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!
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.
I actually use Shutterfly too and love it for when it comes time to making my photo books.
This is great! I did not know that this was available! Thank you so much for sharing!
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!
This is a great resource. Thank you!
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!
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!
I completely forgot about Shutterfly, thank you for the information!
I should give this a try, I have way too many pictures and need to organize them. Thank you!
I was just talking with my family about photo storage! I forgot about Shutterfly!
I love using it – I make calendars every holiday so it’s nice to have all these photos upload to use for it!
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!!
I love Shutterfly! I just need to get into the habit of printing photos regularly because they add up.
I am definitely a Shutterfly fan!!
Shutterfly fan here! This post has great information.
Thank you, this is great info! I included your post in this week’s Shareworthy Saturday post, since keeping photos organized is something that we all struggle with. (You can read my post here: https://thelifeweshare.com/shareworthy-saturday-3/.)
Why, thank you! Great post – and love the concept – keep spreading the word on other amazing blogger’s posts!
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.
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
I love Shutterfly as well but I had never thought of setting up folders-such a good idea!
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.
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.
I’ve used Shutterfly for books or cards in the past. Haven’t thot about photo storage.
I have tried this before, but did you find it took a lot of time to upload the images? Maybe I was impatient.
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!)
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!
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!
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!
We used Shutterfly to make our wedding photo album and we love it!
What an awesome tool! I have sooo many pictures, I should really use this to save them!
Great idea!
I have an iPhone and we have to pay for iCloud.
Will definitely check this option
Thank you:)
Cool. I need to get this!
Photo storage is a major issue. Great suggestion.
Thanks for all the information on Shutterfly!
This is a great resource. You’ve given me some good ideas on organizing my photos
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!
Great information! I didn’t realize you could do this on Shutterfly! I take waaay too many photos! LOL
I love shutterfly!!
I knew you could use Shutterfly to create photo-based products, but didn’t know you could use the app for storage as well!
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.
I have not thought about using shutterfly! I have Google photos but this sounds like a good option too.