Photos everywhere? Make a simple starting plan

Start by listing where your photos live and choosing one small group to work on. You can finish this plan without moving, deleting or buying anything.

I would begin with a collection you can already open. An old computer with a forgotten password can wait while you make a useful start elsewhere.

What you need

A notebook and about 20 minutes to look at your current photo collection. Twenty minutes is a suggested stopping point, not a deadline. This is a paper planning exercise, so it works whatever phone or computer you use.

1. List the places you remember

Write one line for each place that might contain photos. Include your phone, computer, old memory cards, portable drives, online accounts, printed albums and family messages.

Beside each, write what you expect to find and whether you can open it. For example: “Old laptop — holidays before 2018 — not checked.”

Add a final note saying whether you know of another copy. Write “unknown” when you are unsure. Do not put account passwords in this list.

You are making a map, not collecting everything into one place. Leave the files and prints where they are today.

2. Choose one manageable group

Pick a birthday, a short holiday or one month of pictures from a collection you can already view. A few dozen photos is enough for a first session.

Give the group a name on your paper plan, such as “2024 family visit”. Write down where you found it, including the album or folder name if there is one.

Avoid a vague starting group such as “all my best photos”. A clear event has a finishing point; the whole collection does not.

Look at a few pictures to check you have the right group. Note any person, place or story you would like to identify later. “Ask Sue about the year” is a useful next action.

3. Decide one job for that group

Choose the result you want next. It could be “make a spare copy of this folder” or “put these already-protected photos into a named album”.

If there is no checked spare copy, make protecting the group your next job. An album normally groups pictures within an app; it does not by itself make a separate backup.

Write a stopping point beside the job. For example: “I can find this group again and know where its spare copy is.” You do not need a complete family archive plan today.

Keep originals in place while you learn the next method. Avoid deletion controls, and do not reset an old device simply because it will not open.

Check it worked

Close the collection, then find your chosen group again using your note. You should be able to recognise it without starting the search from scratch.

Your page now lists the main photo locations, identifies a small first group and names one next task. Unchecked locations remain clearly marked.

That is a finished planning session. Keep the page where you can use it next time, and add missing locations when you remember them.

If you get stuck

You cannot remember the date: use an approximate year and mark it as uncertain. A file’s last-change date may not be the day the picture was taken.

Duplicates distract you: leave them alone for now. You can choose a group and protect it before deciding which versions to keep.

Every location seems difficult: choose the one photo collection you can currently open. Record the other problems without trying to fix them all at once.