Help required for this backup strategy

[Shrinath]

Operating System: Mac OS X High Sierra
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): 7.2 (Classic)

Hi all,

Have been using Lightroom classic since more than a year now, but without any backup strategy, until now. Considering that it is better late than never, here is what I am thinking of doing -

• Buy 1TB space on Google
• LR catalog stored in some random folder to be synced to Google drive using their folder sync tool
• ~/Pictures to be synced to Google photos automatically
  • RAW
  • Videos
  • Processed jpegs exported under subfolders

Workflow consists of this -

• New photos from camera get imported through LR to ~/Pictures
• Google drive will sync RAW automatically
• Edits will be in LR catalog - which will be back-up to Google Drive along with previews
• Exports will go to folders in ~/Pictures which will be synced to Google Drive again - can share album from Google photos.

Choosing Google Drive/photos because

• Google Photos can read Nikon RAW (NEF)
• it does give a good search & face recognition
• sharing is easy

What do you guys think? I couldn't find anyone doing this, so checking if I am way off here.
Anyone can point me if any problems that can come here?

Also, any better cloud space provider than this for ~1TB space?

Thanks

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Yes, an online backup fits in a good backup strategy however it is not enough for most of us. Consider the 3-2-1 approach, three copies of each file on (at least) two different media and one copy off-site.

it does give a good search & face recognition

When you are going to manage your images with Lightroom, how does this fit?
I would consider the Google drive as back-up only. Sharing images is much easier with Lightroom published collections

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Google Photos may be able to recognize your raw files, but it won't pick up your Lightroom edits of these files. That means that if you use it for sharing, you have to do all your edits twice. I agree with Roelof; share from Lightroom and use Google Drive for backup purposes only.

 

[Shrinath]

When you are going to manage your images with Lightroom, how does this fit?
I would consider the Google drive as back-up only. Sharing images is much easier with Lightroom published collections

This doesn't have to fit. Treat Google photos/drive as separate backup entity who has amazing search - I will know which images to come and edit in LR.
Sharing is easier in Google to me because

1. have never shared using LR - don't know anything about it
2. have seen how awesome & natural it feels in Google photos - add email addresses of friends and it is done.

Google Photos may be able to recognize your raw files, but it won't pick up your Lightroom edits of these files. That means that if you use it for sharing, you have to do all your edits twice. I agree with Roelof; share from Lightroom and use Google Drive for backup purposes only.

You are right - which is why if you look carefully at workflow, it says

• Edits will be in LR catalog - which will be back-up to Google Drive along with previews

• Exports will go to folders in ~/Pictures which will be synced to Google Drive again - can share album from Google photos

So if I want to share with anyone, I just export as JPGs and it works out.

Probably I have to try out LR sharing and see what it gives.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Probably I have to try out LR sharing and see what it gives.

I think you will find that this will make your workflow a LOT easier that what you described.

 

[Shrinath]

I think you will find that this will make your workflow a LOT easier that what you described.

Ummm... Easier, sure yes. Not sure of the "LOT" part. It just removed one use case, but rest of it is still there, right? Google photos, drive all one and the same client will upload. I will still have to export from LR to publish/share I am guessing?

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Making export with the baked in edits is one step, put them in albums on Google drive and share them from there is a second step. Managing these albums (and perhaps managing the same collections in Lightroom) is more redundancy. Keeping track on all of it looks easy now but how is it in a few years? My advise is: give the sharing part in LR a change and you find out.

 

[Shrinath]

Agree on the age part - it might look too much to do in few years.

Just went through this page - Share and view feedback on a photo gallery in Lightroom Classic CC

I tried sharing one of my albums - stuck on this now - I can't seem to find a way where I can share this with my friend who doesn't have an adobe ID. I don't want to make that link public.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

For sharing they don't have to have an adobe id these days anymore (that was a requirement in the past).
So, the actions are:
1. Share an collection
2. Publish it
3. Rightclick the collection and copy te URL which you can mail to your friends

 

[Laura Smith]

The biggest issue I can see with relying on cloud sync (rather than a dedicated cloud backup service) is that if your files get messed up, the error will most likely be synced with Google Drive. Google has a version history for 30 days, so if you notice in the first 30 days you'll be fine. But anything longer than 30 days and you've lost the file. If you're confident you'll notice anything going wrong within 30 days, that's fine. But otherwise a versioned backup on a local external harddisk would be worth adding into the backup mix. Or you could look at a dedicated cloud backup service like Crashplan that keeps versions for longer/forever.

Also, if you delete a file by accident, Google Drive will delete that file too. If it goes into Google Drive trash you'll be okay, because the trash doesn't get emptied unless you empty it. But it would be worth testing with the Google Drive desktop syncing program to see if deleting a file via Lr/Windows Explorer/Finder actually puts it in the trash at drive.google.com or if it bypasses the trash.

 

[Diko]

You have Adobe Cloud space as well...

You can use two Syncs at the same time... Not that something can't go wrong. But if you add an external HDD to that you have the 3-2-1 with two OFFSITEs instead of one. The photo below is to be found in "manage your plan". There are some space options available.

Go and check the prices.