Shutterfly Photo Storage for Mobile Uploads

I have over 649 photos on my iPhone (I know, not an earthshattering number, but it’s a lot for me!).  I am always afraid I am going to lose my favorite photos. I also hate just “dumping” the photos on to a “cloud”. While I take a lot of photos, but I don’t need to save ALL of them.  With over 40k photos on my laptop and more on the phone, how do I save the ones I want?  

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I have over 40k photos on my laptop and felt the need to have another backup system in place.  While I backup my laptop on an external hard drive, I still wanted my photos easily accessible. I started using Shutterfly in 2008 for mainly using it to made albums, calendars, and even reusable shopping bags.  Most photos were with my Canon (currently using a Canon EOS Rebel) and love it – but I don’t carry it with me everywhere. 

Most pictures in the last few years have been taken with my iPhone. I absolutely love taking photos – sometimes daily! With the advancements in phone technology, you take pics at a moment’s notice. It’s hard to keep track of all the photos on my phone.  Automatic uploading to a “cloud” with each photo taken just wasn’t an option for me. I don’t need EVERY photo saved.  I also wanted to have them somewhat organized, even if it was organized chaos. 

Since I had been using Shutterfly, I hoped that the system I had in place would work for mobile uploads.  I had folders already set up of each year, vacation, etc. so adding a few more folders might just work. Here is how it looks from the desktop view. I set up the folders via the desktop (found it a bit easier this way).

Last year (2019) I set up my mobile Shutterfly account and made three individual folders to “throw” my pictures in.  Instagram (I just love my square pics and filters!), iPhoto pics and one folder for my husband’s photos to archive. At the end of each month, my goal was to upload prior month pics and then clear my phone of old pics! Creating an album is super easy – just click on “Create Album” and you’re ready to go!

So, in January 2019 I added iPhone and Instagram folders to my Shutterfly account. By December 2019 my system had been in place the entire year. It worked PERFECTLY so I am doing it again for 2020!  I couldn’t believe it was so easy to upload. Then I would delete the extra pics on my phone at the beginning of each month.  I never ran out of storage on my phone this year – even with all my videos! The best part is when you upload, Shutterfly tells you if you already saved a pic (little “S” in the corner). There is no way to duplicate saved pics!    

When uploading, I always start with my Instagram pics. Some quick easy steps and you’ll have your pics uploaded in no time!

  • Open Shutterfly App
  • Click Upload (keep Manual selected at the top (vs. Automatic) otherwise it’ll save everything)
  • Now you’ll see all your albums on your phone – pick Instagram
  • Click on the ones you want to upload (if it has the “S” it’s already saved!
  • Hit Upload
  • Select “Add to Album”
  • For this pic, I picked “Instagram 2020”

Try it! You save your favorite photos and now have a quick way to make photo albums, calendars, and more! 

41 thoughts on “Shutterfly Photo Storage for Mobile Uploads

  • March 10, 2020 at 21:01
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    I know what you mean about taking lots of photos. I have the same dilemma as you so I downloaded Amazon. I never heard of Shutterfly before, that’s great to know.

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  • April 6, 2020 at 14:33
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    I actually use Shutterfly too and love it for when it comes time to making my photo books.

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  • April 6, 2020 at 14:45
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    This is great! I did not know that this was available! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 15:01
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    My phone is overloaded with photos too! I love Shutterfly but hadn’t thought about using them as a storage place for all my photos. Thanks for the idea!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 15:23
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    This is a great resource. Thank you!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 16:37
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    How neat! Thanks for all the info on Shutterfly. I’ve heard about them and they seem like a great company. I’m glad it was easy for you to keep your photos organized!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 16:41
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    This is great information for those of us who have lots of photos to save and organize! It is always such a hassle to download and save all of them. Thanks for the tips!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 21:18
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    I completely forgot about Shutterfly, thank you for the information!

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  • April 6, 2020 at 22:19
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    I should give this a try, I have way too many pictures and need to organize them. Thank you!

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    • April 8, 2020 at 18:17
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      I love using it – I make calendars every holiday so it’s nice to have all these photos upload to use for it!

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    • January 11, 2021 at 21:19
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      Great info!
      When I started my blog, I did it on my phone. Rolling through my 15000+ photos on my phone quickly caused me to realize that I needed a laptop!
      Yikes!!

      Reply
  • April 7, 2020 at 17:09
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    I love Shutterfly! I just need to get into the habit of printing photos regularly because they add up.

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    • April 13, 2020 at 11:41
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      Why, thank you! Great post – and love the concept – keep spreading the word on other amazing blogger’s posts!

      Reply
  • January 11, 2021 at 14:48
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    I use Shutterfly for photo books and vacation memoirs so I have pictures stored there, but I hadn’t thought about storing all of them on the site.

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  • January 11, 2021 at 16:18
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    I so need to do this. I am so lazy when it comes to the phone photos I bought extra internal storage for my phone rather than figuring out the cloud! LOL

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  • January 11, 2021 at 16:34
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    I love Shutterfly as well but I had never thought of setting up folders-such a good idea!

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  • January 11, 2021 at 16:55
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    What a brilliant idea. I can’t stand looking for something on the cloud. Now to figure out how to not have photos go there automatically.

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  • January 11, 2021 at 19:02
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    I’ve had that scare a few times. One time my phone wouldn’t turn on and my first thoughts were “oh no, not all of my photos/memories”. Great info.

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  • January 11, 2021 at 20:13
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    I’ve used Shutterfly for books or cards in the past. Haven’t thot about photo storage.

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  • January 11, 2021 at 20:54
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    I have tried this before, but did you find it took a lot of time to upload the images? Maybe I was impatient.

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    • January 12, 2021 at 21:01
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      Nope! I try to do it the first of the month for the prior month, probably takes only 10-15 min (and most the time it’s me reflecting on all the pictures!)

      Reply
  • January 11, 2021 at 21:03
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    I’ve used Shutterfly for photo books and other gifts quite a bit over the years, but I haven’t ever used it for backing up or storing photos. I’ll have to look into it!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 01:13
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    I’ve used Shutterfly for years. I love it. I mainly make prints for my kids. We have a physical album per year and they love reminiscing in those photo albums!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 05:31
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    This has been my issue when everything turned digital. I miss being able to open an album (literally) and thumbing through the memories. Looks like you found a solution for you with this dilema!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 08:13
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    We used Shutterfly to make our wedding photo album and we love it!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 12:07
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    Great idea!

    I have an iPhone and we have to pay for iCloud.

    Will definitely check this option

    Thank you:)

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  • January 12, 2021 at 15:53
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    Photo storage is a major issue. Great suggestion.

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  • January 12, 2021 at 16:37
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    Thanks for all the information on Shutterfly!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 21:22
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    This is a great resource. You’ve given me some good ideas on organizing my photos

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  • January 12, 2021 at 22:43
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    This is great advice. I think we all take a lot of photos and truly do not organize them well! Your system sounds realistic to work!

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  • January 12, 2021 at 23:53
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    Great information! I didn’t realize you could do this on Shutterfly! I take waaay too many photos! LOL

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  • January 16, 2021 at 15:35
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    I knew you could use Shutterfly to create photo-based products, but didn’t know you could use the app for storage as well!

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    • January 17, 2021 at 18:57
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      Oh I LOVE doing it this way! I even started saving memes over the past year and plan to make a book of it for me and my friends.

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  • January 17, 2021 at 20:33
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    I have not thought about using shutterfly! I have Google photos but this sounds like a good option too.

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