Back in the day, when capturing moments in time meant using film and paying to have the photos developed, I was notorious for having dozens of old shoe boxes full of loose photos in my closet – alongside dozens of empty photo albums and scrapbooks.
Those shoe boxes are probably still hanging out somewhere in my parents’ house (or perhaps they’ve gone missing) but since the digitization of picture-taking, my poor organization has only been made worse. Now that it’s easier than ever to snap a shot of every cute thing my baby/dog/cat/husband does, I have thousands of images just sitting on my phone, doing absolutely nothing for me. Aside from one trip to Target to print out a few of my favorite photos of my son for my office, I haven’t done a darn thing.
Then, just last week, my son gave my phone a good slobbering and it hit me that if I don’t do something – and fast – all of the photos of my most precious firstborn could be gone . . . forever. Almost a full year’s worth of priceless memories!
And the key word there is priceless. According to a survey from Woburn, Mass., software company Acronis, data on a device – especially personal photos – are far more valuable to consumers than the device itself, as nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said they would save their photos before their phone. But consumers are doing little to protect all that valuable information and are reluctant to pony up to save their data. A separate Acronis survey in the U.K. showed that 21 percent of consumers have never backed up a digital device and only two-thirds have stored some of their content digitally.
Acronis’ Sub Zero blog discusses the survey findings.
Respondents overwhelmingly state that their personal photos are the most important things on their smartphones, tablets and computers. A work proposal can be rewritten, a song or TV series can always be repurchased or re-downloaded but photos of weddings, graduations and other moments, both everyday and extraordinary, can never be replaced. Still, most amateur photographers upload their photos to Facebook or Instagram and store them on their devices, without a backup plan. And as we’ve seen, those sites aren’t foolproof.
. . .
People would be devastated if they lost their files but more than one-third of respondents said they’re not willing to pay to more than $100 to get back lost data. It can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get back data from a failed device depending on the level of damage, not to mention the hours spent wondering whether those files will ever see the light of day again.
How can consumers say their photos are worth more than a $1,200 desktop computer but not be willing to pay less than one-tenth of that to save the data? Your guess is as good as mine; humans are hardly rational creatures.
But this research did make me realize that my data isn’t going to back itself up. I’m one accident away from losing it all. So this past weekend, I asked my husband to download all of the photos from my phone onto an external hard drive so that I can organize them chronologically and upload them to Google Drive.
Someday.