Photo storage option for cell phone pictures? Reader Q+A. at Cool Mom Tech

Sunday 27 January

Photo storage option for cell phone pictures? Reader Q+A.

Shutterfly makes photo management and storage easy - right from your phone!

Q: With all your evaluations and explorations, have you found a great place for on-line storage of cell phone pictures? A place where you can upload and then invite friends and family to view? - Gloria

Hi Gloria, great question! I have often asked myself the same thing when it comes to storing, sharing (and even printing) the 2,000+ photos I have on my iPhone. While there are so many cloud storage options that we've covered on the site - everything from Dropbox to Google Drive to SugarSync - I always come back to my tried and true Shutterfly app for everything related to my cherished photos.

The three cloud services mentioned do a great job of storing, especially if you have thouands of photos, but they're not as user-friendly when it comes to sharing, especially with family members who aren't as tech savvy. Printing is not an option at all.

Shutterfly really does it all, enabling you to store unlimited photos to your account, share albums, order very good quality prints (and essentially any item you'd want to have a photo printed onto), all directly from the app. Any and all activity that occurs on the app is reflected on your online Shutterfly account as well.

What's even better is that the Shutterfly app for iPhone just released a major 2.0 update, which offers a complete overhaul in look, feel and usability. Any time you log into the app and click on "Upload," the app recognizes which pictures are new and within a few taps, they're being securely saved to your account. That just makes it so much easier than other services where you have to access your camera roll and literally tap which pictures you want to save - definitely not a time saver if you have hundreds to pick from. However if you're an Android or Windows user, stick with the website for now; hopefully an app is coming out for you soon, too.

I absolutely cherish all the photos I have on my phone and am really thankful to have a service like Shutterfly to keep them safe and secure. -Jeana

The Shutterfly app is available for free on iTunes.

Find More: Apps apps and more apps, Apps for iOS, Ask Cool Mom Tech, Free or close to it, Helpful Services, Photography 2.0, Storing and Sharing

3 Comments

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sarah | January 28, 2013 9:11 AM | Reply

If you are an android user, the easiest way to back up your photos is through google+; I don't even use g+ except for this. I have it set to sync all new photos while charging, so every night all my new photos automatically upload to my g+ account into a private album. from there I can share as much or as little as a like. It's not perfect but it's automatic and easy!

Jrseygirl in VA | January 28, 2013 4:45 PM | Reply

Unfortunately, or at least last time I checked, Shutterfly does not allow you to download your pictures from there to your computer to edit them. I have Photoshop on my computer to do just that. I cannot seem to make edits on my small iphone screen. I would much rather download them to my computer but I have been having major issues with that as I use a PC not a Mac.

Jrseygirl in VA

Idaho Jill replied to comment from sarah | February 1, 2013 2:27 PM | Reply

Thanks for the tip Sarah - I had no idea about this; will definitely check it out this weekend.

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