cloud service choices and functionality

[Deb789]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

--
Deb
https://www.flickr.com/photos/flowerfly99/

 

[ishwanu]

I. too, have an interest in a cloud solution with much the same criteria. I'm going to boldly predict that there's nothing out there that satisfies all your conditions and preferences ... but would like to proven wrong.

 

[Carey Brown]

A number of years ago I bought a QNAP NAS which came with a program called Qsync which works a lot like Dropbox but is entirely under my control. I used it to share files between a handful of computers, including my laptop when I was on the road. All was well for a bunch of years and then it got hacked. I think that if I had been more knowledgeable about configuring my firewall it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, there's another possibility.

--
Photos at http://inasphere.com

 

[Deb789]

A number of years ago I bought a QNAP NAS which came with a program called Qsync which works a lot like Dropbox but is entirely under my control. I used it to share files between a handful of computers, including my laptop when I was on the road. All was well for a bunch of years and then it got hacked. I think that if I had been more knowledgeable about configuring my firewall it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, there's another possibility.

I am sorry to hear your NAS was hacked. I hope the culprit did not get your most sensitive data. Yikes! I have an NAS, but it is dinosaur-aged and I expect it to fail any moment. I feel like, between physical aging and software updates, home-based hardware backup systems are just not as reliable as other options these days. I could be wrong, but I am very sick of plugging in and wondering if I cannot access due to hardware or software (or network) issues.

 

[Deb789]

I. too, have an interest in a cloud solution with much the same criteria. I'm going to boldly predict that there's nothing out there that satisfies all your conditions and preferences ... but would like to proven wrong.

I think I would. be very pleased to get enough of the functionality to be able to work with it. . Let us hope we are both proven wrong!

 

[Carey Brown]

A number of years ago I bought a QNAP NAS which came with a program called Qsync which works a lot like Dropbox but is entirely under my control. I used it to share files between a handful of computers, including my laptop when I was on the road. All was well for a bunch of years and then it got hacked. I think that if I had been more knowledgeable about configuring my firewall it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, there's another possibility.

I am sorry to hear your NAS was hacked. I hope the culprit did not get your most sensitive data. Yikes! I have an NAS, but it is dinosaur-aged and I expect it to fail any moment. I feel like, between physical aging and software updates, home-based hardware backup systems are just not as reliable as other options these days. I could be wrong, but I am very sick of plugging in and wondering if I cannot access due to hardware or software (or network) issues.

Thanks. Fortunately I don't keep my originals on the NAS so it was just a pain in the ass - nothing lost.

I haven't resurrected it yet but I'd really like to, it was great other than that. I'd have to read up on network security and consult some knowledgeable people first. No time for that at the moment.

 

[Mark B.]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

 

[Deb789]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

 

[Mark B.]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

No; the online portal will list the files in exactly the file/folder structure that they were backed up from but there is no means of searching for an individual file. Personally I use Backblaze strictly as a cloud backup and that's what it's marketed as - not as an on demand storage/retrieval system. But backup is all I need out of it. Having cloud backup is a good fail-safe, at least for my needs.

 

[KCK14]

I agree with Mark B. Your local drive is for immediate access, and the cloud is for a secondary backup that you will need only if the local drive fails or is being replaced.

 

[ahaslett]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

Backblaze is a backup system. You can get access to lost or damaged files up to a year old as part of your subscription. You have to know which file in which folder. It does an intelligent scan to locate which folders to add or you can add or subtract folders by choice.

You can’t really use it as online storage, so not reviewing files. It has a maximum data rate of 13Gb per day, so uploading all the files from a 3 week holiday could take a while. It took 2 months to do the first backup of our desktop PC. Incremental backups take however long the added files need at 13Gb. I guess file recovery is also rate limited but it’s very fast for small files.

If you need disaster recovery, you can pay for a hard drive with your image to be sent to you.

My wife is very happy with it, but it wouldn’t suit me. I have multiple external HDD backups for both personal and personal business files. I use Dropbox for file sharing, which also protects my business accounts files.

If you might be willing to consider Sharepoint, I could try and see if it lets you see image EXIF data.

Personally, I think what you need is a local network backup with a RAID array and automated backup software . You could PM Jacques Cornell and ask about his.

A

 

[Deb789]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

Backblaze is a backup system. You can get access to lost or damaged files up to a year old as part of your subscription. You have to know which file in which folder. It does an intelligent scan to locate which folders to add or you can add or subtract folders by choice.

You can’t really use it as online storage, so not reviewing files. It has a maximum data rate of 13Gb per day, so uploading all the files from a 3 week holiday could take a while. It took 2 months to do the first backup of our desktop PC. Incremental backups take however long the added files need at 13Gb. I guess file recovery is also rate limited but it’s very fast for small files.

If you need disaster recovery, you can pay for a hard drive with your image to be sent to you.

My wife is very happy with it, but it wouldn’t suit me. I have multiple external HDD backups for both personal and personal business files. I use Dropbox for file sharing, which also protects my business accounts files.

If you might be willing to consider Sharepoint, I could try and see if it lets you see image EXIF data.

Personally, I think what you need is a local network backup with a RAID array and automated backup software . You could PM Jacques Cornell and ask about his.

A

That was a. lot of super helpful information. Thank you!! I might just end up going with an upgraded NAS. The cloud is looking more and more attractive these days, though. Just one more subscription. Even though I am using an Apple computer right now, I looked at OneDrive when I read your answer. I think MS and Apple work pretty well together these days. It looks super nice, but the maximum storage is 1 Tb, about half what I need as of today. And having become the family photo archiver and slideshow maker, I think I might need more than 2 Tb fairly soon.

 

[ahaslett]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

Backblaze is a backup system. You can get access to lost or damaged files up to a year old as part of your subscription. You have to know which file in which folder. It does an intelligent scan to locate which folders to add or you can add or subtract folders by choice.

You can’t really use it as online storage, so not reviewing files. It has a maximum data rate of 13Gb per day, so uploading all the files from a 3 week holiday could take a while. It took 2 months to do the first backup of our desktop PC. Incremental backups take however long the added files need at 13Gb. I guess file recovery is also rate limited but it’s very fast for small files.

If you need disaster recovery, you can pay for a hard drive with your image to be sent to you.

My wife is very happy with it, but it wouldn’t suit me. I have multiple external HDD backups for both personal and personal business files. I use Dropbox for file sharing, which also protects my business accounts files.

If you might be willing to consider Sharepoint, I could try and see if it lets you see image EXIF data.

Personally, I think what you need is a local network backup with a RAID array and automated backup software . You could PM Jacques Cornell and ask about his.

A

That was a. lot of super helpful information. Thank you!! I might just end up going with an upgraded NAS. The cloud is looking more and more attractive these days, though. Just one more subscription. Even though I am using an Apple computer right now, I looked at OneDrive when I read your answer. I think MS and Apple work pretty well together these days. It looks super nice, but the maximum storage is 1 Tb, about half what I need as of today. And having become the family photo archiver and slideshow maker, I think I might need more than 2 Tb fairly soon.

I need 6Tb for two copies of my data. You can see why internet transfer speeds are far too slow. Even external drives take hours for a full transfer.

A

 

[Mark B.]

Hello,

I am tired of external HDDs breaking and II am tired of swapping them back and forth for redundancy. Another redundant HDD just stopped working and I have finally decided to purchase some space in the cloud (along with keeping 1, but only 1, external HDD). I am looking for input from others who use cloud storage services.

I researched a lot online and I tried a couple out, but I am still not seeing exactly what I was hoping to find. Sadly, the features and FAQs at the websites seem to be geared toward people not looking for the same type of functionality, so the answers are not readily available at all.

My hope was to find one which works like my external HDD. I would want to store photos and sidecars in the same folders and files I use on my devices. I would also want to be able to search my archive by keyword. I would also hope to see the exif data and previews of each file before downloading it. Without seeing previews and/or using keyword search, it would take forever to find what I seek.

I feel like there must be an affordable cloud service which fits those criteria. They are not complicated. However, I am not finding them. Anyone with experience, please provide feedback!. Thank you!!

Details on my search so far for those who like to read more detail . . .

I have a free Dropbox account, but Dropbox has had more security breaches than most other cloud services in recent years, and the have hundreds of unanswered complaints at BBB (worse than any other I checked on BBB). Otherwise, I would gladly just upgrade to a paid account.

I tried Google. Drive is not storing photos full size. Google Photos will, and some exif is visible, but it does not use folders and subfolders. As pretty as it is to look at, and as much as I find I like that it helps prevent duplication, it makes creation of the library slow and will make keeping track of changes slower. It also will not store my sidecar files, which would be preferable.

I do not have Prime and it looks a lot like Google. Not even sure it has as much info on hand for each photo as Google. I might do the free trial of Prime, but I am not hopeful it will be helpful based on what I have read.

I do not want to be tied into Apple or Microsoft long term.

I tried Sync Vault. Customer service is great, and uploading is easy. However, I cannot see my exif online, nor can I search by keyword. Also, tiff and RAW files do not have previews available.

I looked at iDrive and Backblaze, though I do not want or need computer backup from them. I leaned toward iDrive for my needs because I could choose which files and folders to back up and I could back up directly from my external storage. I called iDrive today because the fine print on their offers and sign up page had interesting conditions attached. While the person on the phone sounded competent and helpful, what that person said on the phone does not match the fine print at their website, which makes me leery of signing up. There is no way to try the service without signing up.

I am reading (again) about Icedrive right now after ruling them out last week. I am tired of spinning my wheels looking for something which seems like it should be easier to resolve.

That was long, but my actual question is in bold further up in this question. Thank you again!

Personally I would not want to have my storage only on the cloud, and having to download & upload it every time I want to edit a file. My files stay local so they're immediately accessible. I use an external drive for local backup, and Backblaze cloud backup as my secondary backup. Backblaze lets me identify exactly what folders to back up, no need to back up everything.

I do intend to keep one local back up hard drive, as well as an HDD for backing up the machine. But maybe I do need to give up on the cloud idea as secondary back up. When I read user reviews, they make my blood run cold. Clouds fail, too.

I know a lot of people use Backblaze for their photos. Does Backblaze let you search by keywords in the exif data? Are you able to easily access files you no longer store on your computer? As in if you took a photo of a swallowatail or a particular person 5 years ago and you want to pull it up for a project, is that easy to do?

Backblaze is a backup system. You can get access to lost or damaged files up to a year old as part of your subscription. You have to know which file in which folder. It does an intelligent scan to locate which folders to add or you can add or subtract folders by choice.

You can’t really use it as online storage, so not reviewing files. It has a maximum data rate of 13Gb per day, so uploading all the files from a 3 week holiday could take a while. It took 2 months to do the first backup of our desktop PC. Incremental backups take however long the added files need at 13Gb. I guess file recovery is also rate limited but it’s very fast for small files.

If you need disaster recovery, you can pay for a hard drive with your image to be sent to you.

My wife is very happy with it, but it wouldn’t suit me. I have multiple external HDD backups for both personal and personal business files. I use Dropbox for file sharing, which also protects my business accounts files.

If you might be willing to consider Sharepoint, I could try and see if it lets you see image EXIF data.

Personally, I think what you need is a local network backup with a RAID array and automated backup software . You could PM Jacques Cornell and ask about his.

A

That was a. lot of super helpful information. Thank you!! I might just end up going with an upgraded NAS. The cloud is looking more and more attractive these days, though. Just one more subscription. Even though I am using an Apple computer right now, I looked at OneDrive when I read your answer. I think MS and Apple work pretty well together these days. It looks super nice, but the maximum storage is 1 Tb, about half what I need as of today. And having become the family photo archiver and slideshow maker, I think I might need more than 2 Tb fairly soon.

I need 6Tb for two copies of my data. You can see why internet transfer speeds are far too slow. Even external drives take hours for a full transfer.

A

The initial backup when I got BackBlaze did take days, but now it just does incremental backups - backing up new files and deleting files that I've deleted from the local drive. Nice thing is it does it all in the background.

 

[Carey Brown]

A number of years ago I bought a QNAP NAS which came with a program called Qsync which works a lot like Dropbox but is entirely under my control. I used it to share files between a handful of computers, including my laptop when I was on the road. All was well for a bunch of years and then it got hacked. I think that if I had been more knowledgeable about configuring my firewall it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, there's another possibility.

I am sorry to hear your NAS was hacked. I hope the culprit did not get your most sensitive data. Yikes! I have an NAS, but it is dinosaur-aged and I expect it to fail any moment. I feel like, between physical aging and software updates, home-based hardware backup systems are just not as reliable as other options these days. I could be wrong, but I am very sick of plugging in and wondering if I cannot access due to hardware or software (or network) issues.

My old NAS is still working fine. My problem was with Qsync itself which left a port open to the internet for someone to get in on.

My NAS originally came with Seagate drives, which was not what I wanted, I wanted Western Digital Red Plus drives. After 4 years one of the Seagate drives failed and the NAS did exactly what it was built to do: keep on running using the other three drives until I could swap out the bad drive. No data loss. No downtime. I ended up swapping out all 4 drives with WD Red Plus and that's been 4 years ago. The WD drives were twice as quite as the Seagate drives as well.

So, I wouldn't worry about the NAS hardware unless you're looking at something really cheap like WD's "My Cloud". And if you don't use any NAS app that leaves a port open to the internet then you shouldn't have to worry about hacking either. And many NAS boxes come with software to setup automatic backups.

 

[ishwanu]

Even though I am using an Apple computer right now, I looked at OneDrive when I read your answer. I think MS and Apple work pretty well together these days. It looks super nice, but the maximum storage is 1 Tb, about half what I need as of today. And having become the family photo archiver and slideshow maker, I think I might need more than 2 Tb fairly soon.

The last time I checked, there's another limitation with OneDrive. It sort of demands that everything you want to put on it is located in a master folder on an internal drive. That ruins the plan for my particular use case, even though some iffy workarounds exist.

 

[Sonyshine]

If you are using an Apple computer than Apple photos auto upload to cloud makes sense. I use it and have done for many years.

I also use Google photos and then move some over to Apple.

Both are excellent. You can use Apple photos from a Windows pc too

 

[Deb789]

A number of years ago I bought a QNAP NAS which came with a program called Qsync which works a lot like Dropbox but is entirely under my control. I used it to share files between a handful of computers, including my laptop when I was on the road. All was well for a bunch of years and then it got hacked. I think that if I had been more knowledgeable about configuring my firewall it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, there's another possibility.

I am sorry to hear your NAS was hacked. I hope the culprit did not get your most sensitive data. Yikes! I have an NAS, but it is dinosaur-aged and I expect it to fail any moment. I feel like, between physical aging and software updates, home-based hardware backup systems are just not as reliable as other options these days. I could be wrong, but I am very sick of plugging in and wondering if I cannot access due to hardware or software (or network) issues.

My old NAS is still working fine. My problem was with Qsync itself which left a port open to the internet for someone to get in on.

My NAS originally came with Seagate drives, which was not what I wanted, I wanted Western Digital Red Plus drives. After 4 years one of the Seagate drives failed and the NAS did exactly what it was built to do: keep on running using the other three drives until I could swap out the bad drive. No data loss. No downtime. I ended up swapping out all 4 drives with WD Red Plus and that's been 4 years ago. The WD drives were twice as quite as the Seagate drives as well.

So, I wouldn't worry about the NAS hardware unless you're looking at something really cheap like WD's "My Cloud". And if you don't use any NAS app that leaves a port open to the internet then you shouldn't have to worry about hacking either. And many NAS boxes come with software to setup automatic backups.

I have become frustrated with WD and Seagate (especially WD, though) over the years because they do not seem to keep up well with OS updates. I would definitely want the option to not connect to the internet for off-site access. Way to risky, in my opinion. If I did want off-site access to my files, I would use a cloud storage service with a good reputation for security.

Funny you mentioned WD "My Cloud" (and glad I went back to here to review the input here). I was just considering that one this morning for its simplicity, but then I saw negative reviews and hacking experiences and how old that particular product is, and decided against it. To be honest, looking at modern NAS products this morning started giving me a headache and I ultimately went back to wanting to pay a subscription fee for someone else to deal with the hardware.

 

[Deb789]

Even though I am using an Apple computer right now, I looked at OneDrive when I read your answer. I think MS and Apple work pretty well together these days. It looks super nice, but the maximum storage is 1 Tb, about half what I need as of today. And having become the family photo archiver and slideshow maker, I think I might need more than 2 Tb fairly soon.

The last time I checked, there's another limitation with OneDrive. It sort of demands that everything you want to put on it is located in a master folder on an internal drive. That ruins the plan for my particular use case, even though some iffy workarounds exist.

That is definitely a deal breaker for me. There is not that kind of space on my computer. Thank you!!!

 

[Deb789]

If you are using an Apple computer than Apple photos auto upload to cloud makes sense. I use it and have done for many years.

I also use Google photos and then move some over to Apple.

Both are excellent. You can use Apple photos from a Windows pc too

I like Apple for many reasons, but I recently wanted to back up one folder to icloud and Apple started sucking every document (both of my creation and of Apple's creation) on my computer off my computer and to the cloud. It took weeks to correct the situation and try to verify it was completely corrected. And, honestly, I will probably never know if I lost some random items.

I do like Google Photos, and I will continue to use them for sharing and such, but using it for off-site storage of all my photos would require recreating my entire folder structure into Google's albums. Also, I could not store my sidecars with my photos in Google Photos. If I wanted to try new edits on old photos or even just resize the export from a RAW photo (both of which I do fairly often), I would need to start from scratch with editing. That could be a real nightmare.