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Photo backup service —how best to use Evernote?


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I would like advice on using EN as a photo backup service. Is there anyone who is using EN in this way? I have read several dated discussions of this topic, but none that answered my questions.

Background: I have ~90,000 photos and am a premium user. I use a Macbook Air. I would like to store all my existing photos on EN. Also automatically backup all new photos. With a 10gb limit this will take time, but I am not in a hurry.

I do use Flickr, but there have been a few problems with flick recently, also flick does not backup RAW photos, of which I take many.

By asking, I am not trying to avoid thinking for myself. I have though of how best to do—I just want to avoid reinventing the wheel.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

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1 minute ago, Traveller1 said:

I would like advice on using EN as a photo backup service.

Which device/platform?  I use a Mac.

I can use an import folder; any files moved there are imported into Evernote and become a note.

I can use a script to automatically assign title, tags, notebook, ...

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8 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Thanks DT,

I was thinking of a folder approach. Can you explain more about a script for automatically adding "title, tags, notebook". Do you mean Automator?

 

8 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Which device/platform?  I use a Mac.

I can use an import folder; any files moved there are imported into Evernote and become a note.

I can use a script to automatically assign title, tags, notebook, ...

 

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7 minutes ago, Traveller1 said:

I was thinking of a folder approach. Can you explain more about a script for automatically adding "title, tags, notebook". Do you mean Automator?

It's actually AppleScript, something like  tell application "Evernote" to set title of theNote to .....

Evernote doesn't support folders, just Notebooks and Tags

What kind of folder structure were you thinking of?

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2 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Applescript - ok. Need to relearn.

I am thinking of a separate notebook for photo backup, with notes for each group of photos, but the 200mb limit for each note will be a problem.

 

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12 hours ago, Traveller1 said:

I am thinking of a separate notebook for photo backup, with notes for each group of photos, but the 200mb limit for each note will be a problem.

Any reason not to have single photo notes?  They can easily be grouped by tag or title.

>>The number of notes is limited to 100,000. I have 90,000+ photos. Plus 3,000 'normal' notes. So this would leave me with little room for expansion.

Good point.

It's possible to merge notes after import.  You can select the group, and click merge

Scripting can also do consolidation.


 

 
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That is an excellent point. Perhaps, auto upload and once a month I sit down and organise my EN photos.

Can you tell me a little more about how you use Applescript? Are there pre-written files somewhere or did you create your own? Assume I am a complete dunce at this.

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Just now, Traveller1 said:

That is an excellent point. Perhaps, auto upload and once a month I sit down and organise my EN photos.

Can you tell me a little more about how you use Applescript? Are there pre-written files somewhere or did you create your own? Assume I am a complete dunce at this.

I can help you with  writing scripts.  I write my own, mostly copying from examples on the internet.

I posted some documentation at 

 

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An idea for notesspacer.png191899718_ScreenShot2019-06-03at08_17_50.thumb.png.265d4a67735555dcc52d8eb162bb266b.png

I like to use a table to contain the photos
It restricts the image size, and leaves room for notes

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I just use an external hard drive for photo backup,  and Lightroom (other photo indexing apps are available) to find themes and tags.  I needed recently to find a picture of a steam engine I had taken,  and had tagged it with all sorts of keywords that didn't help me find the one picture I actually wanted.  Turns out Lightroom recognises subjects and searching for 'train' (as opposed to 'beach' or 'face') showed me thumbnails of all the railway pictures,  including that one.

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9 hours ago, Traveller1 said:

I can see the benefit, but I would prefer full size backup.

I should have been clearer. 

This has no effect on the backup photo file size
I just want a simple way to display and access the backup photo's; so I use the table, image,  notes, ...

By default, you just get a list of filenames.1182032655_ScreenShot2019-06-03at07_27_27.png.ffffd3cbe6ddbff8a20ea5ec79db08b6.png

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3 hours ago, gazumped said:

I just use an external hard drive for photo backup,  and Lightroom (other photo indexing apps are available) to find themes and tags.

I agree.  Evernote is the last place I would consider putting a raw photo collection, especially 90K worth.  Sure you can attach a raw file but you would need to include a pretty good description of the photo, or many tags or also attach a jpg so you would know what the picture is.

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5 hours ago, gazumped said:

I just use an external hard drive for photo backup, 

I use an external SSD drive for photo storage and that is synced to a cloud service for backup.  Being a Windows user I can tag the photos with things like place and person(s).  I do my best titling the photos with date - people/place/whatever.  Unfortunately Windows file tags don't make the journey to the cloud or other photo apps, so to ease access on my phone via the cloud app I use summary folders (also helps with sharing).  But I've only got about 7000 pics.  FWIW.

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Evernote is great at many things, but it is a terrible solution for photo backups.

This is not what this software was created for, and it will fight you tooth-and-nail the entire way. You won't be able to batch-edit photos, the 200MB note limit will cripple you, and quickly browsing through your photos will be agony.

I'm pretty sure there's an old thread on here somewhere where EN staff outright discourage this practice, but I can't find it for the life of me.

Use a tool that's meant for this type of backup. Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. all support automatic photo backup services.

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My experience: Organizing photos in EN makes plain and simple no sense. Yes, you can do many things with a Multitool, but none of them perfectly. And especially with photos, EN is far from being even in the range of tolerable tools. This is, you can organize all stuff in EN, but to have it organized, not to have a good photo archive maybe even of high-resolution material, ready to use or work on.

If you want to organize photos on a Mac, the Photos app is not the worst thing to use. Combined with Power Photos, you can set up several Media-Databases to work on, select photos using the intelligent album feature etc.

If you want something more like Lightroom, maybe try Graphics Converter. It is purchased software, no abo, and has powers far beyond what a Multitool like EN allows (for example batch processing for all sort of metadata, sorting and applying stuff to JPEGs and then copying this and trimming the RAWs correspondingly etc.). Your data is with the fotos, and then you can create albums based on tags, location, ranking, date, ..., export, share etc.

For Backup, I simply use iCloud with the 2TB plan for the offsite copy, plus Time Machine to my NAS.

An alternative with unlimited cloud storage and cheaper than iCloud would be Backblaze - but only if you have a large memory on your device, because it will not save network locations, only the computer itself. For a 128GB-Mac it is expensive, for a 2TB reasonable ...

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11 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

My experience: Organizing photos in EN makes plain and simple no sense. ...This is, you can organize all stuff in EN, but to have it organized, not to have a good photo archive maybe even of high-resolution material, ready to use or work on.

When it comes to digital organizing, I think EN is a great tool.
I assign tags; there's also other metdata - title, dates, ...
I add notes.  
I consolidate photos into one note - I use a table for layout  For example, photos from a trip or party.

This is more front-line access than archive and backup

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If I take my usual 10MB JPEGs, I am done with a limit of appr. 20 pics per note, table or not.

If I want more pics in an EN note, I have to downgrade quality. This creates an additional step in the workflow, and I have to set up links to the original pics for full res.

If I use my usual RAWs with 25MB/piece, or throw in a HDR-combination, a panorama ....

Yes, it can be done, but good photo software will do a better job in nearly every context.

If I want to document all the stuff that does not go into the photos metadata, I put the photos into a folder, and link it to the note. For this, Graphics Converter is good, because it uses a traditional folder-structure for the main photo catalog. I can create „smart albums“ from this stock, but the basic structure is link-able. This is one reason why I prefer it over the Photos app.

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Hmmn.  This conversation is a lot like the usual exchanges on word processing,  mind maps and spreadsheets - Evernote is fine for very basic use in various areas,  but adding menu options for the features of even one of those specialised applications would pretty much double Evernote's complexity,  and make the learning curve even steeper.  It is possible to set up a table in Evernote and do some very basic layout,  but if I want to do even semi-serious spreadsheeting,  I use Excel (and usually store the XLSX file in Evernote).  Same for Word & DOCX,  Freeplane & MM,  Lightroom & NEF etc etc.

Like @PinkElephant I would not use Evernote to catalogue pictures - Lightroom does.. everything.. you need and I already use it.  (And it has an even steeper learning curve than Evernote!)  But since I fell out with Microsoft* I've been trialling Linux,  and Lightroom doesn't 'do' Linux.  Which made me aware of a parallel world where clone-ish products are available for Windows and Linux at much less cost than Lightroom (which is rumoured to be going up this year).  Various apps like Lightzone, Darktable,  and Rawtherapee exist and I can convert to using some of those in both Windows (while I still have a device or two running that OS) and Linux (which I'm still cautiously feeling out).

TL:DR - If you need a job doing,  don't just reach for your favourite tool and try to find a way to use,  or bend it if necessary,  for that purpose.  Do some due diligence and find out what software exists out there to deal with your needs.  If the reviews mention your favourite tool,  then fine: it's in contention.  But if something else out there will do a better job,  then the choice should be clear.

*Long story - updates / security / cost / blue screens... <sigh>

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On 7/20/2019 at 8:07 AM, PinkElephant said:

If I want to document all the stuff that does not go into the photos metadata, I put the photos into a folder, and link it to the note.

My preference is to not split the items, and use Evernote for both
I sometimes have to file videos externally; they exceed the note size limit.
I put a link in an Evernote note
I also include screenshotes from the video; and we're back to photo's in Evernote

>>but the basic structure is link-able. This is one reason why I prefer it over the Photos app.

Right; another project - I can use an iCloud link, but would prefer the in-app to the Photos app
Another reason to store the photo in Evernote

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@gazumped For pretty similar reasons I switched from Win10 to MacOS this year. Linux for me is no alternative. The system maintenance to application use ratio would be too bad. I already run a Linus-based system on my Synology NAS, and I am quite happy about the fact that I rarely have to leave the GUI level to get things done.

On the Win10 I was running Lightroom 6, which is the last one time purchase that was possible. As long as a stay with my LUMIX, I can use it, when I switch, and the camera and lens profile would not be there, I would be doomed. And LR creates its own, proprietary catalogue including the development data - a fact that I miserably underestimated. Adobe is locking you in for good (their good, if I look at the pricing model), thank you ....

So I decided that on the Mac, I will stick with a piece of purchased software. After giving AfterShot 3 a chance, I decided to go for Graphics Converter. This SW is much more than a „Converter“: It is a importer, catalogue, Tagger, GPS adder, RAW developer, face recognizer (locally! No server involved ...), simple picture editor (not like PS, GIMP or Affinity Photo, but doing fine for 80% of the small modification work, including masks and layers) etc. All modifications done to a picture including development data will be written into an equal named XMB-file, which is an open format that can be read by many other programs as well.

The learning curve is steep, but manageable. There is a good handbook, and support. Mac only, but see above ...

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On 6/2/2019 at 11:20 PM, Traveller1 said:

Background: I have ~90,000 photos and am a premium user. I would like to store all my existing photos on EN.

At 90k, you have 10k left before your account caps. This is not recommended. However, a product meant for storing photos has expandable storage offered, so you can upgrade when you need more space. If each photo were 25MB (over-estimate for JPG and under-estimate for RAW, but pretend it evens out), you're currently at 2.25 TB. Evernote will scream a horrible death if you put over 2 TB of photos in it. 

On 6/2/2019 at 11:20 PM, Traveller1 said:

Also automatically backup all new photos.

Evernote cannot do this. However, pretty much every photo backup solution can.

On 6/2/2019 at 11:20 PM, Traveller1 said:

also flick does not backup RAW photos, of which I take many.

Evernote really isn't built for storing large files. I tried storing .AI, .INDD and .PSD files in it as part of my project support and it was a miserable experience. They're slow to load, slow to open, and editing and then trying to save another copy won't add it to the note. You'll have to save it somewhere else and then move it into that note. 

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On 7/21/2019 at 10:41 PM, PinkElephant said:

@gazumped For pretty similar reasons I switched from Win10 to MacOS this year. Linux for me is no alternative. The system maintenance to application use ratio would be too bad. I already run a Linus-based system on my Synology NAS, and I am quite happy about the fact that I rarely have to leave the GUI level to get things done.

On the Win10 I was running Lightroom 6, which is the last one time purchase that was possible. As long as a stay with my LUMIX, I can use it, when I switch, and the camera and lens profile would not be there, I would be doomed. And LR creates its own, proprietary catalogue including the development data - a fact that I miserably underestimated. Adobe is locking you in for good (their good, if I look at the pricing model), thank you ....

So I decided that on the Mac, I will stick with a piece of purchased software. After giving AfterShot 3 a chance, I decided to go for Graphics Converter. This SW is much more than a „Converter“: It is a importer, catalogue, Tagger, GPS adder, RAW developer, face recognizer (locally! No server involved ...), simple picture editor (not like PS, GIMP or Affinity Photo, but doing fine for 80% of the small modification work, including masks and layers) etc. All modifications done to a picture including development data will be written into an equal named XMB-file, which is an open format that can be read by many other programs as well.

The learning curve is steep, but manageable. There is a good handbook, and support. Mac only, but see above ...

OT, just for the record, 

Lightroom does not lock in, ever heard of xmp sidecars? Ever heard of the free Adobe DNG converter? Could it be that the Lightroom learning curve was just a little too steep for you?  

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My steep learning curve happened when I looked at my credit card account. The pricing policy of Adobe may be fine if you are a professional, using that stuff the whole year, and the pricing is for sure fine when you are holding Adobe shares.

If you are taking some pictures now and then, and want to get some work done on them when you have the time, I think it is not worth what they are charging. And since they discontinued any alternative you could buy instead of rent (even with reduced features, nothing for sale at Adobe), my learning curve regarding Adobe programs has ended.

You can tell me all the marvels I am missing, and I will just ask you „how much“ ...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Late to this but ... but as others have written, I would never use Evernote for backing up photos.

A few alternatives depending on your circumstances, to me the important things are two: if it's not automatic it's not backup and there has to be one off-site copy.

  • I'm not using it myself but one of the simplest solutions is probably Backblaze. 
  • If you have storage space available somewhere, Arc or ChronoSync might be an alternative

My personal backup solution involves two external disks + two Synology NAS machines (one offsite), I have at least four copies of all photos. If you happen to have a Synology NAS then you probably have most of the tools you need there.

For those who doesn't like Adobes solutions for editing/organizing there are many alternatives depending on what you want to do. Professional level: Capture One. Entusiast: Luminar, DxO Photolab, On1, etc. If you mainly want to organize photos "manually" then I would check out Lyn. For editing the most popular seem to be the programs from Affinity and Pixelmator, depending on what you want to do Acorn might be an alternative.

If you want to have an iOS + macOS solution for editing & organizing the only real alternative currently is Lightroom (cloud or classic version) but that might change with the release of iOS 13.

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