UKH

So Flickr keeps threatening to delete my photos because I've not got Flickr Pro and I've got more than the limit for the free service. I could sign up to Flickr Pro but I could also sign up to one of the many other Photo Sites.

What does everyone else use?

I don't even take many photos any more, I'm mostly just concerned about having safe (and hopefully cheap!) storage for what I've got.

Biggest problem for Fickr for me is that it won't accept raw files, so I use it as a "last resort" backup, if my local backups fail, at least I have a jpg. It's also a bit messy separating backups from shots you are publishing. If you just use jpg it's a good option

I have an Adobe CC subscription. I have about a Tb of photo's stored on an external hard drive but Adobe allows these (not the raws) to be sync'd to cloud allowing me to view/edit from any device connected to the tinernet.

I also then do weekly back ups onto 2 other hard disks one located at home the other at work. I have a Flickr account but just use this for public sharing of my fav photos. I used to use Backblaze but moved to hard drives as my internet connection was too slow.

For you I think it depends on what you want to achieve...

1. Personal viewing your photos & sharing with friends? (Do you have Amazon prime as this is included)

2. Personal viewing your photos and sharing with the public/friends? (As Flickr but requires payment?)

3. Just back up? (Amazon Prime, Hard drive or Backblaze for example)

Lots of other options as well......

I think you will find that Adobe actually stores the RAW files in the cloud if you use Lightroom (rather than Lightroom classic).

Hi. I think you'll find there's actually (at least) 2 ways to do it...

1. As you say store raws in the cloud using CC, which has benefits but if you have lots of files you'll quickly go above the max storage of the photography plan and have to pay extra. 

2. Use the desktop version and sync your collections to the cloud. This stores a jpeg preview in the cloud which is editable but does not have a resolution (but is fine for most editing tasks but not a fine assessment of focus) of the original file. 

I've been using the free version since 2007 when the free version only allowed 100 images to be uploaded. I'm way over the moon with being able to show off up to 1,000 images to the world with an average view count of three. 😀

Using Flickr as an online storage never crossed my mind simply because I refuse to pay anybody and more importantly I don't want anybody to hold power over my stuff by either deliberately or accidentally deleting my stuff.

And if anybody is interested in my little snaps, have at it. 😂

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the1lemming/

No sure if you use Microsoft but M365 Home Premium gives you 1TB of cloud storage with OneDrive and you also get 5 other licenses to share with "friends and family" so essentially you have 6TB of cloud storage. Its an annual subscription model and whilst OneDrive isn't strictly a back up, it is reassuring to know that all your RAWS and/or JPEGS are in the cloud. You can also automatically upload your phone camera roll to OneDrive as well and sharing with other is easy. You also get all the other benefits of Word, PowerPoint Excel etc.

External HD?

I've had a free account since 2005. I started getting emails about removing photos a month ago. Two weeks ago I bought a 2 year pro subscription. Last night all but ten of my photos were removed. They've been pretty quick in responding to my email but no resolution as yet, and they've said they may not be able to restore them.

I have them backed up elsewhere so I haven't lost them but it's a poor show. I use it for sharing private albums, I mainly went the pro route as I wanted a Smugmug page. This has dented my confidence in them somewhat.   

You can use Google Drive or another cloud storage server like pCloud. Unlike Google Photos Drive doesn't process your files to reduce their size.

You know I think I'm coming to the conclusion that this might be the way to do it.

Then if I want to share stuff I can use something like this - https://peppe8o.com/self-hosted-web-photo-organizer-with-photoprism-and-ras.... I already run a raspberry pi to log temperature and humidity readings in my greenhouse so would just make some more use of that.

Well that's somewhat alarming. I've just made a data request to Flickr to get a dump of all my data so I can more easily download it all. Fingers crossed they don't delete it in the meantime!

I've had a bit of back and forth dialogue with Flickr support since. Fair play, they actually do respond in a human way, as opposed to automated messages. I never comm'd with the same person twice, but it all joined up. The short version is that there was some glitch with the way my images were cached, associated with my shift to a pro account during the time I was receiving warnings about having too many private photos for a free account. Anyway all my images/albums have reappeared and normal service has resumed. 

I'm not entirely convinced by their responses but that the issue has been resolved and that they emailed personally has restored my confidence.