Setup ideas for cloud backup?

[Lostmonkey]

I don't have anywhere near enough space in my cloud for all of my images. Therefore I have made an extra folder on my hdd of only the best images in my collection by copying all images with a certain minimum rating to this folder (not indexed by IMatch). The folder of these rated images is then the only one that is synced to my cloud. (I also use other local backups)
This solution is however far from ideal.
A couple of things I don't like:
- I have to remember copying new rated images to the cloud synced folder.
- If I delete or un-rate an image in the main collection this is not automatically reflected on the cloud synced folder.
- The 'rated folder' takes up extra space on my hdd. I can live with this one. The first to issues are the main ones.

I'm sure there must be a better way to maintain a subfolder of the best images for syncing to the cloud. I am not very well versed in the advanced features of IMatch so any ideas for a better setup will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Carlo Didier]

Before spending a lot of time on a complex setup, you may want to first look at other cloud solutions and their prices.

There may be solutions where you can get quite a lot of cloud space for a reasonable price. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding a promotional offer.
As an example, I went for a promotional offer for 10TB of backup space with iDrive for 149€ for 2 years, renewal for 99€ per year thereafter (I am in no way associated with iDrive!).

There are a number of possibilites, just google around a bit.
Enough cloud space would give you the simplest solution an may save you a lot of time.

[Jingo]

Of course, you might also be able to use a self-hosted online backup as part of a website host.  My own host costs only about $5 per month for a 3 year subscription... this includes unlimited storage though they don't necessary allow or like backups being uploaded.  I have stored the occasional backup or two as a transition item but you could always find a host that doesn't mind it.  There are lots of PHP based backup solutions like Owncloud that can be easily setup and hosted.

[Mario]

Another solution would be a Office 365 license. if you use Office anyway.
For a 5-user license you get 5 TB  storage (one TB per user) in the Microsoft cloud in addition to the full Office suite.
It costs 99US$ per year. 70US$ for a personal license with 1TB storage.
It integrates well into Windows and there are also apps for other platforms. Plus all Web-based Office applications etc.
I use this for many years now and it works.

Note: I use this as my 3rd backup stage. My backup software encrypts all data locally before it is stored in the OneDrive folder on my system.

[Lostmonkey]

It seems investing more in a cloud subscription is the way to go. I was hoping for a cheaper solution 

[Jingo]

It seems investing more in a cloud subscription is the way to go. I was hoping for a cheaper solution 

When it comes to secure and reliable cloud storage.. nothing comes for free!  You'll be very happy to have made the investment though if you actually need to restore your data should something happen locally... an insurance policy is how I look at it!

[Lostmonkey]

To be honest I should probably start by deleting a significant part of my collection. Apart from the family photos I think that for the rest of the collection probably only 1 in 5 image is actually worth hanging on to - at best. It just a very time-consuming task to sort through the thousands of images that have accumulated over the years. Wish I had done a more rigorous sorting after each photo trip ... 

[Mario]

As Mario always says: "Delete ruthlessly" 

[monochrome]

Take a look at cloud backup providers that let you back up a lot (and let you use your own encryption key). I'd look at BackBlaze ($60/year for unlimited backup).

Full disclosure: I use their cloud storage product (different from the backup) and am happy with it. I have no other connection to them except as a happy customer.

It seems investing more in a cloud subscription is the way to go.

Nobody wants backup. Everyone wants restore.

[Rene Toepfer]

It seems investing more in a cloud subscription is the way to go. I was hoping for a cheaper solution 

You could buy an NAS, e.g. Synology, and place it at a location you have trust in and good connection. In my case I have one NAS at the office and another at home. My office NAS syncs every night with my NAS at home.
In addition to this I have an Office365 Business Standard license with 5 TiB Onedrive.
You could also have a look at Hetzner or Strato Hidrive.

[Aubrey]

I've been using backblaze for nearly 10 years. About 50$ year. Backs up all attached disks (USB not Nas)
I have some 7 tb now.. For 50$/year.. Wow.! NAS disks can be added but then it becomes a business a/c more expensive. I've a Dell docking station for the laptop so plenty of USB ports.

Last month a disk went bad, I downloaded the backed up data just as a check (I also keep a local backup) all went well.

I have an old dedicated Dell machine for backup running all the time - it also runs IMatch Anywhere. (purchased on eBay for 100$ with AVX) I used remote access for it so never need to touch keyboard.
I have automatic copies of my other computers to disks attached to the backup machine (I use Allwaysync - purchased some 10 years ago for about 30$)

Aubrey

[Rene Toepfer]

In addition to my previous post. Please also check legal issues. For example, in EU images containing mainly people are personal data and need to be securely handled.

[Aubrey]

Take a look at cloud backup providers that let you back up a lot (and let you use your own encryption key). I'd look at BackBlaze ($60/year for unlimited backup).

Yep used to be 48$/year per mschine I think they increased to 60$ last year. It's the way to go.
It also keeps (by default) one month of history...a charge for more than one month.

Basically when machine is connected to a network back up goes on in background. So your files are always backed up... No need to concern yourself with culling files. There is a one month free trial... No need for cc details... Give it a try!

My description in previous response is a more sophisticated use for only 60$!
Aubrey

[Aubrey]

In addition to my previous post. Please also check legal issues. For example, in EU images containing mainly people are personal data and need to be securely handled.

With Backbkaze you need a password to access files. On top if that you can add your own 256 (I think, maybe 128 bit) security key.

[Rene Toepfer]

In EU the General Data Protection Regulation has to be fulfilled. It is more than a password. But if you are abroad the EU or do not business with EU based/located clients/people it does not affect you. Maybe your country has own legal issues to be considered. A cloud storage is just the technical solution.

[Lostmonkey]

Sounds like Backbkaze is worth a look. One question though: I use a laptop with limited storage so have most of my image collection on external harddrives. How would Backbkaze backup work with these? I don't have them attached to the laptop constantly.

[Carlo Didier]

Just to clarify my whole current setup:
- Goodsync to automatically sync the SSDs on my laptop to my Synology NAS
- iDrive to do locally encrypted backups from the NAS to the cloud
- on the NAS, snapshots which are replicated to a second NAS at a friends house
- monthly copies to USB disks stored in a save place

Sounds like overkill?     Probably yes, but I'm an IT professional who was responsible for backups for years and I know most of what can go wrong and how important backups (and tested restores!) are

[Aubrey]

Sounds like Backbkaze is worth a look. One question though: I use a laptop with limited storage so have most of my image collection on external harddrives. How would Backbkaze backup work with these? I don't have them attached to the laptop constantly.

The disk will only get backed up when attached to pc. It will continue where it left off when you reattach. You need to reattach at least once a month for it to keep the data. By default it will back up thw whole disk. You can select folders/directories you don't want backed up. You can also exclude/include certain file types.

As I said there is 1 month fee trial give it a try!

[Rene Toepfer]

In my case I have also several levels, using Syncovery as sync tool
1. Backup from my HDD to NAS
2. Backup from office NAS to my NAS at home
3. Backup from my office NAS to a Cloud Service in Germany
4. Backup to USB drive which will only be connected for backup purposes and stored at a secure place
For 1. and 2. I run a binary comparison.
For 1 till 4: After each comparison source and target file will be checked with check sums.

[Mario]

...and, do frequent test restores. Most backups fail during the restore phase 

[Rene Toepfer]

Yeap!

Also true: No backup, no pity!

[Jingo]

Funny - I just did a speed test at Backblaze to see about perhaps giving them a shot.  Only got 53.92 Mbit/s upload which is sad.. ran the test many times.  Tried a number of regular speed tests on local and far servers and I am consistently getting 480 Mbit/s.... which is much better.  Will keep trying the tests over the next few days and see if it improves.. if not - it is just not an option for the amount of data I'd be backing up.

[jch2103]

Funny - I just did a speed test at Backblaze to see about perhaps giving them a shot.  Only got 53.92 Mbit/s upload which is sad.. ran the test many times.  Tried a number of regular speed tests on local and far servers and I am consistently getting 480 Mbit/s.... which is much better.  Will keep trying the tests over the next few days and see if it improves.. if not - it is just not an option for the amount of data I'd be backing up.

Interesting. I tried BB's speed test, got only about 15 Mbit/s download speed but ~100 Mbps upload speed. Having download so much slower than upload is the reverse of what I might have expected. My Google speed test results are currently ~440 Mbps download and ~90 Mbps upload (for some reason slower than usual for upload). Usually my connection is fairly symmetrical unlike my old Comcast service which was much slower for upload than download. 

[Jingo]

Maybe BB is having server issues today... I'm sure these are not their usual speeds!

[Aubrey]

Funny - I just did a speed test at Backblaze to see about perhaps giving them a shot.  Only got 53.92 Mbit/s upload which is sad.. ran the test many times.  Tried a number of regular speed tests on local and far servers and I am consistently getting 480 Mbit/s.... which is much better.  Will keep trying the tests over the next few days and see if it improves.. if not - it is just not an option for the amount of data I'd be backing up.

Remember that once data is backed up it just checks for new files and adds these, so when adding data it's very fast.
I live with 10mb upload speed from my ISP  (in fact rarely get this, usually about 7mb) download 50mb

So first backup takes time but then goes OK.

Here is information about slow backup from backblaze help
https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/search?query=Backup+speed&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Check throttling of backup and also how many threads being used.
Bb also have a speedtest to determine which of their servers is fastest.
..
Image doctors (Jason odell Rick walker - used to be on Nikonians) in their #71 edition  towards the end suggest this backup.

BTW I've no affiliation with bb, just been using it for about 10 years with no issues, I'm passionate about the software!
Aubrey

[DONUSA]

I have been syncing my photos with Dropbox by keeping them in a Dropbox folder locally.  This way I have a backup and I can access them when I am traveling using a laptop.  I use iMatch on my workhorse PC at home, but while traveling I still want access to my database of photos.  I discovered problems with my metadata and it looks like Dropbox cloud sync is causing this (https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=11185.0).  iMatch is not recommended with cloud sync. 

I'd say my workflow is not that unusual.  That is, iMatch on PC at home for heads-down photo management, but I need to access the photos database occasionally while traveling using a laptop -- in my case a Macbook. 

Because of this metadata corruption issue, for now, instead of syncing my photos with the cloud, I moved the photos database to an offline directory and just make a backup of the photos database after I finish work in iMatch.  This means copying all the photos from the local directory to a Dropbox folder and this will cause Dropbox to upload all the photos.   With a 1GB/sec line this takes all day to upload. Obviously, I need an incremental backup solution to just upload the adds/deletes/changes instead of the entire photo database each time a create a backup.

I don't sync the iMatch database to the cloud, because when I travel and need a photo, I can get it by searching for tags or browsing folders.  I presume working on the same photos database with two instances of iMatch would really break things, so I don't have iMatch installed on my laptop.  (Though a cloud version of iMatch would be nice). 

So, if I just run backup software on the local standalone photos database to a local Dropbox folder and then let Dropbox upload the changes to the cloud, will this work? iMatch itself would never be talking to a syncing folder, so it should be safe, right?    I thought syncing would work until I spent several hours figuring out it doesn't, so I want to ask first. 

Is there any particular backup software I should use?  Is there any more clever way to achieve what I need? Keep in mind, I will need to access this cloud backup like a regular cloud drive on my laptop when I am traveling.  I don't want to have to restore my photos database to my laptop - it won't fit anyway. 

Plan B is to just make a cloud backup with something like BackBlaze or Windows Backup to OneDrive for safety and copy the entire photos database to an external drive and bring it with me when I travel. 

Advice appreciated...

[sinus]

At the moment I do not use any cloud.
I am too lazy or I do not know or this encrypting stuff nerves me and so on.

What I simply do:
Buy some external USB-3 harddisks (SSD would be a big more expensive option, even simply usb-sticks could be an option).

Several terrabytes does not more cost a lot.
Then I backup all files including IMatch and including other stuff on these harddisks.

I can decide, do I one or several backups.
Then you can decide, do you want use backup software like Macrium (what I do use) or even simply a 1:1 backup with copy.
At the end you have maybe several external harddisk, what you could take at home, at a secure place, use with a laptop and so on.
And these harddisks are nowadays smaller and smaller, and cheaper and cheaper 

Also the intervals for update backups is up to you.

And yes, checking from time to time, if the restore is really working, is a must, specially if you use some backup software.

My 2cents.

[Aubrey]

Don
Having a PC at home and a mac book while travelling makes life difficult as you cannot(easily?) use IMatch on Macbook.

I always carry a copy of my files with me (my laptop is a pc). I store files on a WD drive. I keep them sync'd with my PC disk using software called AllWaySync. Using this for some 12 years. A very useful piece of kit as it synchronizes in both directions. If files are newer on portable drive they will be updates on PC and vise versa. My WD passport can be encrypted in the event I lose it.

Backblaze is easy to access, but in "backup mode" it's not the same as cloud access. (I think BB also have a cloud option, but I have no need, and therefore have not investigated.)

Aubrey.

[Carlo Didier]

... What I simply do:
Buy some external USB-3 harddisks (SSD would be a big more expensive option, even simply usb-sticks could be an option).

I hope you store at least one set of disks outside of your home. Not good to have all your backups in the same location as your live data.

[sinus]

... What I simply do:
Buy some external USB-3 harddisks (SSD would be a big more expensive option, even simply usb-sticks could be an option).

I hope you store at least one set of disks outside of your home. Not good to have all your backups in the same location as your live data.

Thanks, Carlo
I do so.
One set at home, one on another place.