Is Google Photos enough for the family pictures we just scanned?
Technology‘They’re on your phone and in Google Photos. That’s two copies,’ my brother said, putting the scanner back in its box. We had spent three Sundays scanning 460 family photographs. Some had dates pencilled on the back, so I scanned those sides too.
I had assumed the phone copy was separate until I read Google’s deletion guidance: deleting a backed-up item in Google Photos also deletes it on devices with backup turned on. [Google Photos Help](https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128858?hl=en). Now I am uneasy about treating the two views as two independent archives.
I suggested keeping a separate downloaded copy on a drive. My brother asked whether I was volunteering to maintain it. Fair question. I have already become the person everyone messages when a photo has the wrong year. The family has set aside $80 for finishing the project; I would rather use some of it on storage than another afternoon of scanning, but a drive left in a drawer could become another thing nobody checks.
What would be a manageable archive for this small, finished collection? I want Mum to enjoy the online album without every tidy-up feeling like a decision about the only surviving scan.