My Process for Preserving Photos - 5 duplicatable steps

I have a specific process for keeping my photos (and videos) organized, easy to find, and preserved in each of the 3 ways photo experts recommend.  All without breaking the bank or losing my mind.

The whole process is really fun, but it also gives me such peace of mind!  I worry much less about fire, water leaks, natural disasters, etc.  

Everyone’s preferences are a little different, so not everything I do is automatically the way everyone would love doing it, but there is a lot to be said for learning a proven process and then using it yourself. 

So I have decided to share my own process for preserving my photos and videos using FOREVER since it’s permanent, private, and the best quality I’ve ever seen in 20+ years as a memory-keeping guide.

The step-by-step pieces of my process are here, but I also made a video where I show you (around minute 15) the nuts and bolts of what my process looks like. I take a selfie and walk that photo all the way through the process in 11 minutes!

If you feel like your photos are getting the best of you and you can't quite keep up, the document above and the video below can help! I include the two blocks of time I use (one daily, one weekly) and their purposes so that I am always on top of my photos. Maybe they'll work for you, too!

Whether you do exactly what I do or just take a few nuggets with you, I hope it makes a huge difference in your photo preservation. Because this is what's waiting:

What was your biggest takeaway from seeing my process?  I'd love to know in the comments.

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too. 

Photos should always be accessible to the people who love them, so please share this post with a photo-lover you know.

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Why External Hard Drives Aren't Forever (not even a decade)

It's easy to think the Latest & Greatest form of technology is the answer to everything.  Being able to back up photos on a CD was amazing for a while.  Then DVDs for backing up family videos.  And lately EHDs (external hard drives) are all the rage.  And now SSDs (solid state drives) are vying for attention, too.

Having a secure place to back up photos and videos wouldn't be that important, except that what you're saving is absolutely irreplaceable.  Like this:

That's my daughter, a few days old.  And her big brother kissing her cheek.  I'll never, ever get that moment back.  I never get another chance to capture those faces in that time.

I'll tell you a little more about that sad video (with some hope!) later, but here's why CDs, DVDs, and hard drives aren't forever.  Not even a decade.

Why Hard Drives Don't Last

Most EHDs and SSDs last 3-5 years, simply because the connectors fail.  They just stop working.  They're not really made to withstand repeated use.  (Which is ironic since the purpose of EHDs & SSDs is repeated use.)  But it's not just the connectors.

We can learn a lot from the experience of Iron Mountain.  They were tasked with backing up the entertainment industry's music.  Music, as you know, has gone from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs.  It has been stored on hard drive disks since the 1990s.

About 1/5 of what Iron Mountain recently received on hard drives to archive was entirely unreadable.    

“In our line of work, if we discover an inherent problem with a format, it makes sense to let everybody know,” Robert Koszela, global director for studio growth and strategic initiatives at Iron Mountain, told Mix. “It may sound like a sales pitch, but it’s not; it’s a call for action.”

They found that hard drives are not designed for long-time archival use.

“It’s so sad to see a project come into the studio, a hard drive in a brand-new case with the wrapper and the tags from wherever they bought it still in there,” Koszela says. “Next to it is a case with the safety drive in it. Everything’s in order. And both of them are bricks.”

What we learn here about music applies to anything else stored on a hard drive.

Like our photos.  And our home movies.  And that audio recording of my mom reading her grandkids a story.

What to Do About It

Kevin Purdy suggests that the best solution to this problem is:

The gist of it: You cannot trust any medium, so you copy important things over and over, into fresh storage.

Seriously?!

But what if you don't have the equipment?

Or the time?

Or the knowledge?

Thankfully, there's another option.  I suggest this three-step solution.

1. Use a digitization service.  I suggest the one with the highest customer satisfaction (as independently determined by TrustPilot).  It's phenomenal.  Then pair it with #2 below.
2. Next, put the updated versions of your photos and videos on a flash drive or a computer if you like, but whatever you do, back it up in the cloud.  This is the only private cloud storage service that guarantees your photos and memories will be yours for your lifetime + 100 years, a legacy you can pass down.   Not only that, but they triple back-up everything, keeping your files encrypted, and will update file formats FOR YOU.  (Like, when .jpeg files become outdated in 20 years.)  Another bonus with this particular service is that you'll buy your cloud space, so there are no recurring payments (until you die!) to keep your photos and videos always accessible and safely backed up.
3. Print the photos in pages.  I know print is kind of "going out of style" these days, but print will never be at the mercy of a hard drive crash.  And don't think you have to have a lot of time or "be creative" to put photos and memories in books!  Find a high-quality print option that will last for generations, then spend 10 minutes a day on it.  Really.  It works.  

Don't miss that amazing point:  If you don't have equipment, time, or know-how to "copy important things over and over into fresh storage" as Purdy suggests, FOREVER Storage will literally do it for you.  

If that's not peace of mind, I don't know what is.

A Few Words of Encouragement

SO, WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?

If your heart broke watching my video, I first want to let you know that the video has a happy ending.  Knowing that the magnetic tape in VHS tapes deteriorates, I sent in my home videos to be digitized using FOREVER Digitization a few years ago.  I was brokenhearted to receive that video I shared with you at the beginning.  Most of it was fine, but there were a few parts that were garble-y, including that sweet moment.  I was pretty upset about it for several days before remembering that I have the original Hi-8 tape that might be in better condition.  It had been stored differently, so I sent that in to FOREVER Digitization for digitizing and crossed my fingers.  It was in much better shape, so I now have that video as it was meant to be seen!  

SENDING MY PHOTOS AND HOME MOVIES AWAY?

I know it can be scary.  I've done it four times now, and the first time was indeed a little scary for me, so I know how you feel.  When it came down to it, though, I decided that if I didn't get the VHS tapes digitized, I'd just have to throw them away in 10 years anyway.  Nobody has a VCR any more, and my grandchildren-to-be definitely won't!

If you're at all worried about sending your DVDs or VHS tapes or slides off to be digitized, learn more about FOREVER Digitization so you can see how much care goes into the safety of your precious memories.  There is a lot of hope at that link!

GETTING AHEAD

I heard of someone recently who had saved all their family photos and home movies on an external hard drive, then put it in a safe deposit box for their family to have when they pass on.

The intent is beautiful.  But, practically speaking, that EHD may not even be readable 10 or 20 years from now.  It makes me sad to think about.

But you can get actually get ahead of technology issues by following the 3 steps above, using the links I included.  And that's the best news of all.

It's important to keep in mind that every form of technology has a different purpose and capability.

NOTE:    If you're new to Forever and open your free account here, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.

So, share this post with anyone you know who is still using an external hard drive to save their photos and videos.  All types of hard drives are not long-term storage devices.  They won't even last through the rest of this decade.  But there's hope because there are other, better options!

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Creating a Digital Vault to Back Up Important Documents

One of the things I love about talking to people about how Forever Cloud Storage can help them is that other people have more ideas than I do!  Nina asked me:

"Can you store documents in Forever Storage, too? Like a will?"

Yes! Yes, you can. And, come to think about it--we SHOULD. *I* should.

Yes, FOREVER is an incredible, secure, private place for your photos and videos, but did you know you can also store documents there?

Where is your:

• will/living will
• birth certificate
• passport
• driver's license
• health records
• certification/degree/transcript
• other legal documents
• phone numbers--anywhere else besides your phone?

FOREVER for Emergencies: A Digital Vault

If you're like most people, all those items are in a file cabinet. So, if something happens to that file cabinet... 😬 Or if your computer crashes?

What we really need is a digital vault!

Based on Nina's questions and our resulting conversation, I created this demo of a digital vault for important documents.  Head over there to see the possibilities, and read the description I've included there to find out how you can even download the Album Covers like the ones you see just above and just below here.

I combined Nina's idea with another one I heard after the latest fires in California:  take videos of your home and belongings for insurance purposes and store them in your FOREVER Permanent Cloud Storage, too!  

Yes, these are actual photos from the person who lost her home in the fires but had taken 
videos of the contents and saved in her private FOREVER Storage prior to the destruction.

I've shared an example for you here under Home & Property to give you an idea of what this would look like.

Why FOREVER? Couldn't I Just Do This in Google Photos or Dropbox or iCloud?

Actually, no.  None of them are intended to be forever, and (important!) privacy rights aside, none are even guaranteed to be there tomorrow, let alone in 100 years.

This is actually one of the things Nina brought up with me.  Sadly, her brother passed away last year, and she confirmed from experience what I had learned about Apple Photos.  

Apple Photos dies with you.  You can't have access to another person's Apple Photos with a death certificate, or even a court order!  It's just GONE.

This is why it REALLY matters how and where we do this!

It's not a secret that Google mines your data and whatever you put in Google isn't private.  So, it's obviously not the place to put a scanned passport or drivers license.

I'd already preserved several things--passport scans, immunization records, etc.--in my personal FOREVER Permanent Cloud Storage account, but I loved taking Nina's idea to expand it to the fullest and flesh out the real possibilities of a Digital Vault.  Now I also have titles and deeds to our home and cars in my personal Digital Vault, and the videos for insurance purposes, too!

Similar to other cloud services, you access FOREVER Cloud Storage through wifi or an internet connection.  The app adds an extra convenience, too, so check out information about the (free) FOREVER app here.

Here's How to Create a Private Digital Vault of Your Own

So to make sure all your important documents are backed up, just create an Album in your Forever Storage and set it to a Private visibility. You can even use the cute album covers I've designed, if you want! Click around here and read the descriptions for more information--and to copy my album covers to use for yourself. 🤩

And I've outlined it step by step for all of us:

I never know how Blogger does with the quality of the images I'm including here, so for a crisp look at the flyer above, read it here if you prefer.

From there, you can access your private Forever Cloud Storage from any computer with internet access or through the app:

• on WiFi
• with an internet connection
• through cellular service if WiFi isn't available 

I'm so excited to share this idea!  A huge thanks to Nina for asking this question and inspiring me to outline the possibilities of what we can really do here.  

After you see my outline at this demo of a digital vault, tell me in the comments if you think we're missing anything.  What else would you add?

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NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

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Maybe Your Photo Project Isn't as Big as You Think It Is

It works.  My 10 Minutes Daily Plan really works.

I know it works for other people because they've told me, but to be honest with you, I had never tried it myself because I'm so consistent at saving my photos to the cloud and to my computer (2 digital versions like photo experts recommend) as well as saving them in print (as photo experts also recommend) due to my, well, addiction to digital scrapbooking with Artisan by FOREVER.

When I came up with my 10 Minutes Daily Plan in late 2023, I knew it was a good idea, for all the reasons I mention in the plan, but I didn't realize that it would also work for me!

Here's My Story

My photo preservation habits were only lacking one thing when I met FOREVER in 2021:  a trustworthy cloud backup that could serve as a digital legacy (something I could pass down).  

I already preserved my photos in scrapbook pages along with the memories that go with them, and I already preserved them on my computer with a backup on an external hard drive because I know computers can crash without warning.

But I will never forget the day that I finished backing up my photos onto the external hard drive and placed it in the basket where it goes.  Right next to my computer monitor.

And I realized:  If something happens to THIS ROOM (water leak, fire, anything), all my digital photos are gone.  GONE.

If something happens to my house (since that's where my scrapbooks are), ALL my photos in any form are gone.  COMPLETELY GONE.

It's a much longer story, but let's just say I'm incredibly thankful to have met Forever Cloud Storage through a friend. 

Since then, I back up all the photos on my computer to Forever Cloud instead of an external hard drive.  Photo experts recommend that the 2 ways you store digital photos (and videos) are onsite (at your house) and offsite (in the cloud).  So NOW I can really check that box. 

How I Used the 10 Minutes Daily Plan

But what about photos from 1997 and from my parents' wedding and my baby pictures?

From when I was a teenager in the 1980s until about 2007, I only took photos with a film camera.  I put them in paper-and-scissors scrapbook pages.  They were the only copies of them anywhere in existence.  No backup.  Except those awful negatives.  

So I set out to take my own advice and try my own plan!  I chose 7:00-7:10am every day (which I did almost every day).  I used my home scanner in my office and got to work scanning these beauties.

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

What I Learned That I Want You to Know

I was actually a little surprised at what I learned and how much it impacted me.  I know how important our photos really are to our hearts and souls.  So, this is something I really want you to know:

I had been dragging my feet a little about starting all that scanning because I thought it was such a huge project.  Dread kept me from starting.  

But it was the most delightful and enjoyable project!  I looked forward to it every day.  I saw little faces I haven't seen for 20 years (because they're older now), remembered special moments, re-lived and re-loved the memories of my life.

And one day while doing my scanning, I realized that it didn't feel like a big project any more.

Part of that feeling came, I'm sure, from the fact that I was only spending 10 minutes a day on it instead of reserving a whole weekend or something.  But I know, too, that part of that feeling came from how much fun I was having.  It didn't seem like a big deal because it was so fun.

Just Do It!  Please.

Whatever your photo project is, just do it.  Please.  🙏  You will be so happy that you did!  It will MATTER.  It will make a difference.

Get started by following the steps here, or come back next month on the first Friday for a new blog post with a comprehensive tutorial video that will help you with whatever photo project has been patiently waiting for you to make time for it.

Just start with one thing.  And see if that project isn't as big as you think!

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The Moose Story: my latest rule to live by

 I live by this rule: It doesn't exist unless it's saved in FOREVER.

This rule can best be summarized by a personal experience I call The Moose Story.

In July, I went to a really fun family reunion where we took a lot of pictures. Each night, I asked my husband to share his with me. (Yes, you can have two phones uploading to the same FOREVER Cloud account!) I realized I was probably being a little annoying, asking this so consistently, so I explained my thinking:

Until it's safely backed up in Forever Storage, anything can happen to it! Phones can be dropped in a lake, after all. It's not safe unless it's in FOREVER where I can see, share, and download it later if I want.

The Moose Story

The next day (yes, the very next day), my husband, two of my nieces, and my niece's husband went kayaking. They had the best time ever. They even got to see a mama moose and a baby moose up close--they just walked out of the bushes right in front of our family kayakers! My niece's husband took a photo of the moose with his phone.

But this photo isn't it. (I found this photo online.) Because a few minutes later my niece's husband dropped his phone in the river.

Yup.

And that's The Moose Story, a rule to live by: It doesn't exist unless it's saved in FOREVER. Because if it isn't saved in FOREVER, it literally may not exist.

Maybe not the end of the world if you can find a similar photo online like I did here, but it certainly feels like the end of the world if those were videos of your baby's first steps or photos of the last time you saw your grandma.

FOREVER Cloud

I shared this story in my Photo & Story Treasures Facebook group where we learn and share things like this every weekday morning, so if you haven't had a daily dose and aren't familiar with FOREVER Cloud, here are the basics:

It's a Cloud storage system for your photos and videos, like Google or Dropbox (etc.), only very much not like Google and Dropbox (etc.) 😅 Your digital memories are private, for one thing, and are also guaranteed to be there for the next generation, and the one after that.

The security FOREVER puts in place for Forever Cloud Storage is unbeatable. 

 

It's better care for my photos and videos than I could possibly give them personally.  

You can learn more here--and you can open a FOREVER account for yourself, too, and get started preserving with 2 GB free.  If you want your photos to last a lot longer than the phone you took them with, this is definitely your solution!

What's Your Experience?

Has something like this ever happened to you? Have you lost a phone, dropped it in water, or otherwise found it unusable? Or, have you ever updated your phone's operating system only to have your photos disappear from it like poor Jordan? Tell me in the comments below!

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NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

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