My family photo management solution
A quick summary of how I’m currently managing our family photos.
My Objectives
What I wanted:
✅ Let's us choose which photos are backed-up to a shared family photo library we can both access
✅ Lets us favourite photos on any device
✅ Renames files to preserve the date taken in the filename itself
✅ Identifies and removes duplicate photos
✅ Without any reduction in the quality of the photos
✅ As cheap or free as possible
What I did not want:
❌ Duplicate photos
The Solution
Where do we want to show these photos?
- Social media
- Collect photos into albums to share with family through a semi-public link (e.g. sharing holiday pictures)
- Show on TV screensaver
- Digital photo frames
- Our yearly photo book
- Our custom framed wall prints
Who’s done this before?
What tools are already available?
- SlideBox
- Google Picasa
- OnceUpon
- Complicated and technical:
As a picture
![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/8gq8nh19qAlrHerJ-gwUpjsMVYBWicKnYJjbyiNitLoKaO8K1WkxzzG0Rkn6h_zt6gxDsOoQxBb5x2_LQC239wbZZ0JynQFscWjo8tie0msQfJmqcCNUEdkQGPVtp3ztW0b8ZvbPn-m505KA)
Current solution
Routines
- Every month on the 1st: Use SlideBox to sort photos and Apple Shortcuts to convert any HEIC to JPG and auto-upload to Dropbox
- Every month on the 1st: Favourite photos in the collection
- Every October on the 1st: Finalise yearbook in OnceUpon app
- Every October on the 25th: Send the OnceUpon yearbook for print using the Halloween discount (~25% off)
- Every January on the last Sunday: Backup photos to external hard drive and delete already backed up photos from mobiles
Process
- Set iPhone to Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible = Yes
- Take photos on our phones (iPhone/Android)
- Use SlideBox to sort photos into folders on our phones either:
- "Memories", which should be backed-up and protected
- "Stuff", which could include screenshots, legal documents, and/or receipts that can be safely ignored in this process
- For Cain's iPhone:
- Apple Shortcuts will regularly upload any new "Memories" photos to Dropbox with the photos' original names and quality
- Convert all iPhone HEIC photos to JPG
- Rename all photos to follow YYYY-MM-DD format and use Apple Shortcuts to upload to Dropbox
- Apple Shortcut is configured to not replace any existing files
- Same-named files will be renamed YYYY-MM-DD (1) and so on to avoid overwriting