When you inherit photos from someone else’s device or computer, start by making a safe copy of everything exactly as you received it, before you begin sorting or organising, so you always have an untouched backup of the original collection to fall back on.
What you need
- The inherited device, drive, or computer
- A separate storage location to copy everything to first
- Time, since inherited collections are often unsorted and can be large
Don’t sort on the original device
Resist the temptation to start organising directly on the original device — copy everything to a new location first, so any mistakes during sorting don’t risk the only copy of these photos. If the device is old or unreliable, prioritise getting a full copy off it as soon as possible, since failing hardware can become unreadable without warning.
How to bring inherited photos in
- Connect the inherited device or drive to a computer, using a cable or card reader if needed.
- Copy every photo and video file from the device to a new folder on your computer or an external drive, keeping the original folder structure intact for this first copy.
- Once you have a safe copy, make a second backup of that copy in a different location, so you have two independent copies before you touch anything further.
- Only now start working through the collection: sort by decade or event, remove obvious duplicates, and begin identifying people if you can.
- If the collection includes photos you don’t recognise or can’t identify, keep them rather than discarding them — other family members may recognise people or places you don’t.
- Once organised, merge the collection into your main family photo library, following your existing folder or album structure.
Check nothing was missed
Check that your two independent backups both contain the full original collection before you make any changes to the working copy. Confirm the file count roughly matches what you’d expect from browsing the original device, to catch any files that might not have copied successfully.
If the device or drive won’t connect
If the inherited device is very old or damaged and won’t connect normally, a local computer repair shop or data recovery service can often retrieve files that you can’t access yourself — it’s worth getting a quote before assuming the photos are unrecoverable. If the collection is very large and disorganised, treat it the same as any huge unsorted folder: work through it in manageable batches rather than all at once.
Next step
Once the inherited collection is safely copied and organised, merging it into your existing family timeline or folder structure brings it together with the rest of your family’s photo history.
Sources and date checked
Researched from general published guidance on data recovery and photo collection preservation, not a hands-on test performed for this article. Date checked: 22 September 2026.