INDIANAPOLIS — Our phones hold a lot of pictures, and many of those memories are important to us.
That is why Jodi Bondy, a professional photo organizer, says it is important to protect your pictures.
"We want to remember the giggles, the laughs, the tears," Bondy said.
Bondy suggests using the 321-backup system for your photos.
That means there are three copies of your photo — two copies saved two different ways and one more copy offsite.
"All three copies should not be in your own home," Bondy said, "because if something happens to your home, now all three copies are gone."
One format can be a physical print.
Another option is a storage drive. Just keep in mind storage drives can work differently.
For example, a hard drive has moving parts inside and lasts three to five years.
Solid-state drives are solid, without moving parts, and last up to a decade.
"(What) I'm going to now is the solid-state hard drives, which are much smaller, but they don't have any moving parts. So, if you do happen to drop it, you don't have to run the risk of, 'oh my gosh, I just ruined it,'" Bondy said.
A third format could be the cloud or on an online storage service.
Just keep in mind if it's free storage, it's probably free for a reason.
"They're a company. They're going to run things the way they need to, and so you have to stay up on what they're doing," Bondy said.
That means skimming terms and conditions for words like license, photo, permission and content to see if platforms can use or share your pictures.
If possible, Bondy suggests owning your cloud storage.
To stay on track, she suggests setting reminders to delete unwanted photos and to backup the photos you do want around for years to come.