Thousands Of Photos On Your Phone? Here Are 3 Ways To Manage Them

Do you find it impossible to delete old photos? Well then, join the club.

If there’s one thing I believe we all put off – it’s tackling the mountain of photos stored on our phones. From that message which reads “no storage” to the 50 screenshots of our new handbag and the heaps of WhatsApp videos that just need. to. be. deleted; sorting out photos can be a nightmare but often, it’s because we don’t know what to do with them.

Thousands of memories are stored in our phones (often not backed up), just needing one spill of a drink or one fall down the stairs to make all those videos and photos of family, friends, holidays and nights out a distant memory.

Grim, I know, but when it’s put like that it’s hard to answer why would we even risk losing them in the first place?

Thankfully, there’s three fairly straightforward routes we can take. They don’t require a hella tech-savvy mind and they won’t take all day but first, all unwanted photos need to be deleted.

This is the tough part but it’ll make sorting through the photos worth saving a lot easier.

After that, you choose which one of these three options below suits you best…

1. Invest in a hard drive 

One thing I would suggest to all photo lovers is to invest in an external hard drive.

Buying an external hard drive is an investment – although they may be pricier than memory sticks, they really are value for money. Depending on the memory storage space of the hard drive you buy, they can hold thousands of photos. All you need to do is plug the hard drive into your computer and transfer all your photos from your phone and computer to the hard drive using your USB cable. If you’re photos aren’t already on your computer, you’ll have to back them up from your phone on to the computer before moving them to the hard drive.

Once done you can unplug your hard drive and store it safely, allowing you to delete any old photos from your phone without losing them. The amazing thing about external hard drives is that they can store so much. I like to think of external hard drives as huge modern-day photo albums. They are an investment that when cared for properly, will last for years and will provide an easily

2. Grab some digital space 

If the thought of using a hard drive scares you then why not invest in some online storage. It seems crazy that we can live in a world where can buy storage online – if you really think about it, it doesn’t really make sense, but to be honest who has time to think of those things! One I would highly recommend is Dropbox. Dropbox is available to download for free on Android, Apple and Windows mobile. You can download the Dropbox app on your phone and simply upload your selected photos and videos straight from your phone.

Similar to that, other very popular options include Google Photos and iCloud. Like all online storage apps, you get a certain amount of space for free but after that it comes at a small price per month. One of the things with digital storage is that you pay for the connivence of how easy it is to upload pics and videos to your account. It is a safe and efficient way of saving photos.

3. Make things physical 

You can call me old fashioned but I don’t think anything beats having a physical copy of a photo. Whether its in a photo album, a frame, or simply blue tacked to the wall – there is something special about having photos printed. I don’t know if this is because in the world we live in today everything is online and digital, but I find so appealing. Obviously, nobody expects you to print off the 8,000 pics on your iPhone 7 but investing in printed editions of photos from things like birthdays, trips and memorable moments is very worthwhile.

Plus, it has never been as easy with apps such as FreePrints and SnapFish which you can download onto your phone. With both of these apps, once downloaded you are able to upload the photos directly from your phone that you want to print. You pay for these prints through the app and they are then delivered to your door. Not only is it extremely efficient but also both apps offer great incentives – on FreePrints you get 45 free photo prints a month and on SnapFish you get 50 free prints a month, with both, all you have to do is pay for shipping – sorted.

Words by Nicky Anderson 

Tags:

• photos
• tech