Online storage can really add up when you’re dealing with lots of photos from over the years. Sure, there are online backup solutions out there, but some have strings attached, forcing you to plug in old, external drives every 30 days or that simply don’t work reliably.
Little did I know that, as an Amazon Prime member, I have free unlimited photo storage. Yep, that’s right — I can upload RAWs, TIFFs and JPEGs at no extra charge to my Prime membership.
How to get started
If you’re an Amazon Prime member in the US, you get “unlimited, full-resolution photo storage and 5 GB for video storage” at no additional charge. Outside of the US, your luck my vary. But you can purchase Amazon Photos storage starting at just $1.99/month.
Just go to the Amazon Photos website and click Get Started or Sign In.
Once logged in, you’ll be taken to a page that will eventually hold all your photos, sorted by year, subject, format and more. If you click on the Your Apps option in the sidebar, you can download the Amazon Photos app for your computer.
Uploading your photos
Amazingly, when I last tried Amazon Photos was way back in 2015 — and all of those photos were still there. Once I installed the Amazon Photos desktop app, I simply had to re-link the appropriate folders, and it synced the photos pretty quickly.
For photos that I didn’t currently have uploaded, I added the root folders to the backup list. I organize my photos into year-based folders, so it was easy to add each folder, even if they were on separate hard drives.
It took about a week to check and upload five years’ worth of photos, but your results will be based on how fast your internet upload speed is. Most internet providers limit this significantly more than download speed; for my 1 Gbps download plan, I get a measly 40 Mbps upload (thanks, Xfinity).
Things to keep in mind
While most RAW file formats are supported, there are a few omissions in terms of formats that can’t be uploaded:
- Leica photos
- iOS Burst
- Google Motion
- Samsung Motion
- 3D photos
- Lenticular photos
- Equirectangular Panoramic photos
Like video files, Photoshop documents (PSD) count toward your storage limit. So while they can be uploaded, if you have a lot of PSD files laying around, you’ll likely have to upgrade your storage plan. XMP files also aren’t included as a part of the unlimited storage, but they too can be uploaded.
That said, Amazon Photos still supports most major RAW file formats, including DNG files. So it’s a great way to have a backup of your photos — without any change in quality.
