this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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I run my own storage, mostly via NextCloud (as a docker on unRAID). But I still use a couple apps, and my old phone to take advantage of Google's old 'unlimited original uploads of photos' as a secondary, backup. I like this for publicly sharing photos vs giving people access/direct links to my stuff.
Nextcloud is also our dropbox/onedrive etc..
Important bits are backed up ultimately to Backblaze (my only cloud storage)
The biggest thing I worry about with this setup which is pretty low cost compared to paying Google, Apple, MS for cloud storage/features. is that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow. This stuff will likely eventually fade into oblivion. While I did finally get my wife onto a shared password manager I am not so sure she'd be able to recover stuff if she needed. Of course it would all work as it does right now for a while. But eventually unRAID will crash or have some hardware failure, then things get tricky. Again, my wife has access to accounts/passwords through the password manager, but there are still technical challenges. I guess I need to add to the 'in case of emergency' to pull off all important digital documents and start backing them up some other way.
I am in precisely the same situation (except I don't use Backblaze. I store my data offsite in a safe deposit box). My wife is also non-technical. Here's what I'm planning to make the "bus moment" less impactful:
I've been trying to decide how to handle the critical documents backup. They're backed up on the NAS, but that's a complicated piece of equipment. I have them organized into a folder structure so that I can find them easily. I'm thinking of just dropping the whole folder structure onto the thumb drive, just in case. I can't think of a better solution, especially since my wife is going to be busy and distraught after I'm dead, so she won't be able to handle a super complicated retrieval process.
I have also considered the 'trusted friend' thing. And while that would certainly solve the 'hit by a bus' situation, they are my age and not any healthier than I am. I don't believe I have any/many technically capable younger friends I could rely on as that trusted person long term.
These things are stuff I've thought about on/off for a while. Not just my personal storage, but just in general as things move to cloud (especially company clouds) when those places fail what happens? As people die off and have their data locked online somewhere, when they stop paying, or company ceases to exist that stuff is just potentially lost. Meanwhile, I have a huge box of pictures my grandparents took. I've digitized a lot of them since it's much easier to share that way, but the box is still in my closet and will exist after I'm gone.
I didn't intend to make this so dark :)
It's scaring me how similar your situation is to mine! I also just finished scanning in a bunch of photos that my grandmother took. I chose to host the photos in the Photos app, and considered for a long time whether I would let that sync up to iCloud. Sure, the photos would exist on Apple's cloud. But if I die, they can only be accessed from my Apple devices. If someone can't get into them for any reason, they're as good as gone, because Apple -- as good a company as it is when it comes to customer service -- can't be counted on to let anyone else into my account to retrieve data.
So I stored them in Photos, and will store copies of them on my NAS, in hopes that having them in multiple locations will increase the chances that someone else can access them. Same thing goes with my data -- I ignore iCloud, but I store that data on my Macbook Pro, inside of its periodic backup, on my NAS, on the backup of the NAS, and potentially in the future, on a thumb drive. More locations means more chances of being able to get at the files in the event of a catastrophe.
I use Photoprism also as a docker on my NAS. It is Internet facing but I only really share kinks to friends and family since it is hitting my server. Its firewalled/port forwarded etc, but I'm not comfortable sharing that publicly.
Inside our house NAS shares are accessible, however read only unless I need to update/add to it.
Nextcloud runs in parallel to the NAS and contains it's own data but it's ease of use allows my wife to use it
One other paid storage I didn't mention (for photos) is I also have a $40/yr zenfolio account where I do upload photos. Mostly stuff taken with my DSLR not phone pictures. (A lot of soccer pictures). My grandparents photos are there also so the family can access them.