Photo/docs backup, cloud storage, sharing, mobiles......help!

[gsf600y]

Ok, I've gotten into a completely disorganised state of affairs with my data
I'd appreciate anyone's advice, or examples of what they're doing to organise data.

What I've got currently:
Basically, I've got most of my important data on my main PC:

• documents (only about 3GiB).
• main photo archive (about 400GiB)
• misc data (somewhere close to 1TiB)

I used to back that lot up via Google Drive, to a Google account shared by myself + wife (we have our own individual Google accounts too, the shared one is just used for Photos, Calendar, and Contacts sharing).
On top of that, we've got 2 mobiles phones taking a bazillion photos, backed up to the shared Google Account on Google Photos. So both mobiles see all the photos.
I used to extract them from the shared Google Account, onto the "Main PC" into that photo archive....but, haven't done this for a good few years now I think Google at some point split Photos away from Drive storage or something like that, which confused matters.

And we've got another 3 Windows machines in the house that use Onedrive to backup their desktop/documents folders, for fairly tiny volumes of data.

I pay for the 2TB plan with Google (£7.99 a month or £79 a year)
I also pay for Office 365 Family, mainly for the Office apps which 4 of us use, which comes with 1TB per user.

What I want to do:
I do not like not having all our photos "trapped" in Google Photos. I love the Photos app, but I'd like to somehow store them on my main PC too, to make organising/editing/managing them easier.
We want all our photos shared, and we want to be able to view all in an app of them going back years and years ( like with do with Google Photos today).

I need some software on the main Windows PC to backup all the data. Google drive and others have an annoying limitation that forces you to put all the data you want backing up into a single main folder. I've got folders in multiple different locations I want backing up.

I want to be able access all the data online, if I need to, particularly via mobile app for checking docs.

I'd rather get away from paying Google £80 a year, and I'm not opposed to running some kind of server at home, although that then introduces the complication of needing to have an offsite backup.
And in the long run, I'd like to save a bit of money, even if it means splashing a bit of cash now.


Anyway, if anyones got any tips or cool examples of how they're doing data backup and sharing in a family, I'm all ears.

Thanks.

 

[lsg1r]

Have you considered a nas?

Some nas's have their own apps/software to do most of what you want and if you have a trusted friend/family member you could use 2 to synchronise at different locations (potentially additional cost). You don't need an offsite backup, obviously pro's and con's, but if you're thinking 'loss in fire or theft' you can get 'armored' drives that are fire proof etc and then just have it in a bolted down mini safe somewhere.

The other obvious option is to use MS One Drive storage that comes with your office 365. You could each have your own 1TB and then share photo folders between 2 users (linky), you could use a third for the 3tib with a small increase in capacity until uploaded... iirc they don't delete if you stop paying, they just stop you from uploading but maybe check that.

 

[chili]

get a synology nas imo