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Digital Scrapbook Files: Organized, Backed Up, or Living Dangerously?

Esther Wisdom

Esther Wisdom

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Hey friends
I’m just genuinely curious and would love to see what everyone else is doing when it comes to storing and backing up digital scrapbooking files and downloads. I know we all have our own systems (or… half-systems ).

I may also have my mad scientist hat on — nothing official, no announcements — just thinking through a few ideas and trying to understand real-world habits and pain points.


If you’re willing, I’d love for you to answer any (or all!) of the questions below in the comments. No right or wrong answers — I’m just curious what you do.


  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.)

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?)

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure)

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not)
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.) I store them on my hard drive. Some older files, and some retired are on an external hard drive. But I scrap on a MacBook and I don't really like having the external attached. I don't keep the zip files, but have to remember to clean them out of the trash (where they automatically go) periodically.

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?) I have all of these, but don't use them to store my digital kit files. Current photos will be on Adobe (with the PSCC basic plan)
  1. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure) It runs on my computer somewhat continuously with Backblaze

  2. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
    Setting it up took a bit of effort and I changed from Crashplan because they changed something a few years ado, but Backblaze has been good. I only just recently needed to retrieve a backed up file, and it was pretty easy.\
  3. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not) I'll go with maybe as I have missed some download files (very rarely), but I've been able to retrieve them in the past with reset links. But I try and be more conscious about checking that they are complete when I download. It would depend on costs, and I don't see it replacing Backblaze
 
Esther Wisdom said:
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.)

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?)

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure)

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not)
Click to expand...

1. After several years of storing my digistash on the internal drive of my Mac, which I prefer, my husband, who also uses this Mac for film-editing, asked me a month or so ago to move my stuff to an EHD, so that's where everything is now.

2. No, I don't store in the cloud (only back up).

3. I back up continuously with Backblaze (everything) and manually backup images only to Smugmug.

4. I don't really have any challenges regarding backing up stuff aside from rare technical difficulties.

5. I probably wouldn't be interested if it had a subscription fee.
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    Everything I'm working with for the current month is in a folder on my computer. At the end of the month, it all gets moved to an EHD.

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    I do not currenly. I back up scrapbook pages and photos to 3 different EHDs

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    Right around the last day of everything month and then I do a good computer clean...getting rid of temp files, etc.

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
    Can't really think of anything at the moment. I do worry about crashes from time to time. It ha happened to me before.

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    I think I probably would be :)
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    I have 2 external drives (primary and backup) and I do my best to keep them identical. I do this because when my last EHD died, the backblaze backup I got didn't retain any of my finder tags (mac) and I had to redo them all which took so much time. I still use backblaze as an offsite backup, and like having that also when I'm away from my computer and inspiration strikes (I can download products to my ipad and get to work! lol)

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    Backblaze for my computer and scrap stash, Google One for my phone photos - I'm paranoid I will lose my phone on vacation and lose all my photos, so I pay for that cloud service for peace of mind.

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    Backblaze daily, Google One instantly (both are set to backup automatically)

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
    Well, mainly just the added time it takes to put everything I have on 2 separate External Hard Drives, and updating my finder tags when a designer moves stores, products get retired, etc.

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    Perhaps. I've got a lot of systems going so I'd need to weigh the cost versus benefits.
 
Oh my goodness! Though I'd scarcely describe myself as a daredevil or a thrill-seeker, I am certainly living dangerously when it comes to my digital scrapbooking files. I have files all over the place (on my hard drive, on at least two external drives, in an icloud), and with no coherent backup plan in sight ....
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.) Computer, several external hard drives, cloud.

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?) iDrive for computer files. Google Photos for phone photos until they are downloaded to the computer.

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure) iDrive on a daily basis. New digital purchases get copied to an external hard drive as I unzip them.

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads? I tend to forget to copy the photos and layouts to the external hard drives.

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not) Depends
 
Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
(Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.)
A mix between computer & cloud. I do have an external hard drive I bought (well used rewards points that were expiring/the program was closing) a year ago for back ups as well but it's still sitting unopened on my desk! In terms of online backup I use
Backblaze. It's saved me many a time. For me it's a non negotiable to have because well after having your laptop stolen to know you have at least some data (I'd only just started so my back up wasn't complete) was a huge weight off my shoulders at an extremely stressful time

Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
(Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?)
Backblaze for back ups & Dropbox but only as a method to bring photos/documents across from my phone to computer.

How often do you back up your files?
(Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure)
Automatically through Backblaze. Manually....never though I have the EHD to do it but remembering often enough to do it is my problem.

What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
It's something totally outside of my control but Internet speed thanks to living at the bottom of the world affects how well I can download back ups. Sure I could pay to get an EHD sent to me with my data but it's not in the budget. I don't notice the Internet speed with uploads but that's probably cause I'm not actively watching it!
Actually, it's also capturing everything important....that's part of the reason I went down the path of Backblaze. If I was left to do manual backups only, I'd probably miss stuff too easily

If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
(Yes / maybe / probably not)
No, only because I pay for backup of everything now through Backblaze. If I wasn't already using Backblaze then maybe I'd consider using a specialized back up service just for scrapping.
 
Last edited:
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    All my active kits etc are on my computer. Older and less used (e.g. very themed) kits are on an EHD due to space constraints on my computer.

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    No. Never use the cloud. My back-ups are to an EHD that's kept in a separate place to my computer.

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    Weekly or Fortnightly depending on how many new files I'm likely to have

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads? n/a
  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    no definitely not.
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    I store my digital downloads on my computer. Too few are backed up on an external drive.

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    I use Google Drive when I want to scrap with my phone. I only use the cloud to transfer files.

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    I try to back up my photos and scrap pages every month. That reminds me, I haven't done the December backup yet.

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
    Capacity ! I have so many files that I don't know where to start, and I don't have very large external drives.

  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    I don't know.
 
I have everything stored on my PC, with some back ups on external hard drives. I only back those up once a year or so. I doubt I would pay for storage other than Google photos.
 
Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
All files are stored on an SSD portable EHD so I can go between computer and have all my files.

Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
I have iCloud to backup what's on my phone. I pay $2.99 a month because I don't clean photos off my phone often enough. I also backup my photos to Amazon, because it's included with Prime, so why not.

How often do you back up your files?
I download all new photos from my phone to my EHD every Friday, first thing in the morning at work. Then I back them up using FreeFileSync software to an extra EHD that I keep at work (my off-site backup if anything happened to my home). I've been doing that for close to 15 years, so it's a complete habit and I never forget.

What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
I guess I'd love for it to be automatically done, but I'm too cheap to pay for a service and I also have trust issues that it maybe wouldn't work properly and I wouldn't find out until I had a failure and then lost my stuff. I like knowing exactly when my files were backed up last. Lol.

If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
Probably not. See above. Trust issues. :giggle
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.) I have some on my computer's hard drive and I also have two portable hard drives.
  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?)
    I use Backblaze. Have been for years!
  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure)
    Backblaze backs up daily.
  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
    No challenges.
  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not) Maybe!
 
1- Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
On my computer.I donwload, unzip, tidy up things like I like and delete the zips to clear space.

2- Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
Dropbox for photos I take with my phone. I use it mostly to share with my team too.
But I clean up old things once they are on my computer because I have an online back up service for my computer. I don't want to pay for DB because I have a lot of space if I delete old photos and videos.

3- How often do you back up your files?
Daily as it is an automatic backup service working in the background. As soon as there is a change to my files it updates everything online. I can recover them as they are in my computer now if I have a computer crash.

4- What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads?
Not sure. I don't have any at the moment but I can imagine it would be space at some point.

5- If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
I am already using a service like that for years, since I almost lost twice my stash (actually the second time I lost a big part of it). Now I don't take any chances.
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.) On my SSD and I have two EHDs

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?) I have Google Drive, but I don't use it for scrapbooking supplies. My photos are on Google Photos and are included in my Google Drive space subscription.

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure) Not nearly often enough. Photos automatically go from phone to Google Photos. I also upload my Gallery-sized layouts to Google Photos. I just moved all photos before 2018 to an EHD. Back in the day all my scrapbook .psd files were burned to CDs. I have to check to see what scrap supplies I have on the EHDs. I know all my 2005-2010 stuff is backed up, but I don't know about recent stuff.

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads? Being consistent, I guess since I don't know if I've done my supplies recently
  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in? maybe!
    (Yes / maybe / probably not)
 
  1. Where do you currently store your digital scrapbooking files and downloads?
    (Computer, external hard drive, cloud, a mix, etc.) EHD

  2. Do you use any cloud storage? If so, which one(s)?
    (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, something else?) no, occasionally I’ll use Google Drive to move a photo between two computers

  3. How often do you back up your files?
    (Daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally, rarely, not sure) continuously with Backblaze

  4. What’s the biggest challenge you have when it comes to backing up your digital scrapbook files or downloads? I also back up with a second EHD but my computer can’t handle having them both plugged in at once all the time, so I have to remember to manually get it started.
  5. If there were a way to automatically back up your digital scrapbook purchases to a secure cloud, would that be something you’d be interested in?
    (Yes / maybe / probably not) probably not if I had to pay for it since I’m already paying for BB.
 
My digital supplies from the stores I use the most and/or have been bought since I got my newest compter 5 years ago are on my laptop, which gets backed up to our NAS every few days. The NAS has some sort of a rotating backup so the NAS backs up the NAS. I don't really know but I married an engineer and gave birth to one and they take care of that stuff, lol. Stuff older than 5 years is only on the NAS.

The biggest challenge isn't backing them up. It's moving them to the right spot out of downloads and categorizing them. I have an awkward method but with hundreds of gigs worth of kits, I'm not willing to start over at this point.
 
Aerobigirl said:
The biggest challenge isn't backing them up. It's moving them to the right spot out of downloads and categorizing them. I have an awkward method but with hundreds of gigs worth of kits, I'm not willing to start over at this point.
Click to expand...
Agree, it's not the backing up that's the pressure point for me but the organization of my supplies. I have a routine now but if I don't stay on top of it, it can get too overwhelming. Like you though, I'm in too deep to change my system now.
 
I am very silly. I pay for Backblaze, but I haven't backed up this laptop. I did use it previously and it was helpful when I had problems with my previous laptop. I was going to say my new laptop, but it's about 5 years old now. It's add to the to do list. I need to figure out my log in details.

Thank you for the reminder!
 
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