Short answer: keep at least two copies of your family photos in two different places, for example one on an external drive at home and one in a cloud service, and check once a year that they still open. One copy on one phone or one account is not a backup.
Last updated: 3 November 2026. The advice follows the Library of Congress guidance on personal digital archiving, and every fact about another service was checked on that day on its own help pages; the sources are at the bottom.
Most family photos today live in exactly one place: the phone of whoever took them, or the account that phone syncs to. That feels safe until a phone falls in the water, a password is forgotten or an old laptop dies with fifteen years of photos on it. A backup is simply a second copy that does not share the same fate.
The rule in four steps
- Gather. Put the photos in one main folder, by year: phones, old laptops, CDs, scans of prints. The Library of Congress also advises descriptive file names and tagging the people in the photos.
- Two copies, two places. At least two copies, as far apart as practical. A drive in the drawer next to the computer does not help in a fire or a burglary.
- Check once a year. Open a few photos from each copy. Drives and accounts fail quietly.
- Move on in time. When a drive is a few years old, or a service changes, copy everything to new storage.
Many people use the 3-2-1 rule of thumb: three copies, on two kinds of storage, one of them elsewhere. Two copies in two places is already a big step.
The options at a glance
| Option | Good for | Watch out for | Not the best choice when |
|---|---|---|---|
| External drive at home | A full copy of everything, original quality, no subscription | Drives fail with age; it is in the same place as your computer | It is your only copy |
| Second drive elsewhere | A copy away from home, at a relative's or at work | You have to swap or update it now and then | Nobody will remember to update it |
| Google Photos | Automatic backup from Android and iPhone; private unless you share | 15 GB free, shared with Gmail and Drive; unused accounts can be deleted after two years | It is your only copy, or you want stories kept with each photo |
| iCloud Photos | Automatic backup on Apple devices | 5 GB free; on iCloud.com you download up to 1,000 at a time | Some of the family use Android, or it is your only copy |
| Prints of the best photos | A copy that needs no device | Only a selection; prints fade and need cool, dry storage | You need every photo, or the videos and voices |
| The Memory Palace | The photos that matter, with names, stories and voices, shared with family | Not a backup service; nothing syncs automatically | You want every phone photo copied automatically |
Cloud services: a copy, not the backup
Google Photos and iCloud Photos are good at what they do: they copy new photos from your phone without you thinking about it. Google Photos keeps them private and viewable only by you unless you share them. Two things to know. The free space is small: Google's 15 GB is shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos, and Apple gives 5 GB of iCloud storage. And an account is a single point of failure: if it is lost or deleted, the photos go with it. Google's policy allows deleting accounts that have not been used for two years, which matters for a parent's account. Download a full copy now and then: Google Takeout exports everything, and on iCloud.com you can download up to 1,000 photos at a time.
Drives: cheap and complete
An external drive holds everything at original quality, without a subscription. Its weakness is that it sits next to your computer and ages quietly. Keep a second drive somewhere else, with a sibling, a parent or at work, and swap them when you visit. Write on each drive what is on it and when you last updated it.
What families forget
- Scans of old prints. Scanning took hours; losing the files means doing it again.
- Videos and voice messages. They are large and live in chat apps, not in the photo library.
- Other people's phones. The best photos of your parents are often on their own phones, with no backup at all.
- The names. A backup of ten thousand unnamed photos keeps the pixels and loses the people.
The Memory Palace, honestly
The Memory Palace is not a backup service, and it does not copy your phone or your drives. It is your own 3D memory palace: you choose the photos that matter and hang them in rooms, with the names, the story and a voice recording next to them. It is private by default; you invite family and friends into a room or a wing and choose per person whether they can view only or also add. You can download your whole palace as one ZIP on every plan, with a page that opens without internet, which makes it easy to put a copy of the important part on your backup drive too. The free plan has 1 GB; Keeper costs €12 a year for 25 GB.
What it lacks: no automatic upload of every photo, so it does not replace a drive or a cloud backup. It is encrypted in transit and at rest, but not end-to-end. And it is made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium.
A simple way to start
This week: buy or find one external drive, copy your main photo folder to it, and write the date on it. Next month: put a second copy somewhere else. If you are not sure which years are missing from your collection, the free photo timeline shows where the gaps are. And when the backup is done, you can start a palace for the photos that deserve their story.
Read on: digital or physical: storing family memories, missing photos from the 2000s, the memory app graveyard and export index, and all guides on old photos.
Sources
- Library of Congress, Personal Digital Archiving, digital photos (at least two copies in different places; check them once a year; descriptive file names; tag people and subjects): digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/photos.html
- Library of Congress, care, handling and storage of photographs (limit markings; write on the back near the edge with a soft graphite pencil; no adhesives, sticky notes, paper clips or rubber bands; cool, dry, stable storage): loc.gov/preservation/care/photo.html
- Google Photos Help, back up photos and videos (private and viewable only by you unless shared): support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313
- Google One Help, how your Google storage works (15 GB shared across Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos): support.google.com/googleone/answer/9312312
- Google Account Help, how to download your Google data (Google Takeout): support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190
- Google Account Help, inactive Google Account policy (accounts unused for 2 years may be deleted): support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290
- Apple Support, iCloud storage (5 GB free): support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238
- Apple Support, download iCloud photos and videos (up to 1,000 at a time on iCloud.com): support.apple.com/en-us/111762