A genuinely independent second copy means it doesn’t depend on the same account, the same device, or the same company as your main backup — for example, cloud backup plus a downloaded copy on your own external drive.
What you need
- Your most irreplaceable photos identified (not necessarily your whole library)
- An external drive, or a second, unrelated cloud account
- An hour or two to set this up once, plus an occasional repeat
Why cloud backup alone isn’t enough
Cloud backup alone protects against losing or damaging a device, but not against losing access to the account itself, or the provider having an outage or a policy change. A second, independent copy covers that gap.
How to keep a second, independent copy
- Identify your genuinely irreplaceable photos. You likely don’t need to duplicate everything — start with the photos you truly couldn’t replace: family photos, photos of people who’ve passed away, milestone events.
- Choose a second location that’s meaningfully different from your main backup. An external drive stored at home (or better, at a different location) is independent of your cloud account. A second, different cloud provider is independent of your main one going down or locking you out.
- Download or copy the photos to that second location. Export from your main service, or copy directly from your device, onto the external drive or into the second account.
- Store the copy somewhere it won’t share a fate with the original. If it’s a physical drive, ideally keep it somewhere other than right next to your main computer or phone, so a single event (theft, fire, flood) can’t take out both at once.
- Set a reminder to refresh this copy periodically. Every few months, or after major events (a holiday, a new baby), update the second copy so it doesn’t fall too far behind your main library.
Check the second copy is genuinely separate
You should be able to name specifically where your second copy lives, and roughly how current it is. If you can answer both, you have a real independent backup, not just an assumption that one exists.
If you’re not sure what counts as independent
If keeping a full second copy feels like too much, even a smaller subset — your absolute must-keep photos — done properly is far better than an ambitious plan that never gets started.
Next step
For the physical photos in your collection, it’s also worth checking your backup actually covers video, not just still photos — see Check your backup covers videos as well as photos.
Sources and date checked
General backup-strategy guidance based on standard advice for avoiding a single point of failure; not tied to a specific product. Checked 22 September 2026.