, too. I did a bunch of research on long-term data archival and wrote it up here: https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/ https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/
simonblack 4y ago
As mancerayder says below, why can't you back them up to an external USB drive? I rsync my 'archive' partition (photos, videos, music, programs, etc) daily to several external 4TB USB drives. Those are dirt-cheap these days. The process takes maybe 5 or 10 minutes depending on whether or not there have been any new files to transfer in the last 24 hours. I refuse to relinquish my files to some insouciant third-party. And what recourse would you have if they lost them?? Very probably them saying "Sorry. Not our problem."

pdntspa 4y ago

Mirror them to a external 2TB hard drive?

metters 4y ago

> I should urgently get a) my mails out of my personal (non paying) Gmail account and b) get my associated photos out of Google Photos, mainly because of baby pictures which I cannot fathom to lose. I highly recommend it. It feels like pure freedom, putting a price tag on my personal data. The migration is something done in two steps: set up your alternative service, but also keep the old one (gmail/gdrive/calendar/...) running. Then start to use the new email service, while keeping the old one. There are enough affordable options and you do not have to migrate everything at once. I started with my emails - gmail is still running and forwards all incoming emails, so I wont miss anything. I already updated all my accounts/logins to the new email address. The next step was copying all my files from Dropbox, GDrive, and so on to {service I am using}. The data in the other clouds are still there, but I am going to delete it all soon. There are things that are not perfect - like accepting appointments, which I still want to show up in my Google calendar. To those mails I still have to respond in google mail. But I am getting there, one step after another. The win so far is much bigger than the loss/pain.

Arnavion 4y ago

I take periodic backups of my Google data using Takeout, primarily for the GMail backup. When I took one a few months ago, I noticed that the Drive part of the backup had some mangled filenames that the backup from a year ago didn't have. I don't remember exactly what it was but it was something like long-filename.pdf got truncated to long-file~01.pdf, like back in the 8.3 DOS days. Luckily I already have a local copy of the Drive contents so I didn't need to rely on it, but anyone else should be worried.

igorkraw 4y ago

Smugmug pro my friend. Not even paid to shill, but it's reasonably priced for complete photo -freedom for me

lozenge 4y ago

You can put those on a service like AWS Glacier for next to nothing, the only challenge is keeping your billing details current.

cobertos 4y ago

a) was very freeing. I didn't realize there were services so much better than Gmail. Even ones I pay a small amount for and get as many custom domains as I want. b) did this a long time ago. Glad I did. I can sync any file I want too, not just photos. Really been liking Seafile + AutoSync (android) for this.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

justin_oaks 4y ago

I'm going through the process of switching off of Gmail and onto a Fastmail account under my own domain. I'm loving the freedom of having my own domain that I can switch to another email provider whenever I want. Also, Fastmail with a custom domain has some nice features that were unavailable with a Gmail account (aliases, masked emails, automatically snoozing certain emails so I get a bunch all at once, etc.) As for pictures, I do use Google Photos, but it's not my primary photo video store. It's more for the app that lets me lookup pictures. For storing original versions of pictures/videos, I sync from my phone to a home computer using Syncthing, and store backups of my files on AWS S3 using Restic for encrypted backups. If I lose Google Photos, no big deal. I still have local and cloud copies of my data.

eek2121 4y ago
This is definitely not a plug, but I'm actually working on an alternative to email, cloud storage, authentication/authorization/sso/etc. solutions from Google, Microsoft, etc. and one of my specific focuses is to allow free personal use and free smaller company use. It is refreshing to see I'm not building this in a vacuum. I started the project for no other reason except Google yanking out their free accounts. I absolutely do plan to commercialize it, however, I would still be happy with the result even if it failed, since under Google's pricing, I'd pay more than $1,000 a year vs. less than $10/year with my own solution.
- wan_ala 4y ago
  How does it work exactly? This sounds pretty cool
- evulhotdog 4y ago
  Please share more info about how we can follow your current or future project!

mancerayder 4y ago

>But then I think about the convenience of my 2TB Google Drive and I can't do it. Why not sync them to a cheap external drive on a regular basis?

tinus_hn 4y ago
Or use any of the hundreds of alternatives.. it’s not like a cloud drive is a distinguishing feature.

conception 4y ago

Pcloud is pretty great, lots of festures and lifetime plans.

kcartlidge 4y ago
Second this. Several years of use with nary an issue, plus Linux support. Speaking of which, as an aside there's no excuse for big tech to not support the Linux desktop (I also use macOS and Windows 11 so not a die-hard fanboy). It doesn't matter if the userbase is tiny. Linux enables massive profits in the cloud so any cloud provider that supports multiple platforms but not Linux, whilst also generating huge profits from it, is doing a very bad thing. And that includes MS, Apple, and Google - full support regardless of the (comparatively small) cost as thanks for the profits they generate from it.

wan_ala 4y ago

Burn everything important onto some old CDs or DVDs, that should be good enough. Filecoin seems cool too, but you have to pay in filecoin.

mceachen 4y ago
Most writable optical media use organic dyes that aren’t stable for more than a couple years—if you can still read the contents 10 years later, consider yourself lucky. M-DISC use a more stable media, and should last much longer, but are (much) more expensive and require more recent burners. There are dual-layer M-DISC with higher capacities, too. I did a bunch of research on long-term data archival and wrote it up here: https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/ https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/

simonblack 4y ago

As mancerayder says below, why can't you back them up to an external USB drive? I rsync my 'archive' partition (photos, videos, music, programs, etc) daily to several external 4TB USB drives. Those are dirt-cheap these days. The process takes maybe 5 or 10 minutes depending on whether or not there have been any new files to transfer in the last 24 hours. I refuse to relinquish my files to some insouciant third-party. And what recourse would you have if they lost them?? Very probably them saying "Sorry. Not our problem."