How to Keep Your Family Photos Safe and Secure

Family photos are a treasure trove of memories. From cherished photos of our kids when they were young to photos of relatives who have passed on, nobody wants to lose their much-loved photograph collection. Whether your family’s photograph collection is stored in albums or you have a digital archive, read on for some useful tips on keeping your photos safe and secure.

These days, many photos are digital, so they are stored on computers and other digital devices. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can store a huge number of digital photos without needing any space in your home, but on the other, digital photos are at risk of data theft and hardware failure.

Local Storage

Digital photos are typically stored on memory sticks, SD cards, and hard-drives. This is great, but don’t underestimate the misery caused when a device fails and you lose a precious collection of irreplaceable photos. Imagine how traumatic it would be if you stored some photos of your baby on a computer and the hard-drive died. If you had no other copies or backups, those photos would be lost forever.

Technology devices are not immune to hardware failure. They are also the items most likely to be stolen during a break-in at home or work. There is also the possibility that you might end up leaving a laptop on a train or in a car that’s subsequently stolen.

Recovering Lost Digital Files

Accidents happen and sometimes, despite our best efforts, hard-drives fail or devices stop working. If this happens to you, try not to panic. It is often possible to recover data from corrupted or damaged hard drives. Companies such as Secure Data Recovery can recover data from a damaged device and bring your photos back to life.

Cloud Storage

To protect your family’s digital photo collection, ensure you back up the files to an online cloud service, where files are encrypted and stored on multiple services.

Many people store their data in the cloud because it is perceived to be safer than storing it on a local device. This is sensible, but only if you use a reputable service and password protect your account. Family photos are unlikely to be targeted by hackers unless you are a celebrity, but this doesn’t mean that a hacker won’t try to access your account when searching for more interesting data.

Imagine if your iPhone or iPad is stolen and the hacker has access to your iCloud account. They could delete your files and you could lose all your precious family photos.

If you don’t want to lose your photos, always store them in multiple locations. Maintain a cloud storage vault, keep a collection on a hard-drive or memory stick, and print off your favorite photos and have them framed.

Don’t forget to keep printed photos safe and sound, especially if they are irreplaceable. Old photos can be scanned and turned into digital files for posterity. Otherwise, store them in a fire-proof box, just in case.