The Three-Location Photo Backup Plan (No IT Degree Required)

Why three copies

The 3-2-1 rule, translated for families: three copies of every photo, across two different storage mediums, with at least one copy off-site. This is not paranoid — hard drives die, houses flood, cloud accounts get locked out. Three copies is the minimum where you can lose any one and still recover.

Practical setup

1. Location one — your phone (the working copy, syncs to iCloud / Google Photos).

2. Location two — an external SSD plugged into your main computer once a month. Use a free tool like Photosync or just drag-and-drop into a dated folder.

3. Location three — OurFamilyLineage (or any secondary cloud with a different login). The key: different provider means different failure modes.

The ten-minute monthly ritual

First Sunday of the month. Plug in the SSD. Sync. Unplug. Done.