Upload My Phone Photo Gallery to Windows Cloud

The internet was always supposed to give united states of america a hassle-free style to store and manage our stuff — just in practice, even storing photos and videos has remained a massive headache. Just as services like Apple's Photo Stream take popularized the power of deject storage, they have also revealed its limitations. Huge RAW image sizes, indistinguishable photos, 1080p videos, and years of library database bloat were all good reasons to just exit the photos sitting on your hard drive — and pray the drive didn't end working before you backed it all up.

But as the toll of storage has fallen, and broadband access has go more pervasive, more and more companies are competing to make the deject the default place to store your memories. For a few dollars a month and a few hours of upload time, y'all get features unavailable on near gratis desktop photograph-editing software — and the peace of mind that comes with a cloud backup. These aren't only for pros lugging effectually DSLRs, either: many of these services are fantastic options for even the nearly casual photographers looking to back up the photos from your phone. And they're all better than Facebook for organizing, managing, and even just storing all your shots. And so which app is the best for storing and accessing all your media from any device?

We'll accept you through 10 peak services, from household names like Dropbox to newcomers like Everpix, highlighting each service'southward all-time features while calling out any bargain-breakers along the mode. All of these services "work," just depending on what you're looking for (e.yard. RAW support, a search bar, and even adaptive mobile video streaming) one option might exist all-time for you lot. But don't worry, we'll list our favorites, as well equally a chart at the bottom of the folio for breakdowns of key features and details, compared app by app.

Mucilaginous TOC engaged! Practice not remove this!

iCloud Photo Stream

iCloud Photograph Stream

Apple's Photo Stream feature is, similar most software made by Apple, built for the average person to utilise. It'due south also congenital for iLifers — people who own iPads, iPhones, and Macs and prefer apps to websites. If you're ane of these people, Photo Stream offers a seamless but limited solution to photograph storage and syncing.

More of a photo "syncing" tool than a total-blown storage solution

Photo Stream takes the photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac and syncs them across all three platforms (there is limited Windows functionality via a free command panel). Photograph Stream effectively delivers an always-up-to-date timeline of your 1,000 near recent photos, no matter which device y'all're using. You can share photos using Shared Photo Stream to friends with iOS devices, or create a web-based photo gallery anyone can look at. It accepts RAW images, which pros will appreciate, but information technology doesn't support video.

While Photo Stream only syncs the most recent 1,000 photos between your devices, iPhoto for Mac, which is tied to Photograph Stream, holds on to every photo y'all e'er take on your iPhone. It'south a quick way to automatically back upwardly the photos on your iPhone, only is far from a cloud-storage service for your stuff. Since iOS doesn't (yet) let background syncing for tertiary-political party apps, Photo Stream is the simply way to instantly upload your photos in the background without having to recollect to practice so.

Photo Stream works well, but dissimilar every other competitor listed hither, there'due south no "cloud" photo backup, no way to view all your photos except on your personal Mac, no video support, and no apps for not-Apple platforms — including the web. It's more of a photograph "syncing" tool than a full-diddled storage solution.

Dropbox

Dropbox

Later on acquiring web photo-service Snapjoy back in December, Dropbox rolled out a new "photos tab" that acts as a timeline of every single photograph you've uploaded. Information technology's a neat way to visualize all the photos you've already stored on Dropbox, and for the commencement fourth dimension information technology's made the service wait like a real solution for our photo storage woes. You can create albums, share them with friends, and view everything in "Windows Explorer" view if you'd rather drill downwardly into folders.

Dropbox was built first on desktops and its mobile photos experience can exist dreadfully slow

Where an app similar Loom focuses most on its mobile experience, Dropbox was built showtime on desktops and its mobile photos experience can be dreadfully tedious — especially on older devices — and doesn't offer much in terms of options. Additionally, Dropbox loads all your photos in full resolution, which means they're ho-hum to open up and take up much more infinite if you do decide to save whatever. While you lot can share a choice of photos from your phone, in that location's no anthology support, no "relieve for offline" if you want to use Dropbox instead of your Camera Roll, and no photo editing. Finally, Dropbox just lets yous stream the first fifteen minutes of whatsoever video you've uploaded, which could be a turnoff for some potential users.

If you're already a Dropbox diehard, information technology'due south the easy winner here. The company seems expressionless-set on crafting an splendid photo storage service, and unlike your boilerplate startup, Dropbox isn't going anywhere, which offers some serious peace of heed. Plus it offers automatic image backup on your devices with Camera Upload. Notwithstanding for those who want a dedicated photo-storage service with a squad of employees working solely on photos, it's worth trying out another options.

Everpix

Everpix

Everpix has the fastest, sleekest interface of any app we tried. It embraces the inherent construction of your photo library, automatically grouping items into events by appointment, time, and even by the content of your photos (think "animals").

Everpix tries to hook you with nostalgia

Free users can see every photo they've taken for the past twelvemonth, and for $four.99 a month or $49 a yr, you tin upload every photo you lot've ever taken onto Everpix'due south servers. (Y'all can get some free upgrades easily by connecting your web and iOS accounts, for example, and by uploading photos from your computer.) Photos tin can exist viewed on the web or on the iOS app; Everpix has likewise released a limited Android app for automatically uploading photos, with a more fully featured app on the way. Similar Loom, Everpix generates smaller versions of each photograph for each device y'all're using, which ways you lot tin can save a ton of local storage space.

Everpix tries to hook you with nostalgia, borrowing a page from Timehop. Each day, the service volition send you a "flashback" of photos from a twelvemonth ago. You tin also trade photos inside the service using "photo mail," which volition add specific pictures to a friend's Everpix drove automatically. Its website loads incredibly chop-chop, and offers several views for browsing your photos, including a gorgeous timeline that loads photos in reverse chronological order as yous scroll, and a view that only shows photos it has imported from Instagram or Facebook. Yet, at that place's no style to create albums online — you lot tin can only view photos past date, by source (folders y'all've synced from your computer) or using Highlights, a drove of photos that Everpix thinks are your all-time.

Everpix is barely ii years old, and it shows in the feature fix: there's no editing, no video, and no powerful browsing capabilities. But while the service remains under construction, the features it has congenital so far are stone-solid and a delight to utilize. Everpix might not accept the proper noun recognition that some of its peers do — however — but information technology'south beautifully designed and loaded with potential.

Picturelife

Picturelife

Picturelife is a comprehensive and speedy service for uploading all the photos and videos on your Mac and iOS devices to the cloud. It pulls in both from your various devices, and fifty-fifty services similar Facebook and Instagram, making them accessible via mobile apps and a spider web interface.

While it's not the most elegant or simple service of the bunch, it might have the about complete characteristic ready, and it even syncs seamlessly with your existing iPhoto library. It lets you view everything yous've uploaded in one timeline, create albums, tag faces in your photos, meet a map filled with photos you lot've taken, and more, simply in that location's oddly no style to view photos from i source. Whereas other services let yous easily see which photos came from your iPhone and which photos came from your Mac, Picturelife forces yous to see it all.

Perhaps the best approximation of a desktop photo library

Fortunately, Picturelife'south search functionality is excellent, providing at least an indirect road toward separating different sources. You tin search for "pictures taken by an iPhone v," "pictures from 2008 taken with people," "pictures tagged equally 'Family,'" and fifty-fifty "Pictures in New York in Wintertime." It doesn't always work as expected, but the feature is still miles ahead of most other services' search functionality. Picturelife is powerful — peradventure the best approximation of a desktop photo library — but it's not always logical.

Loom

Loom

Loom is an app for Mac and iOS built to store all your photos and sync them between every device you own. The service bills itself every bit the "infinite camera whorl," an online storage solution that's part Dropbox, role Photograph Stream. It aims to replicate your photo library on the spider web, without adding as well many additional bells and whistles.

Loom works groovy as a Photograph Stream replacement

Uploaded photos are instantly accessible from the web, as well every bit from the visitor'south iOS app. On Mac, you tin can choose specific "sources" to upload, or you can only drop photos in a Loom folder. Like with Dropbox, photos you upload show upward immediately on your other devices. Perhaps Loom's about useful feature is that it frees up storage on your mobile devices by creating different versions of your photos for each screen size you'll be using. Then, Loom caches photos you often view on your device then you can browse them even while yous're flying or on the subway. In grand full, Loom tin can free up more than 90 per centum of the storage previously reserved for photos and videos on your iPhone or iPad, according to company founder Jan Senderek, while acting a lot like the default iOS Photos app.

Loom works neat every bit a Photo Stream replacement and as an online storage site for the photos on your Mac, but it offers very few additional features, like any form of search or editing. Sharing options are as well incredibly rudimentary, and since streaming video is a lot more complicated than compressing photos, Loom won't support viewing video for some other few weeks, at least.

Flickr

Flickr

When Marissa Mayer took over as Yahoo'south CEO, the internet responded with a plea: make Flickr crawly again. Ten months later on, Mayer responded with a redesigned site, full-width photos, and a whopping 1TB of free storage. It came on the heels of a well-received update to the iOS app that combined excellent filters and a redesigned photo feed to make the mobile experience more like Instagram. A more than recent update to the app gives you the ability to customize your filters, and adds a new suite of pro editing tools.

Flickr remains a acme-notch experience for serious photographers

Flickr remains a meridian-notch feel for serious photographers. It stores images at multiple resolutions, offers fine-grained privacy controls, and has a public API that integrates the service into dozens of third-party apps. It's fifty-fifty begun attracting back some of the users who abandoned it in recent years as the service barbarous into neglect; those users are helping to recapture some of the social experience that fabricated Flickr an early leader in photo sharing. Tap the globe icon inside the app, for example, and Flickr will show you popular photos both around the globe and taken close to your location — a smart and delightful manner of using Flickr's huge photo library for the benefit of its users.

At that place are still some gaps: Flickr'southward user interface feels sluggish and dated compared to some of its competitors, and the company's app for uploading photos from the desktop hasn't been updated since 2009. There's also the fact that video uploads are capped at 1GB. Still, it'south hard to shake the feeling that Flickr is making a comeback.

SkyDrive

SkyDrive

Microsoft'southward SkyDrive is kind of similar Windows Explorer, but on the spider web. It offers a solid 7GB of costless storage for all files, photos included. Pictures can be sorted into albums, played every bit a slideshow, or even embedded on third-party websites. Private photos go a cute lightbox display — primal metadata is shown in an elegant sidebar consummate with people tags, sharing options, and a Bing map showing where the flick was taken. In another overnice touch, anthology covers are animated, slowly cycling through their contents to help y'all pick the right album a trivial more than easily. Microsoft has released no-frills but functional apps for Android and iOS; if you take a Windows Phone, the SkyDrive app will let you auto-upload your pictures. SkyDrive likewise offers desktop apps for Windows and Mac.

Feels like it's built for storing files, non photos

SkyDrive's biggest drawback compared to its competitors is that it feels similar it's built for storing files, not photos. You can't so much as crop a picture using SkyDrive, never mind adding a filter or a whimsical sticker or caption. For bones photograph storage, SkyDrive is a great, free choice — but for anything else, you'll likely desire to look elsewhere.

Stream Nation

Stream Nation

Stream Nation is a deject storage and streaming service for photos and videos, with the emphasis on videos. Stream Nation has large potential and lots of features to boot, but it doesn't accept the design sense and open-mindedness to be your storage and streaming solution just yet.

Enough of features, but more than focused on videos than on photos

When you lot first log in to Stream Nation, you have the option to import files from your computer, your mobile device, the spider web, your Dropbox, and in an interesting plow, from YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sites. Once some of your content is uploaded, the service transcodes it to various formats and so you can access it on the go using an iOS device. Photos and videos download and stream quickly on mobile, while taking advantage of Netflix-esque adaptive streaming to ensure smooth playback. Features similar the power to tag content, check the resolution of a video yous're watching, and salvage content for offline viewing on mobile will please power users. Plus, all of your content is backed upwardly non but to Stream Nation, but also to Amazon servers, which provides some welcome peace of mind.

Stream Nation has plenty of features, but feels more focused on videos than on photos. The service shows a lot of potential, but for now feels but half-baked.

Google+ Photos

Google+ Photos

In an attempt to jumpstart its nascent social network, Google has poured tons of resources into Google+ Photos. The visitor gives you 15GB of space for free, to be shared beyond Gmail, Drive, and Google+. That'due south a lot of complimentary storage, and if you choose to upload your photos at "standard size" (2,048 pixels wide) Google won't count it against your total amount of available space. (Yous can easily accept reward of this feature by turning on the auto-upload feature on your Android or iOS device.) Unlike nearly of its peers, Google+ also accepts and displays RAW images. If you run out of free storage, Google will sell you lot upwardly to 16TB more than. (Prices offset at $4.99 for 100GB a month and go up to $799.99 a month for 16TB.)

Google is more than interested in y'all sharing your photos than just storing them

Google's acquisition of Nik Software has resulted in a built-in photo-editing suite that lets you conform colors, alter the exposure, acuminate the image, apply Instagram-like filters, or decorate your pic with googly eyes and tiaras. There'south as well an "automobile awesome" feature that performs a multifariousness of tricks, the best of which makes a GIF out of related images. The results are sometimes inconsistent, but when information technology works, it'southward delightful — and something no one else is doing.

The downside of using Google+ as a photo platform is that it'due south built into Google+. It's always a bit nervus-racking to upload all your personal photos to a social network, no matter how granular the privacy controls are. Google is more interested in you sharing your photos than simply storing them, and the network's heavily promoted circles are notwithstanding way more trouble to manage than the company will admit. Even so, Google+ is one of the well-nigh robust cross-platform photograph solutions available.

SmugMug

SmugMug

Long a favorite of professional and semi-pro photographers, SmugMug refreshed its look concluding month to remove visual ataxia and let photographers to customize their portfolios more easily. Photographers can at present choose from 24 clean, elegant themes, and irresolute them up is equally easy as clicking a button. Customization options don't cease at that place, either — the company has created a gear up of powerful tools that let y'all do everything from inserting a custom logo to adjusting the margins of your page.

Unlike the other services reviewed hither, SmugMug doesn't have a free tier. Afterward a 14-24-hour interval trial, you'll have to pay $40 a year for a basic plan and as much as $300 if you plan to sell your photos directly through the site. And if you desire to upload files in RAW, or upload any file bigger than 50MB, you lot'll need to purchase a separate SmugVault subscription to handle the storage. It'll likely simply cost you another few dollars a month, depending on how much storage you need, but it feels similar a inexpensive motility for a site that caters to professionals and the huge photos they take.

It's a site created by professionals, for professionals

SmugMug offers Camera Awesome on iOS: an app that comes with a variety of filters and editing tools, with some free and others paid. On Android, y'all'll find an official SmugMug app that offers a fuller feel. If SmugMug feels a bit less social than some of its peers, that'due south by design: this is a site created past professionals, for professionals. But if the main thing you demand is a great-looking way to showcase your photos on the web — and don't heed paying for it — SmugMug is worth a look.

The Verdict

The Verdict

Power user choice: Picturelife
Boilerplate user option: Everpix
Free choice: Google+

Are y'all a casual photographer looking for inexpensive, easy, space storage? Or are you lot more than serious, seeking a professional person-grade feature set for editing, displaying, and even selling your work? How you answer that question will help yous decide which photograph-storage solution is for you. Our favorites were a couple of relative newcomers: Picturelife, which boasts the most consummate feature set of the services nosotros looked at; and Everpix, which earned height marks for its design, ease of utilise, and emphasis on helping yous really enjoy all the photos you've taken. Both are relatively cheap; Everpix will basically give you a costless two-year trial just for downloading the desktop app, uploading some photos, and linking it to your smartphone.

While information technology'due south not perfect, cloud storage is finally a reality

They're non perfect: Picturelife'southward pattern leaves much to be desired, and Everpix has some painful feature gaps, starting with its disability to brandish videos or RAW files. But they're also young, and iterating at a rapid clip. Other photographers will want to closely evaluate Google+ and Flickr, which cater to those who want more fine-grained controls for editing photos, creating albums, and sharing them. But what you lot gain in features with those services you lose in speed and ease of use. In that location's no all-encompassing photo and video storage service quite still.

Ultimately, storing and managing a large photo library notwithstanding takes way more work than information technology should. But while it's not perfect, deject storage is finally a reality. Backing upward your photos will bring yous real peace of mind, and your options are getting meliorate all the time.

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Source: https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/29/4560364/best-cloud-storage-photo-apps

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