Why photos kept only on your phone are not safe

Many people think their photos will simply stay on their phone. Until the phone gets dropped. Hundreds of photos of grandchildren, holidays and birthdays: gone.

How do photos get lost?

• The phone breaks or ends up in water.
• The phone is stolen, for example on the train or at the market.
• A new phone, and something goes wrong when moving everything over.
• The free storage is full, so new photos are no longer saved. You often only notice when it is too late.
• Deleted by accident, for example to make space.

“But surely Google or Apple keeps them?”

Maybe. Many people have a backup switched on with Google or Apple, but the free space fills up after a few years. From that moment, new photos are no longer saved. A message does appear, but people often swipe it away.

Even when it does work, your photos are with an American company. That company can change its rules or prices, and you have little say in it.

The 3-2-1 rule

Photographers use a simple rule so they never lose anything:

• 3 copies of every photo;
• in 2 different kinds of places, for example your phone and a photo vault;
• with 1 outside your home, in case of fire or burglary.

That sounds complicated, but once it has been set up properly, it happens on its own.

Two options I offer

A European photo service. Your photos go automatically from your phone to a European service. They are locked first, so nobody else can see them. For most people this is the simplest choice.

A photo vault at home. A small device in your home that holds all your photos, with an extra copy sent to a European company every night. This is handy for families with a great many photos.

Test it too

A backup is only worth something if you can get the photos back out of it. With the photo vault at home, I test once a year that this works. It is a small effort, and it gives peace of mind.