Lack of storage on my mobile device:  How do I continue to post to my social media accounts when my phone is out of space?

Social media today have become visually intensive. It is imperative to have great pictures when we submit a post to our Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. Our mobile devices have become more and more sophisticated to support this function. Yet, when we run out of storage space on our device, what can we do?

The solution for lack of storage on your phone is to back up it, and move your precious photos to another device.  How do we do so without much effort?

There are many services out there that can back up photos so you can access them anywhere. This frees up the storage and memory space on your smart phone and you would never run out of storage again.  

The following photo backup services are ones I have used and have personally experienced, enabling more space for me to play with on my device:  iCloud, Dropbox, Google and Shoebox.

I’ve made commentary below, and have also provided links to the pricing and plans pages for your convenience.  These services can be found simply by search for "photo backup" on your application download from your device.

Whether you love them or hate them, if you end up using any of the services mentioned (or find new ones) for photo backups and to streamline your social media postings, please comment below so we can all share in this knowledge.  Thanks!  Evelyn

iCloud

If you own apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, mac) or even PC, iCloud enables up to 5GB of free storage that syncs with your photos and documents through your apple id.  Beyond that, storage space of 50GB is $1 a month, and approximately $3 for 200GB.  If you need 2TB of space for backup, the cost is approximately $10 a month.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238

Dropbox

Download the dropbox mobile app and sync it to your desktop application. So long as you have the same user id and password, files from either desktop, mobile or web access will mimic one another.   Any photos you take will be backed up to your dropbox, which lives in the cloud, forever.  You may access these files anywhere on the internet or on your desktop. Dropbox can upload more than just photos, enabling you to sync virtually any document or file from your mobile device to your desktop (with web access), and vice versa.  There is a free version of dropbox, which gives up to 2 GB of free space.  If you refer others to dropbox, up to 16 GB are allotted as a referral credit.  Paid services begin at approximately $10 for 1 TB of storage per month.  I personally have been a dropbox fan for many years, and I never worry about lost data, or computer crashes, knowing that everything I produce on my desktop is backed up and synced to my files on the cloud.  https://www.dropbox.com/plans

Google Photos

Google photos offers unlimited storage for backups of video and photos for free.  You will never need to worry about space on your phone again.  There is a visual search function in this app that allows you to search by people, places and things without tagging.  Other features include advanced editing, automatic albums firm, and you can send photos in seconds without compromising text or email data.  Not only are there editing functions for the photos, but if you choose, you can create beautiful slides, collages, movies and more. 

I have not been a fan of google drive or photos having had dropbox for a number of years.  This could be simply a preference, but I find dropbox simpler and easier to use. I also do not want to deal with any possibility of privacy issues and data mining when it comes to my personal photos.   Google Drive Pricing Guide:  https://www.google.com/drive/pricing/

See also:

• http://www.techtimes.com/articles/56945/20150601/google-photos-offers-unlimited-storage-its-free-in-exchange-for-your-privacy.htm.  
• https://www.imore.com/google-photos-may-be-free-what-personal-cost

Shoebox

Shoebox is an app specifically for photo backups.  Any photos you take on your smart phone will be uploaded to your account on the cloud.  You will be able to access your photos on your mobile device, anywhere there is internet (web access, and also on your desktop.  The forever free plan is available and provides up to 15 minutes of video backup.  The paid plan, which $5 a month allows for 10 hours of video backup.   https://shoeboxapp.com/pricing

If you end up using any of the services mentioned (or find new ones) please comment below so we can all share in this knowledge.  Thanks!  Evelyn