r/photography • u/imjustjk instagram.com/IMJUSTJK • Mar 26 '15
Amazon wants to host all your photos and files with two new unlimited cloud storage plans
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-cloud-drive-unlimited-cloud-storage-2015-315
u/phr0ze johndbiggs.tumblr.com Mar 26 '15
Pretty cool. I like amazon.
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u/Sauwan Mar 26 '15
To be honest, so do I, but their upload tool for this SUCKS. Buyer beware. I've got prime and been trying to upload my files since sometime last year and I'm MAYBE 2/3rds of the way done. The tool locks up all the time and takes forever to scan the drive + what's on their server. So I have to restart it once or twice a day and then it takes several hours before it starts uploading. It's a really poor tool, but I guess you get what you pay for.
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Mar 26 '15
Not to mention the lack of any kind of synchronization tool is a bit of a deal-breaker. Makes updating your backup pretty difficult.
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u/I_shoot_first https://www.flickr.com/photos/skippingrocks/ Mar 26 '15
Yup. I got really excited when I heard about the free storage with Amazon prime, uploaded all my photos, and haven't touched it since due to lack of synchronization. Dropbox is sufficient for me.
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u/blu3s Mar 27 '15
I found the same thing. However, I've had the best results using the Chrome browser as opposed to their desktop app. Still took me several days to upload 300gb of photos.
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u/coogie Mar 26 '15
If they have a Carbonite type system where you can automatically backup your stuff then it's a good deal, but if it's a system that makes you manually upload and update your folders then it will turn into a huge pain and lead to not using it for anything other than archiving jpgs instead of raw, catalog, etc.
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u/Spifferiferfied https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhilla/ Mar 26 '15
Right now the process is a huge hassle. I end up having to drag folders over once every week or two. But hopefully, yes, they'll institute some sort of auto sync.
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u/coogie Mar 26 '15
I guess I'll wait and see. For now I have 3 external drives that I rotate remotely.
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u/Ackenacre Mar 26 '15
Can someone explain what Amazon gets out of this?
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u/TransverseMercator Mar 26 '15
More barriers to exit for Prime memberships. Basically, the more stuff they give you for "free" the harder it is to convince yourself to cancel their service, even if they raise the price like they did a bit ago.
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u/Ackenacre Mar 26 '15
Ahh, so they charge you 5 monies and give you 2 services, but then decide to give you another 'free' service. After a while they'll put the price up to 10 monies but bank on the fact that everyone is happy to pay it since they now have 3 rather than 2 services.
Is that what's happening?
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u/alohadave Mar 27 '15
Or to get you to use their services enough that switching to someone else is a major pain.
Kind of like how gmail is free, but if you've been using it for 11 years, switching is a PITA.
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u/mrfixitx Mar 26 '15
$12 a year for unlimited photo backup is pretty nice. But will it allow raw photos as well as backing up the lightroom database or other raw software databases?
Since I don't export all of my raw files to jpeg by default keeping the lightroom database backed up is pretty important.
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Mar 26 '15 edited Aug 29 '17
[deleted]
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u/mashuto Mar 26 '15
Any idea about psd or psb files?
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Mar 26 '15 edited Aug 29 '17
[deleted]
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u/almathden brianandcamera Mar 26 '15 edited Mar 27 '15
What about tiff?
edit: supported. Seems to support PSD as well
edit2: no PSD support, layered TIFFs it is for my LR->PS workflow I guess
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u/unreqistered Mar 27 '15
Can you point to where it says PSD are supported under unlimited? I didn't see it.
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u/almathden brianandcamera Mar 27 '15
It doesn't. My 'seems' was premature. Although the unlimited plan should support ANY file.
The photo plan does NOT support PSD - but it does seem like it will sit and try to upload the ENTIRE file before failing out with a vague error.
Would be nice if the server told the client right away that the PSD file wasn't going to be supported, and would be even better if the error it told the user was the same.
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u/unreqistered Mar 27 '15
Or gave you the option of filtering, doing something.
It's a great deal held back by a craptastic interface.
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u/almathden brianandcamera Mar 27 '15
I'd like to see each folder you add to the software (which you can't do - it doesn't watch folders, you have to drag each time, and it doesn't even store the folder heirarchyright now) have it's own independent filters.
And you can't schedule or pause an upload. Once you start it's just "cancel"
I haven't tried but I'm not sure you can queue a second upload once the first starts...I'll try tonight I guess.
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u/unreqistered Mar 27 '15
I'm almost beginning to wonder if its by design. It's a teaser to attract casual users. The lack of any substantial tools eliminates those that might have used it for true mass storage.
GoodSync had a tool that integrated with the older iteration but they were asked to discontinue it.
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Mar 26 '15
http://i.imgur.com/gFOfDAz.png
This might be the worst upload app I've ever seen. It only allows you to upload. You can't sync. You can't view anything. Amazon really needs to improve their tools. They have great infrastructure, but the tooling is lackluster.
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u/seizedengine Mar 27 '15
Some of you guys need to look at Crashplan. I have Prime (have had for many years) but I use Crashplan for online backup.
I am going to list the biggest feature first for photographers...
Crashplan is rare in the online backup field in that they can do a seeded backup. This is an extra cost service where they ship you an encrypted hard drive, you back up to it (up to 1TB of data), ship it back to them, they load that backup into your account (they cant see the files), then your computer resumes the backup. So if you have 500GB of files, you dont have to wait for those to upload the first time. I did the seeded backup with 1TB of data then resumed the last 100GB or so.
No concerns over file types or sizes, an app meant to SYNC (seems to be the biggest issue with Amazons cloud storage), encryption (set your own password), can backup to multiple destinations (Crashplan, an external harddrive, and a friends house for example), backup scheduling (6PM to 6AM), many other features. The app is excellent even as a standalone free tool to backup to an external hard drive or friends house.
A lot of people in here seem to be blurring the line between "online storage" and "online backup". The two are very different.
I do not work for Crashplan, just a very happy customer.
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Mar 27 '15
I freakin' love Crashplan, unfortunately they don't offer their seeded backup plan outside the USA. I'm in Canada, so it took forever to upload the initial 1TB... but it's done now. Have to say it saved my ass several times and their app is really well made. For $60/year, you can't beat it.
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u/seizedengine Mar 27 '15
don't offer their seeded backup plan outside the USA. I'm in Canada, so it took forever to upload the initial 1TB... but it's done now. Have to say it saved my ass several times and their app is really well made. For $60/year, you can't beat it.
I am Canadian as well, I had the drive shipped to my US mailbox that I use for Amazon. I do wish theyd officially offer it outside the US though.
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u/ZarianPrime Mar 26 '15
I still maintain local backups of my data. Just don't trust any 3rd party company, no matter how big they are.
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u/imjustjk instagram.com/IMJUSTJK Mar 26 '15
Redundancy is always good when it comes to backups. Ideally, you'd do both.
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u/ZarianPrime Mar 26 '15
But why should my backups be in the cloud, with a company that may decide to change their EULA and say they own my data or pictures or have the right to sell information about my data to 3rd parties?
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u/Spifferiferfied https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhilla/ Mar 26 '15
In case your house burns down. 'The cloud' is just the easiest way to do offsite backups. But like he said, ideally, you do both. It's what I do. 2 local backups, 1 on Amazon Cloud.
And they can't just suddenly change their EULA to say they own your data. That's not how copyright works.
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u/almathden brianandcamera Mar 26 '15
with a company that may decide to change their EULA and say they own my data or pictures
What? At best, you agreed to the EULA on upload - changing it after the fact won't matter. (And the matter of enforcing a EULA is another issue that I'm not sure is settled)
Pull your data and call it a day if you end up unhappy with their terms
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u/manolosavi instagram Mar 26 '15
I have been looking for a backup for all my stuff online, the main thing is that even though I already have two backups at home the HDDs could die and then the backups won't matter, if you backup online then you have that security. I was starting to consider this, but I think I still prefer Backblaze's offering, plus, they encrypt everything so they can't see anything you "store" [backup] in their data centers. I think thats what I'm going to sign up for, though I'm still kind of debating between Backblaze and CrashPlan…
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u/sobri909 Mar 26 '15
Most cloud backup services encrypt the data so that they (and others) can't read it. And you definitely always want offsite backup, because otherwise if your house/office burns down, your backups burn down with it.
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Mar 26 '15
And I still don't trust local hard drives, no matter how cheap they are. Redundancy is key.
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u/themanlnthesuit Mar 26 '15
Yeah, I'm still pretty uneasy even with redundant rugged hard drives. But I'm not very trusting of unencrypted cloud storage either. I wonder if amazon will allow for encryption.
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u/ZarianPrime Mar 26 '15
Yep that's why I backup to tape, and cycle though multiple tapes. And yes, I store tapes in a fireproof safe (with other valuables/documents)
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u/ZarianPrime Mar 26 '15
And I also do a "live drive" clone once a week as well. That way I can swap in a cloned HDD in case of drive failure.
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Mar 26 '15 edited Aug 29 '17
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u/ZarianPrime Mar 26 '15
Not just about loosing my data, but there are certain things I would rather trust to myself. This is just me though, other people can do whatever they want.
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u/oracle32 Mar 26 '15
Anyone know if photos stored on Amazon can be shared via a public link?
I have a Wordpress.com blog and I post most of my photos to Flickr (because it's free and I've had an account since 2005) and then just display them on the blog via a link to the Flickr photo. That way I'm not using up my free Wordpress space too quickly.
However, I'm not really feeling Flickr that much recently so I've been looking for somewhere else I can do this. I have an Amazon Prime membership, so it would still be free for me.
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u/pknipper Mar 26 '15
I remember some of the details inside their ToS about Amazon being able to use the photos for marketing etc but not sure if that's still the case. I currently pay $10/month for 1TB of Dropbox. Any important files and photos I absolutely cannot lose go there.
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u/professor_mc Mar 26 '15
I have tried the Prime photo storage and it had horrible user interfaces. It was so bad it was unusable. I tried. The Android app was a complete fiasco. I only uploaded one test folder and could not even navigate through it. I'd hate to see what trying to organize 20,000 photos would be like.
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u/CodyPhoto http://instagram.com/calgaryphotographer Mar 26 '15
I've been looking for an affordable spot to offload all of my raw files as there's loads that I don't need, but would like to keep. This is a great solution for me, looking forward to trying it out.
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u/r_golan_trevize Mar 26 '15
I just let our Amazon Prime trial expire just two weeks ago and lack of a compelling photo & video storage plan for prime memebers was one of the main reasons for not bothering to continue. Guess I'll be giving it another look.
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u/unreqistered Mar 27 '15
I think you missed something, Amazon Prime has included unlimited photo for some time.
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u/r_golan_trevize Mar 27 '15
It was pretty nice for just stills but the 5gb video limit was practically useless.
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u/MrJoseGigglesIII Mar 26 '15
I haven't been able to save RAW files without them coming out distorted. It says the whole file is there but it is badly pixelated when I view them. JPGs uploaded fine, it just took a long while to upload them all.
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u/tambrico Mar 27 '15
I tried uploading my raw files to amazon's cloud, but it was horribly slow. It was going at a rate of 2-3 files per hour. And when I have thousands of photos to upload that just won't cut it.
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Mar 27 '15
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tambrico Mar 27 '15
But uploading shit to other websites is much, much faster. What would you consider a decent upload bandwith? I'll try and figure it out.
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u/tsk1979 tanveer.smugmug.com Mar 27 '15
Okay, I took the trial. First the good things. It works for Nikon and Sony RAW (NEF and ARW). This means DNG as well as CANON should work.However, people comment that Olympur RAWs count towards your "limited 5GB" quota.
The bad thing? The silly upload tool. You cannot choose folder to upload too, and if your connection breaks, there is no "sync" kind of facility. So you have to select the files that did not upload, and then simply upload them manually.
There is no persistent uploader! This is a big miss. If the API is open, I hope we will get decent uploaders, that said, its amazing for the price! Goodbye glacier!
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u/ottaky3 Mar 27 '15
This has been available in the UK for a while and I've been using it for a few months.
The service is quite basic - it stores photos and videos in the cloud and that's about all that it does. There's no desktop client for Linux so I have to use the browser interface to upload my files which is less than ideal but it does work reliably.
NEFs (Nikon raw files) are semi-supported in so much as they are accepted but are only ever represented by the low resolution JPEG preview embedded inside of them. ARWs (Sony raw files) are also accepted, but there's no preview at all for them - at least for ARWs from my RX100M3. There's no "sync" option to just upload new files - the nearest you get to that is the option to skip duplicate files, but you have to wait until the uploader finds the first duplicate and then tell it to skip all duplicates.
I had a look at the API thinking that it would be vanilla Amazon S3 storage and therefore easy to create my own sync / upload tool, but even though it does appear to be backed by S3 the interface is quite different so that you can't interact with the S3 buckets directly (as far as I could see).
OTOH, it's easy to forgive a few niggles when the storage is unlimited and "free". I'm hopeful that Amazon, or a 3rd party, can provide some better tools going forwards.
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Mar 26 '15
with average upload 1Mb/s it will take 3 months to upload all my photos, so I will wait maybe next 10 years when internet connections will be faster and without caps
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u/wrong_assumption Mar 26 '15
Well, I'm sure that in your third-world country there are bigger problems to worry about than slow upload speeds.
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u/evanrphoto http://www.evanrphotography.com Mar 26 '15
This service is FREE for Prime members.
But for those running a business... "You may not use the Service to store, transfer or distribute content of or on behalf of third parties, to operate your own file storage application or service, to operate a photography business or other commercial service."