Most couples don’t think about how to safely store their wedding photos until the “gallery expiration” email from their photographer arrives. 🙂 Worse, some forget to download or do, and misplace them or have a hard drive failure. While I do keep my couples images as long as possible, it is important to take charge of your digital assets. Follow this plan and you won’t ever be wondering where your wedding and other important photos are!
3 Steps to Safely Store Wedding Photos
Before copying files to multiple locations, verify you have a good, high resolution and complete collection to start. Compare the numbers in your photographer’s gallery and open random files to ensure they are not corrupt.
Hard Drive #1 – Local
#1 Get a flash drive or an external SSD (solid state drive) from a reputable manufacturer. Copy the files to the drive and label it. (Verify they copied well buy opening up files and counting. I use Chronosync for this.)
Getting a larger drive than you need now, at least double the space, is a good idea. The cost of drives and space will go down over time. You will eventually upgrade the drive so you don’t need to buy lots of extra space. I prefer physically larger drives so they are not as easy to misplace like keychain flash drives. Keep this drive in the fire safe in your home. (Tip: I recommend getting the most current connectivity (USB-C in 2025) to ensure it will be years before you’ll need to transfer the data. Drive speed is less important for storage.) For larger capacity, I’d recommend this at the moment.
Combine existing photos and start your family archive! Add new files as often as you can and need to.
Hard Drive #2 – Off Site
#2 Make a copy on another device (can be identical to #1). Store it in a bank box or at a friend’s place or secondary location. Once a year or more often if you can, add any new files in. Or start a new drive when near full. If you organize by year it will be as simple as dragging the folder over. (For more complex copying and verification, I recommend ChronoSync for Mac users.)
Online Storage #3
#3 Keep a copy in online storage. (As long as the provider isn’t reducing file sizes!) You may already have space you can use in Amazon Prime or another back-up service. Back-up to this location often so you will have two current locations at any given time.
Why Not Store Wedding Photos Separately?
By using the drives for new photos as well, you will be alerted to a possible drive failure much faster than if you just make copies and leave them be. While I do believe a good solid state will be fine for years in a climate controlled bank box or firesafe, it is important to periodically check on drives and plan to replace them every 5-10 years. Consider your wedding to be the starting point of a new family’s history. Once you set up good digital photo storage habits, you’ll create an archive over time. To maintain it, you will need to plan to upgrade the drives every 5-10 years or if you reach capacity.
How Long Can I Safely Store the Files on a Hard Drive?
There are too many factors to say exactly how long is safe. It will depend on the drive quality, type (HDD or SSD) how it was used, how it was stored and maybe just luck. Protect your drives from extreme temperature, magnets, static and dropping/damaging them.
Can drive fail after a few years? Yes. Can they also last decades? Yes. This is why I recommend having multiple copies, checking on them as you update them (several times a year) and then upgrading to a newer, larger drive as needed or every 5-10 years. In ideal conditions, a drive can last much longer.
More than likely though, there will be a new computer interface or speed enhancement that would warrant the upgrade. Remember Firewire anyone? My current computer from 2023 still has 2 early generation USB ports. However, my next computer will only have USB-C. (But there are adapters should you have an older drive you need to access.)
What If My Drive is Acting Strange, Fails or Won’t Turn on?
If you see signs of file damage, slow transfer times, replace the drive. It is not worth the risk. There is software to check for drive health. All Macs include Disk Utility which you can use to check a drive’s health and perform other tasks. I don’t have a PC, but there are similar programs. There are also companies who offer data recovery services.
If your drive won’t turn on and it is in an enclosure, it may be that the power supply is broken or damaged. Your data may be fine. I’d bring it to a computer store (unless you are comfortable doing it yourself) and have them remove the drive. There are inexpensive SSD and HDD enclosures you can buy to see if the data is still fine. If that data isn’t fine, be thankful you have more copies and simply buy a new drive. (And if you don’t have copies, try a data recovery service.)
What If I Can’t Find the Power Cord for My Hard Drive?
It is best practice to store the power and other cables with your drive(s). However, if you can’t find it, don’t worry. SSD external drives only need a data transfer cable (USB or C cable) which you can easily order on Amazon. You can also buy adapters for older connectors, like USB, Firewire to USB-C. However, it can be hard to find the right older HDD drive power supplies.
It may just be easier to remove the drive! (I’d bring it to a computer store unless you are comfortable doing it yourself.) Buy a HDD drive enclosure. The last one I bought was this. And I recommend keeping any bare drives in cases like these to prevent damage and static. They also sell portable ones with the rounded edges, but I don’t like them because they are hard to get into.
What Are More Ways to Ensure Our Digital Wedding Photos Last?
Aside from physical local/offsite and online copies of your digital wedding photos, making prints and albums is a great idea. Printing the entire collection of digital images may be cost and space prohibitive for you. However, considering printing a favorites collection in 4×6 or 5×7 format. There are slip in albums or storage boxes that can be customized and embossed or just kept plain. Just be sure they are archival.
Color c-print photographs can start to fade in as little as 20 years, even in dark storage. Of course, if you keep track of your wedding digital files, you can always reprint them. You can also invest in silver gelatin prints, even from digital files, as they can last 250 years. Even archival inkjet prints in proper storage can last up to 200 years.
Albums are another way to enjoy and share your wedding story. (To learn more about my album options, see my album guide.)
In Summary
Best Practices For Safely Keeping Your Wedding Photos Safe:
- Buy quality drives. (I recommend SSD drives. Start with double the capacity of your current data or 500GB.)
- Every 3-6 months, access your off site drive and add new data. You’ll be testing out the drive to make sure it still works at the same time. (Once a year may be ok, but that is riskier but better than nothing. Or update it more often if you can!)
- Store in stable temperature and humidity. (50-90 F) Be careful of magnets and static. Avoid basements and attics.
- When near full, buy a new larger/faster drive and transfer the files. Ideally every 5-10 years. This keep failure risk low and keep the connector (like USB-C) current to your computer.
- Redundancy is more important than perfection. I’d rather you have an extra copy and store it somewhere less ideal or access it infrequently than having no additional copies.
- In addition to online and physical digital storage, make archival prints and albums.
