The Best Services to Save your Photo Archive in the Cloud
Taking pictures is certainly one of the main activities that take place with the smartphone. The latest generation devices have lenses capable of taking pictures similar to those of reflex cameras. This, however, also leads to problems for the management of the storage space of the device: a hundred images are enough to run out of memory. What to do to free up space? Very simple, move the photos taken with the smartphone to a cloud service dedicated to images. There are not many services dedicated specifically to the storage of photos: each has its own characteristics and its own price.
The benefits of cloud photo storage are the same as they lead users to save files of all kinds on the cloud. First of all, the ability to access your shots from any device and place, all you need is a stable Internet connection. Then, you are not forced to delete photos to free up memory space: you can upload everything (or almost everything) to the cloud and review your vacation photos from years and years ago in a matter of minutes. Here are the best cloud services to save smartphone images.
Besides the options mentioned below, a device like Photostick can also be used to backup photos, videos and documents. Take a look at thephotostick review by real users to know more about this one-click backup device.
Dropbox
Probably the best cloud photo management software available today. Even if few are aware of its existence. Carousel, Dropbox’s dedicated photo archive management service, allows you to easily access your photo archive on the cloud and manage it intuitively. Once you have installed the app on your smartphone, it doesn’t matter if Android or iOS will have an additional 3 gigabytes available that will be added to the Dropbox space already available to you. Don’t worry: if the space is about to run out, it can always be expanded for a few tens of euros every year. And it is also for this reason that Dropbox and Carousel confirm themselves among the best services, if not the best ever for saving photos in the cloud, in addition to the management and archiving features of photo shoots. You can also consider using OneDrive or SharePoint as an alternative to DropBox. Learn more about OneDrive Migration and How to migrate DropBox to SharePoint.
Google Photos
As mentioned, he is the last to enter the field from the game, but his ambitions are top of the class. Google Photos gives users the ability to upload all their photos without space limits: the images uploaded to the Big G photo archive will be automatically saved in 16-megapixel quality and JPEG format. Slightly binding restrictions, especially for those who work in the field of photography, but to keep the photos of the last holidays taken with friends or our sister’s birthday is more than enough. Available as an app for Android and iOS devices, or accessible via the web interface, the Google tool allows you to manage photos in the cloud in an easy and intuitive way. Also, thanks to the internal search engine (it could not be missing, of course) which allows you to search within the photo archive with very few search keys.
iCloud Photo Library
Linked to the new photo application recently released by Apple Apple Photos we find iCloud Photo Library, the photo storage service in the cloud of the Cupertino house. Although for a fee (it does not cost much, anyway), it is one of the best solutions for all users of the bitten apple: it allows you to import photos from Apple mobile and stationary devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iMac, and MacBook as well. to be clear) and to have no space limits if you decide to resize them.
Flickr
In terms of space, it is the one that comes closest to Google Photos. Flickr, an online photo archiving service owned by Yahoo!, offers its users 1 terabyte of space where they can save any type of shot and without any qualitative limitation. It will therefore be possible to save the original shots without having to go under the trap of automatic resizing: a real godsend for professional photographers who no longer know where to rest their photo archive. This, however, is accompanied by some drawbacks: the management system is not the best and the image display mode is revisable. Once these problems have been addressed, it will be possible to archive your shots (all, without distinction) in complete safety.
Amazon
Like Google Photos it is among the latest to enter the industry, but the ambitions (and features) are not the same as those of the BigG service. The space available is that of your Amazon CloudDrive and is therefore shared with other files and folders already saved on the cloud strongly desired by Jeff Bezos. Furthermore, the storage and management of images appear to be less simple and intuitive than other similar services.
In October 2015, Amazon launched the Prime Photos service, which gives Prime users unlimited photo storage on Amazon Cloud Drive. The images can be uploaded at full resolution: Prime Foto, in fact, does not place any limit on the size of the photos. The upload can take place from mobile devices through the app for iOS and Android platform, Windows, and Mac computers through the specially developed client or directly from the service portal.
OneDrive
Tied hand in hand with OneDrive we find Photos, Microsoft’s service for storing images and shots in the cloud. Even if the photographic management is rather basic, Photos is able to categorize the uploaded images and show them grouped by similar categories: tags are very useful from this point of view, which will allow you to find the images in a few moments. As with Dropbox and Amazon, the available space is shared with the other files, but if you decide to install the application on your smartphone, the 15 gigabytes of initial space would double for free.
Everalbum
Dedicated exclusively to saving photos in the cloud, everalbum is a service that helps users “recover” photos scattered between computers and other storage services and thus keep them in one place.
Everalbum, thanks to the client for PC (both Windows and iOS) and to the apps for smartphones and other mobile devices of the bitten apple (at the moment it only works on the iOS platform), allows you to save photos in the cloud on your computer hard drive, on the memory smartphone, Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox and Google+. In this way, as mentioned, it will be possible to keep and access all your images from a single account. Thanks to the “Free up space” function, everalbum also helps to recover precious storage space on the iPhone memory: once the synchronization of the photos is complete, the app will recommend deleting the “older” and already synchronized photos to recover precious megabytes.
Everalbum is available in two versions: one free and one paid, but the differences are minimal. Already in the free version the user can save all the images he wants, but not at full resolution. If you want to keep the size and quality of your images unchanged, you need to subscribe to a Pro subscription.
Mega
Mega is another cloud service that can be used to save your images. It has a unique feature: for the first 30 days you have 50GB free to upload your content. After the first month, the space is reduced to 15GB. To have unlimited space, you need to sign up for a subscription: it starts at € 4.99 per month and reaches € 10 per month for the business account. To have infinite space and premium services, the cost increases considerably.
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