Backup solutions in the cloud – what do you use?

[Pecos]

• I use Time Machine backed up to a Synology NAS. It was initially simple to set up, then for some reason quit working (kept getting "full", asked me to delete the backup so it could start over) and had to be reconfigured via Terminal - very difficult, but now it works fine.
• I also use Backblaze because its reviews were good and it was so simple to set up.
• Sometimes when I'm taking off for a trip, I'll manually add new photos to the portable hard drive I keep in a safe.

Pretty happy with all this.
@gpburdell - How do you like CloudStationServer? Sounds like what I need.

 

[barry]

Since it seems I didn't use the right terms of expressing what I was looking for: Ideally, I am pushing my not-always-needed LR catalogs of my images from, say, 2006-2014 to that service in the cloud and no longer store them on my computer. I am not looking for a solution that forces me to keep that data around locally

Hi, the problem with this is that if something happens to the CSP (Cloud Service Provider), you could potentially lose everything.

 

[Julia]

Hi, the problem with this is that if something happens to the CSP (Cloud Service Provider), you could potentially lose everything.

I still have a local backup of everything, and I have the jpgs from those RAW files which are backed up to 2 different services (that only take jpgs, though). Just need a good storage solution for the raws.

 

[Julia]

I keep a strict separation of work and personal files because I've experienced the fun of suddenly having no further access to my work computer. If you've yet to experience that bit of fun, congratulations. That the practice of comingling work and personal files on a work computer is common where you are doesn't make it a wise decision IMHO. The only instance I'd do it would be in a BYOPC shop where I was guaranteed to retain the computer.

So I don't do it, and anyway we mere users don't have the admin authority to install non-work software (also a very fast route to loss of job).

Maybe I should have been clearer: in my past jobs for big companies, we were of course also not allowed to use work computers for personal stuff. But I work for a small app development company and we basically have a BYO computer policy. The company bought us whatever MacBook we liked, and everyone is using their work device for play as well. Since we are all "technically inclined" (engineers, designers, system administrators etc) we know the risks that can come with that, and we take the necessary precautions. The company is a wonderful place to work at and no one worries about their devices being snatched away by a mean admin or being kicked out of a job (this is Germany, it doesn't happen over night here ). One of my previous employers was nightmarish like that, but I'm fortunate now to be in the most wonderful work environment you can think of.

Unfortunately, my backup needs are a bit different than those of my colleagues or I could have just asked them for help

 

[TheMenWhoDrawSheeps]

Degoo - 100GB free storage - just use Google to find free storage clouds - there are few, varying from 20-100gb, and from backup only to full access.

Amazon prime, Dropbox - aren't free, yet more convinient.

 

[gpburdell]

@gpburdell - How do you like CloudStationServer? Sounds like what I need.

I really like CloudStation Drive. I literally don't have to think about it. Runs in the background and never really makes itself known. (*)

With it I keep a folder synced between my mac mini desktop and my macbook laptop. Whatever is in that folder gets replicated from one to the other. I simply have to be careful not to open the same thing on both systems at the same time, and allow a couple minutes for the sync to complete after closing a file on one before opening it on the other.

My main use for it is that I keep my "working" Lightroom catalog and images in that folder. I can sort/tag/cull sitting in my easy chair downstairs or outside on the deck (shaded). When I want to really edit with a big screen I exit LR and within the couple minutes to get upstairs everything's synced over and open up LR on the desktop and pick up from there.

Once I'm done with a particular project I'll move it over to my main/archival LR catalog on the desktop system and move the files to their long term folder.

I'm using a DS216j on a UPS with a pair of drives in Raid1 config.

FYI, it also works remotely; when travelling, I connect up to the hotel wifi and it'll sync with my system at home. I believe it uses DDNS through Synology to make that link-up as I don't recall doing anything to my router to enable it. This is great as it guards against image loss if my stuff were to get stolen.

(*) the single fly in the ointment is that the cloud station daemon on my macbook with use a bunch of CPU for a while after a reboot. Enough so that it warms up the bottom noticeably. Seems to be a resync/refresh post-reboot as it never happens at other times when the macbook is just sleeped. It really hasn't been a problem per se but is a slight annoyance at times.

 

[TheMenWhoDrawSheeps]

I really like CloudStation Drive. I literally don't have to think about it. Runs in the background and never really makes itself known. (*)

With it I keep a folder synced between my mac mini desktop and my macbook laptop. Whatever is in that folder gets replicated from one to the other. I simply have to be careful not to open the same thing on both systems at the same time, and allow a couple minutes for the sync to complete after closing a file on one before opening it on the other.

My main use for it is that I keep my "working" Lightroom catalog and images in that folder. I can sort/tag/cull sitting in my easy chair downstairs or outside on the deck (shaded). When I want to really edit with a big screen I exit LR and within the couple minutes to get upstairs everything's synced over and open up LR on the desktop and pick up from there.

Once I'm done with a particular project I'll move it over to my main/archival LR catalog on the desktop system and move the files to their long term folder.

I'm using a DS216j on a UPS with a pair of drives in Raid1 config.

FYI, it also works remotely; when travelling, I connect up to the hotel wifi and it'll sync with my system at home. I believe it uses DDNS through Synology to make that link-up as I don't recall doing anything to my router to enable it. This is great as it guards against image loss if my stuff were to get stolen.

(*) the single fly in the ointment is that the cloud station daemon on my macbook with use a bunch of CPU for a while after a reboot. Enough so that it warms up the bottom noticeably. Seems to be a resync/refresh post-reboot as it never happens at other times when the macbook is just sleeped. It really hasn't been a problem per se but is a slight annoyance at times.

cloud station drive is great thing, that is the best solution for a cloud in my eyes - yet you really need to backup those things - it´s always in use, thats why it has the worst lifespan.

 

[gpburdell]

we basically have a BYO computer policy [...] no one worries about their devices being snatched away by a mean admin or being kicked out of a job (this is Germany, it doesn't happen over night here )

Those are two key differentiators for your situation vs most other folks. Do please understand that responses will usually assume the most common scenarios without information to the contrary. Also, speaking for myself, I anticipate more people than the original poster will often read the advise written, so that is an additional factor in making it clear when a situation is more the exception than the rule.

Now that that is out of the way...

You've received much good advice above. The biggest challenge I think you'll face with a pure cloud solution is that you'll find access to be fairly sluggish if there are no locally synced copies. There is also the not insubstantial risk of losing everything if the cloud provider goes away -- see What happens to the data when an online storage site closes?

In your situation I would probably first look at options to upgrade your Macbook's drive. If that's not feasible, I'd look at the options to keep storage in the SD card slot such as Transcend's Jet Drive Lite products or something like Sandisk's Ultra Fit low profile USB drives. Use one of the above cloud storage options to sync/backup the files kept on the removable storage. While neither is going to be as fast as an internal drive upgrade, they'll both be far faster than direct to cloud file access.

Cheers.

 

[bigboysdad]

Arq is the best cloud if you want safe, secure logical cloud backup. The only problem is it's too good to the point I've got a bit lazy with my local backup.

 

[gpburdell]

cloud station drive is great thing, that is the best solution for a cloud in my eyes - yet you really need to backup those things - it´s always in use, thats why it has the worst lifespan.

Anyone not performing offsite backups is playing Russian roulette, doesn't matter if they're using a NAS or not.

In my case, everything that's being synced to the NAS via CloudStationDrive is also being backed up to the cloud via CrashPlan. My home could burn down destroying all computers and my NAS and I wouldn't lose a single bit of data.

As for drive lifespan -- yes, the drives are in constant use, which is why you have to be very particular about the HDDs you select to use in the NAS. Common desktop computer drives aren't built for that sort of service. NAS vendors will typically provide lists of drives they consider suitable for NAS service.

My previous NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS) put five years service on its drives with no issue and I believe is still in service with the friend I sold it to when I bought my Synology a year and a half ago. Obviously YMMV, but that's why you use at least two drives in a RAID1 configuration and make sure you replace a failed drive ASAP. Ideally you should have some warning of an impending drive failure.

Everyone really needs to think through their strategy and do what works for them. Know the difference between Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective and what you need for each. Know the possible disaster scenarios and how you'd recover from each. RAID1 doesn't help if you find out today that you accidentally deleted a bunch of files last month, nor does it help if you get with with a ransomware attack. Backing up to a NAS doesn't help if your house burns down destroying everything.

 

[slmoore]

Since you are on a Mac, you could use iCloud Photo Library and tell the Mac to optimize storage space, which will only store locally if there is room. This works well for me. In my case, I have a home iMac with everything on it. I have a work Macbook that is set to optimize storage. It pulls down thumbnails and full images as needed into a cache, which can be reset. I believe the same setup could work even if the only Mac was set to optimize storage. iCloud storage pricing here: iCloud storage plans and pricing

 

[Julia]

So, here's what I've settled on after doing some more thinking and research:

First line of defense has always been and will continue to be my Time Machine backup. Even if it craps out now and then, it's still the easiest and most convenient way to backup my stuff.

Second line of defense will still be an automated backup to a thumbnail drive. I've set up Hazel app in the past to do that for me automagically and it works just fine.

Third line of defense is exporting all my images (I only have keepers, I never keep photos around I don't like) to jpg and loading them into Apple's photos app, which is backed up through iCloud. 200GB storage plan does the trick. It's not so great for storing other stuff there that I don't also want to be on my hard drive (SSD). iCloud Drive is great for sharing content across devices and backups, but it's not really meant for storage of stuff you don't also want to take up space locally.

These three options have always been in place; I didn't mention that explicitly in my original post since my question was about cloud storage/backup, not how to handle local backups. I work in tech support, I know the pain of not having backups. I have customers writing in each day, telling me to help them restore data they haven't backed up.

And lastly, I've grudgingly gone back to Dropbox. I cancelled my plan with them last year after the company made some decisions I didn't agree with, but I have to face the fact that they haven't messed up my data ever in all the years I've been using them, and of course we also use them for business and they work great. They don't offer RAW preview, which still ticks me off. But I can work around this by checking the name of the image file in Photos app and then locating it in the Dropbox backup should the need arise.

Dropbox will also let me backup my Photos app library, which holds many more photos and videos than my LR catalog and some other backup services I looked at don't let you upload a 25GB file (and growing), or charge you tons of money once you want to recover your data.

For now, I'll keep my main LR catalog on disk, but export photos of each year into their own catalog ( which will also include the image files) and shove them into Dropbox. I'll also backup the main catalog separately. In case of the ultimate disaster and all of my other backup solutions failing, I will be able to restore either stuff per year, or all at once, should I choose to.

I'll most likely get a new Mac through work this year, replacing my mid-2012 model MBA, and that way I'll also get more storage space. As for exchanging the current SSD for something larger, as has been suggested: funny story My colleague (who had the same issue as me) and I both got replacement SSDs through work so we could have more local storage. For those not using Macs: since it's a very cohesive system, you can't just chuck any SSD in there, you have to use specific kinds. For BOTH of us, the replacement SSDs broke TWICE. That means we had to replace the SSDs in our Macs three times, each time costing us at least one full work day. After the second time, we gave up and stuck with the Apple SSD that came with the Macs.

Thanks to all of you for your input, I appreciate the time and effort of you comments! Cheers!

 

[TheMenWhoDrawSheeps]

So, here's what I've settled on after doing some more thinking and research:

First line of defense has always been and will continue to be my Time Machine backup. Even if it craps out now and then, it's still the easiest and most convenient way to backup my stuff.

Second line of defense will still be an automated backup to a thumbnail drive. I've set up Hazel app in the past to do that for me automagically and it works just fine.

Third line of defense is exporting all my images (I only have keepers, I never keep photos around I don't like) to jpg and loading them into Apple's photos app, which is backed up through iCloud. 200GB storage plan does the trick. It's not so great for storing other stuff there that I don't also want to be on my hard drive (SSD). iCloud Drive is great for sharing content across devices and backups, but it's not really meant for storage of stuff you don't also want to take up space locally.

These three options have always been in place; I didn't mention that explicitly in my original post since my question was about cloud storage/backup, not how to handle local backups. I work in tech support, I know the pain of not having backups. I have customers writing in each day, telling me to help them restore data they haven't backed up.

And lastly, I've grudgingly gone back to Dropbox. I cancelled my plan with them last year after the company made some decisions I didn't agree with, but I have to face the fact that they haven't messed up my data ever in all the years I've been using them, and of course we also use them for business and they work great. They don't offer RAW preview, which still ticks me off. But I can work around this by checking the name of the image file in Photos app and then locating it in the Dropbox backup should the need arise.

Dropbox will also let me backup my Photos app library, which holds many more photos and videos than my LR catalog and some other backup services I looked at don't let you upload a 25GB file (and growing), or charge you tons of money once you want to recover your data.

For now, I'll keep my main LR catalog on disk, but export photos of each year into their own catalog ( which will also include the image files) and shove them into Dropbox. I'll also backup the main catalog separately. In case of the ultimate disaster and all of my other backup solutions failing, I will be able to restore either stuff per year, or all at once, should I choose to.

I'll most likely get a new Mac through work this year, replacing my mid-2012 model MBA, and that way I'll also get more storage space. As for exchanging the current SSD for something larger, as has been suggested: funny story My colleague (who had the same issue as me) and I both got replacement SSDs through work so we could have more local storage. For those not using Macs: since it's a very cohesive system, you can't just chuck any SSD in there, you have to use specific kinds. For BOTH of us, the replacement SSDs broke TWICE. That means we had to replace the SSDs in our Macs three times, each time costing us at least one full work day. After the second time, we gave up and stuck with the Apple SSD that came with the Macs.

Thanks to all of you for your input, I appreciate the time and effort of you comments! Cheers!

one last thought on macs - if you want stay with mac, take a really close look at mac book pro 2015 model - there are major drawbacks in 2016 design like no magnet power supply, even less battery life, least customizable hardware etc. also most definetely it will be cheaperthan newer models. or just wait another few years until mac rises again, or starts to fall apart%)

 

[ahinesdesign]

I just started backing up with BackBlaze this week. I have something like 5-6TB of images and other files to back up, which will take a huge amount of time to upload... But I still maintain a local copy. The automated cloud storage is there in the event of a catastrophic loss. Having it be automated is key, I know my tendencies and won't be able to sustain manual offsite backup very long...

Will BackBlaze (or any other cloud storage solution) exist in 10 years? I have no idea, and I'm inclined to think there is a high probably that they won't exist, going by recent history of technology and the web. My approach is not to use cloud storage for anything other than a last-ditch restoration solution should I lose all local copies. I still don't have a good long term storage solution other than printing multiple copies of images and distributing them to friends and family (photo books work great, and seem to be less likely to be discarded or damages accidentally than loose prints).

I don't have much faith in current storage technology for long term archiving. I already have hard drives rendered unreadable by the relentless progress of technology. Optical disks are even less likely to be readable as time moves forward. Ultimately no one may even care about the photos, especially after I am gone, so it may be a fruitless endeavor anyway...

 

[coffeecat]

^^ Yes! We had a big clear out at work recently, and people found 3.5in floppies, 5.25in floppies, zip drives (remember those?), at least three different types of mag tape, microfiches, and then some punched cards... Needless to say we had no hardware to read any of them with.

But the printed technical reports from the 1950s and 60s (on yellowing paper) were still perfectly legible.

 

[dornblaser]

I use DropBox with everything redundantly backed up with BackBlaze. I have TB's of storage. I also maintain local drives with a local back-up.

 

[callie]

*cough* bootable USB3 or esata SSD with your own software image on it *cough*

Does not even have to be bootable.Format to order,give it a meaningful name ("Data_Backup" etc.) and Bobs a tenuous relative.

 

[gpburdell]

Does not even have to be bootable.Format to order,give it a meaningful name ("Data_Backup" etc.) and Bobs a tenuous relative.

I was thinking that to best avoid leaving any tracks on coffeecat's system, a bootable drive would allow running from it on the image there, taking the system's internal drive out of the equation. It is presumable encrypted and can just be ignored while still being able to utilize the hardware.

(the suggestion was a tangent to Julia's question)

 

[coffeecat]

Sadly, even plugging in USB drives is proscribed. Although why "they" (the Mordacs of this world) don't just disable the USB ports altogether (like they did on our old Unix boxes back in the day) beats me... oh yeah, cos then we'd have to do without keyboard and mouse! I believe every device plugged to a Windows box in is logged and could be identified if you still had access to it.

I'm a big fan of just "go with the flow", as I've got really used to that money that comes in my bank account at the end of each month!

 

[coffeecat]

Going back on topic again, I forgot in my original post that I also backup my LR database (just that, not the photos or thumbnails) to Dropbox.