Photo storage ideas

[Doug]

My phone a Motorola is 5 years old & whilst still working okay I’ve been wondering recently about how to go about storing all the photos I’ve taken on it in that time in part as the memory is getting full ?
I don’t have cloud storage or a computer & was wondering if there was some gizmo that I could load the photos onto & still have easy access to them ?
Any suggestions gratefully received the less technical the better :lol:

 

[9fingers]

Not only storage to consider but also how you are going to view them easily.

Does your phone have a slot for an SD card? Plugging in an sd card reader into your tv means you could view them on TV screen.

You could open a dropbox account. A certain amount of storage is free and if you need more then there is a storage fee. Viewing is internet dependent and uploading to drop box will use a lot of data. Maybe you have unlimited data on your contract - thinking about it, if your phone is 5 years old you should not still be paying for a contract but instead got to a sim only deal.

A cheap quality brand pre-owned laptop should be around the £100-125 and so much more versatile than just doing your storage needs

Hopefully, some food for thought.

Bob

 

[AndyP]

Have you considered a photo frame ? I’ve not got one but I know folks that have this sort of thing.

https://auraframes.co.uk/digital-frames ... ver-gravel

You dont need a computer and images can be uploaded from anywhere. I’d recommend taking backups though.

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the replies, I’m not sure about the sd card but certainly something to look out for when I next buy a new phone, I packed up with contracts years ago when I stopped having Apple phones. I buy a phone & use Giffgaff these days for what I need that seems the most cost effective.

I’ll give some thought to the laptop idea, I don’t really want one but needs must as I want to keep hold of my photos, cheers

 

[RogerS]

Doug, a Chromebook might also be an option.

I've also got an elderly but fully functional Apple MacBook Pro that you're welcome to borrow to 'test the water', as it were.

 

[AndyT]

One option is to use some free, reliable cloud storage. If your phone is an Android smartphone then you will probably already have set up a Google account. If you install and use the Google Photos app, all your photos get backed up to Google's servers. (You'll have a Google email account too, also backed up, but you don't have to use this.)
Google provide a basic 15Gb of storage, which may well be enough for an old phone's worth of photos, especially if you choose to back them up in compressed format.
It also means that you don't run out of space on the phone.

 

[AJB Temple]

Do you have grandchildren?

This is an ideal pocket money assignment. Obtain cheap laptop or PC and an additional plug in drive of say 4gb for belt and braces back up. Their job is to set it all up, including backup and connection to phone. Personally I would put key photos on a free or cheap cloud service as well but only the stuff you would really hate to lose.

I pay a small sum each month for a cloud service which has the advantage I can access things wherever I have a phone signal. My phone is a PAYG no contract SIM that has unlimited data for £9 a month. Hence I can also use it as a hub (and do regularly).

Get said grandkids (or any youngster from friends etc) to show you how it works. I did this with No 1 offspring when he was little even though I could do it perfectly well, as it gave him a job and taught him a lot too. They can do monthly maintenance if you do the pocket money thing.

 

[Woodster]

My phone is a PAYG no contract SIM that has unlimited data for £9 a month. Hence I can also use it as a hub (and do regularly)

If it’s PAYG how do you pay the £9 a month? Genuinely interested in what provider and service you use as I’m thinking of changing.

 

[AJB Temple]

PayPal. It rolls over every month automatically unless I cancel it by turning off the PayPal authority for that provider. Gives me complete control without any interaction with the SIM provider.

There are numerous data deals available and they change a lot so prices are coming down I think. My current deal is with SMARTY and is unlimited data, EU roaming etc. I make few calls, and almost no texts, but I do use WhatsAPP and Signal a great deal and the phone is used as a hub quite a bit.

I have another SIM only deal with Lebarra that is £1.58 a month (2Gb data) that is used just for a remote intercom and alarm / remote gate control system. Also I pay with PayPal and hence easy to cancel.

I've taken to changing my number every two years to get rid of the spammers. Hence when I change SIM deal I change my number as well and only give it it to people I want to be in touch with.

I also have an office burner phone which is under a pound a month SIM deal (also Lebarra) that is solely used for on-line shopping authentication code purposes. That stops retailers having my actual number. So is used for eBay, Netflix, Amazon, and a few others.

SMARTY is EE and Lebarra is Vodafone. EE network is much better where we live.

 

[Woodster]

Thanks, I’ll be looking into changing networks in a few weeks.

 

[RogerS]

Elegant solution, Adrian.

This whole business of spam emails and spam calls on the mobile is an interesting one. I have several email addresses. The one on my own domain has been 'out there' since email started, is my default email address and yet I don't get any spam. None.

Yet my old business domain gets a sprinkling of spam but still very, very little - maybe a couple a week.

My hotmail account has several hundred a month but M'oft recognise them and stick them in junk mail and so not a biggee to simply hit 'Empty folder'.

On the mobile side, again, my mobile number has been the same one since mobiles came out. Never, ever had the need to change it as, again, I rarely get spam calls - maybe one every few months.

So I've never felt the need to keep changing either.