5 ms·

I absolutely love Google Photos. Hope they keep it alive

Gareth321 4y ago
I love the service but it has a fatal flaw (by design): no ability to synchronise my photos to my computer. Given the horror stories of Google accounts being locked for any and no reason at all, with no recourse, I've become extremely distrustful of cloud storage. I use it only with regular or synchronised backup. Google used to offer the ability to synchronise pictures to one's PC, but they removed that functionality. Presumably because more friction in this area keeps customers stickier. They're less likely to leave. The only option is a full download of all pictures, and they do their damnedest to ensure it's uncomfortable. Albums aren't properly labelled and linked. Labels are a mess. Picture naming is broken. Exif data randomly stripped or altered. Duplicates galore. This process ensures that, even if one is diligent and ensures they regularly download the entire database, they'll end up with a completely unmanageable picture library with dozens of duplicates. And most people aren't that studious.
- names_are_hard 4y ago
  Have you managed to find an alternative? Your concerns resonate with me but I still don't know the best way to automatically backup all the photos I take on my phone, search them later, etc
  - Gareth321 4y ago
    I ended up paying for iCloud and buying a Mac. There is an option to automatically sync full copies to Mac. They charge a premium but it works flawlessly. Caveat 1: it's technically a sync, not a backup. The risk remains that Apple deletes all my pictures remotely, and this deletion propagates to delete my local copies. There is still a recycle bin, but perhaps Apple has some way of deleting even that remotely. I don't think so, but it's a risk. To mitigate this, I periodically download all pictures to "cold" storage. It's fragmented and poorly categorised but at least the pictures are there in the case of a catastrophe. Caveat 2: this only works in the Apple ecosystem. For Unraid/Windows (Docker), I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/tsxi5k/icloudpd_autosync_your_icloud_photos_at_full_res/ https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/tsxi5k/icloudpd...

I love the service but it has a fatal flaw (by design): no ability to synchronise my photos to my computer. Given the horror stories of Google accounts being locked for any and no reason at all, with no recourse, I've become extremely distrustful of cloud storage. I use it only with regular or synchronised backup. Google used to offer the ability to synchronise pictures to one's PC, but they removed that functionality. Presumably because more friction in this area keeps customers stickier. They're less likely to leave. The only option is a full download of all pictures, and they do their damnedest to ensure it's uncomfortable. Albums aren't properly labelled and linked. Labels are a mess. Picture naming is broken. Exif data randomly stripped or altered. Duplicates galore. This process ensures that, even if one is diligent and ensures they regularly download the entire database, they'll end up with a completely unmanageable picture library with dozens of duplicates. And most people aren't that studious.

names_are_hard 4y ago
Have you managed to find an alternative? Your concerns resonate with me but I still don't know the best way to automatically backup all the photos I take on my phone, search them later, etc
- Gareth321 4y ago
  I ended up paying for iCloud and buying a Mac. There is an option to automatically sync full copies to Mac. They charge a premium but it works flawlessly. Caveat 1: it's technically a sync, not a backup. The risk remains that Apple deletes all my pictures remotely, and this deletion propagates to delete my local copies. There is still a recycle bin, but perhaps Apple has some way of deleting even that remotely. I don't think so, but it's a risk. To mitigate this, I periodically download all pictures to "cold" storage. It's fragmented and poorly categorised but at least the pictures are there in the case of a catastrophe. Caveat 2: this only works in the Apple ecosystem. For Unraid/Windows (Docker), I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/tsxi5k/icloudpd_autosync_your_icloud_photos_at_full_res/ https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/tsxi5k/icloudpd...