keenai.com will be shut down -- alternatives?

[MyLifeUncut]

Hi everybody,

I am not sure which forum is the right place to ask this -- so I kindly ask the moderators to move this post to another section if deemed appropriate.

This morning I got an email that keenai.com will be shut down. I used this service (formerly known as EyeFi) for a long time as a cloud backup solution for all my photos, including RAW files.

So, naturally, now I am looking for alternatives. Features that are primarily important to me are:
- service has to work with RAW files (.ARW files, I shoot a Sony A7R3)
- huge (preferably unlimited) storage space (at the moment I have 11 TB of photos to back up)
- reasonable upload speed (I tried Crashplan, uploading 1TB took over a month, that just doesn't make any sense).
- reasonable price (Adobe Creative Cloud is way to expensive)

The obvious choice seems to be Amazon Prime Photos, which seems to offer everything I want. Are there any alternatives that you would recommend and that I am missing?

Thanks for any input on that matter...

Andreas

 

[Dimitris72]

Hi Andrea,

I am in the same boat as you... Pity that they are shutting down the service...

Dimitris

 

[wthorne]

I use Photoshelter for both my website and online backup. The backups are hidden so no one will see my backups when looking at my website. I back up my raw files and have over 4Tb on the site. The uploads are fast also not like Crashplan.

A Photoshelter Pro account that gives you unlimited uploads is $420 per year. I'm not sure of the cost for Amazon or Google so this may be more then you want to pay but overall I'm pretty happy with their offerings.

 

[John Canon Shooter]

I too have been using Keenai and its predecessor for a very long time (~145k images). I truly am stuck because their suggested rescue is to download your entire history via their somewhat clunky app. We need a serious response from Ricoh on this issue. Does anyone know how to review their settings to determine the size of their library? I made the mistake of clicking download from Keenai to a new PC and determined their connection socket is speed limited so despite having a 1Gig internet connection, the desktop app creeped along at at less than 4meg. After looking through my network drives, I most likely have 75% of my eye-fi folders, but this may truly create the worst duplicating mess of my life.

I need a solution.

 

[erehm]

I will probably start with Google Photos / Google Drive / Google One. Two storage options: "High Quality" and "Original".

In their free, unlimited "High Quality" storage, the max photo size is 16 MP, but they will compress smaller images too. RAW images are converted to JPEG. Bzzt. Maybe for some of my old old turn-of-the-century photo libraries?

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www.phonearena.com

For "Original", your untouched photos (JPEG or RAW) count against your Google Drive / Gmail /etc. 15 GB free limit. Google One storage upgrades are not too expensive: $2.99 / month for 200 GB, $9.99 / month for 2 TB, etc. (Big hole seems to be the jump from 200 GB to 2 TB, i.e., no 1 TB option.)

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one.google.com

However, does anyone have other suggestions?

/eric

 

[woodyggg]

Personally I use crashplan - and am considering backblaze as well.

The reality is, it only uploads incremental data, which can take a bit of time, but it's not that bad. Of course, you are in a bind with your initial upload. I could contact them (and backblaze) and ask if there's another way to get your initial data loaded. I wouldn't use anything like photobucket, etc. I have no idea as to their backup/hardware configurations/protocols. I want to use company's that it is their primary business to simply backup and protect my data. Not to mention the low cost of those solutions. Of course they may not be for everyone and I haven't explored Amazon or Google, etc. as I'm perfectly happy with where I'm at (I have about 4TB of data).

 

[woodyggg]

I will probably start with Google Photos / Google Drive / Google One. Two storage options: "High Quality" and "Original".

In their free, unlimited "High Quality" storage, the max photo size is 16 MP, but they will compress smaller images too. RAW images are converted to JPEG. Bzzt. Maybe for some of my old old turn-of-the-century photo libraries?

https://www.phonearena.com/news/Goo...ts-the-difference-and-should-you-care_id93938

For "Original", your untouched photos (JPEG or RAW) count against your Google Drive / Gmail /etc. 15 GB free limit. Google One storage upgrades are not too expensive: $2.99 / month for 200 GB, $9.99 / month for 2 TB, etc. (Big hole seems to be the jump from 200 GB to 2 TB, i.e., no 1 TB option.)

https://one.google.com/about

However, does anyone have other suggestions?

/eric

I would never EVER consider a company that is limiting my file sizes, converting my file types, etc.

 

[John Canon Shooter]

I would prefer to find a solution that will be sustainable (and not $500 per year). I really don't want to keep doing this as "next-co" sends out the next "Sorry we aren't profitable" email to me.

 

[peter826]

I use Amazon, as I'm a prime member, which comes with unlimited storage. They do recognize Sony raw. I have 81,000 photos on it and it only shows 4.1 mb used, so the files I'm uploading aren't counting towards any sort of quota.

I find the Photos web interface to be confusing...it wants to categorize my photos in ways I don't care about. I just want to see a directory of folders and my files in them. If I use the Amazon drive client that you can download to your computer, it makes more sense.

 

[Phil Photo]

I would never EVER consider a company that is limiting my file sizes, converting my file types, etc.

oh it doesnt FORCE you to convert or limit.

It just says, if you want them stored for FREE, you need to downscale

 

[Phil Photo]

Amazon Prime's price is right.

The only drawback, is that uploads are horribly, HORRIBLY slow.

it takes about 10 times as long, to upload the same RAW file to prime, as it does to google photo.

So if you're okay with your backup of 400 raws taking all day... it's fine.

oh wait.. did you say you are using an "R" series??

make that "200 raws will take all day" :-/

 

[MyLifeUncut]

Thanks for all your replies. I am trying Crashplan, Backblaze and Amazon Photos at the moment but they are all horribly slow: Crashplan estimates completion of the first backup in 11 month, backblaze in 494 days and Amazon does not seem a lot faster than the other two. And this is just the first of three external drives I would like to backup...

It really seems that PhotoShelter is the only _real_ alternative to Keenai but I am still debating with myself if I am willing to spend that much money...

 

[Krav Maga]

I would prefer to find a solution that will be sustainable (and not $500 per year). I really don't want to keep doing this as "next-co" sends out the next "Sorry we aren't profitable" email to me.

I believe BackBlaze is currently $50/year per computer. As far as guarantees for staying in business, unfortunately there are not guarantees in life. Well, as far as business ventures go.

 

[Krav Maga]

Thanks for all your replies. I am trying Crashplan, Backblaze and Amazon Photos at the moment but they are all horribly slow: Crashplan estimates completion of the first backup in 11 month, backblaze in 494 days and Amazon does not seem a lot faster than the other two. And this is just the first of three external drives I would like to backup...

It really seems that PhotoShelter is the only _real_ alternative to Keenai but I am still debating with myself if I am willing to spend that much money...

I've been using BackBlaze (in conjunction with other procedures), and although it is slow to upload initially it has been very good thus far. I believe it took something like nearly 30 days to upload all of my raw files. But once it's done with the initial upload, it just incrementally backs up any new additions to the HDD.

I wasn't too concerned with the length of the initial upload as I back everything up locally anyway. BackBlaze is just a kind of backup of my backup, as it were.

 

[Gearhart7]

I’m in the same boat. It’s a shame.

One great thing about keenai was the ability to upload and view sigma raw files. Most applications and upload sites just don’t recognize them. It was nice to have a place for them other than my hard drive.

 

[Ferguson]

Amazon Prime is attractive because it's cheap, but it is awkward as a backup. A backup should permit both copying current files there, but should also keep versions so if you corrupt a file (but not notice) and back it up, it does not overwrite the good version. That's tough with ACD unless you use special software, and Amazon doesn't want you to so they make their API unreliable. Two programs that do sort of work with ACD are Cloudberrry and Goodsync.

My preference is to use a service like Backblaze B2 -- you pay per gigabyte but it is pretty cheap. That you pay per gigabyte means that they do not jump through all sorts of hoops to minimize your use (conversely Backblaze (no "B2") is an all you can eat for one price service that does limit what you can back up to minimize their cost). Then get a third party program (Cloudberry is a pretty good one here) to do the backups.

Doing this you can also encrypt your own files (meaning Backblaze does not have access, so even if they are hacked the hacker cannot get your data, making it suitable to also back up private non-photo data).

Another possibility that works the same way is Amazon Glacier, which restricts speed and timing of restores, but is pretty cheap (not as cheap, last time I checked, as B2 though).

Amazon S3 storage is wonderful - fast, easy, flexible -- and very pricy. Three flavors from the same vendor, very different results.

FWIW.

Linwood

 

[rumple]

[...]

So, naturally, now I am looking for alternatives.

1. Find a hosting plan with "unlimited" storage, or cheap storage.
2. Use duplicati to backup to the hosting plan via ftp.

A modicum, only, of technical knowledge is required.

 

[JPPhotog]

Just discovered today that it is shutting down. I don't use the cloud service, but I rely on the wifi transfer to my phone via the Keenai Android app. I noticed last week that the app would not connect to my Eye-Fi. Is this capability affected by the shutdown, or has the card finally crapped out, or... ?

 

[woodyggg]

I would prefer to find a solution that will be sustainable (and not $500 per year). I really don't want to keep doing this as "next-co" sends out the next "Sorry we aren't profitable" email to me.

It's $55 a year...

 

[laserfj]

Hi everybody,

I am not sure which forum is the right place to ask this -- so I kindly ask the moderators to move this post to another section if deemed appropriate.

This morning I got an email that keenai.com will be shut down. I used this service (formerly known as EyeFi) for a long time as a cloud backup solution for all my photos, including RAW files.

So, naturally, now I am looking for alternatives. Features that are primarily important to me are:
- service has to work with RAW files (.ARW files, I shoot a Sony A7R3)
- huge (preferably unlimited) storage space (at the moment I have 11 TB of photos to back up)
- reasonable upload speed (I tried Crashplan, uploading 1TB took over a month, that just doesn't make any sense).
- reasonable price (Adobe Creative Cloud is way to expensive)

The obvious choice seems to be Amazon Prime Photos, which seems to offer everything I want. Are there any alternatives that you would recommend and that I am missing?

Thanks for any input on that matter...

Andreas

Crash plan uploads at whatever your internet speed is. I have 10Mbps upload so I can upload about 4GB per hour.

1TB would be 250 hrs or about 10 days. Is that a lot or a little? Dunno.

Some services will let you "seed" the backup by mailing them a hard drive at the beggining. If you have 11TB that might be a good option