Photo Gallery backup using OneDrive

[Members_1GZLH9q]

I've been a loyal Samsung customer for years.   I have suffered thru many of the growing pains.   Regarding the Photo Gallery, I have switched from backing up my photos with Google to Samsung and now to OneDrive.    I have tried Amazon Photos but don't really want to use that platform.   I was pretty happy when Samsung switched to OneDrive because i use it regularly and am familiar with it.   Recently, my Photo Gallery exceeded the 5Gb free storage available with my OneDrive Personal account  Since I already pay for 1Tb Storage in my OneDrive business account, I decided to use that account instead.   After much research, tech support with Samsung, tech support with microsoft and ultimately working thru it on my own, I have come to the conclusion that I can backup to my OneDrive for Business account but I cannot Sync to it.   That is a fine line because from what I think I understand is the the backup is done in real time so my photos to get backed up fairly fast but if I make a change in my Gallery, it is not reflected in the backup whereas if I was able to do a Sync, I would see changes that I make in my phone gallery reflected online.   I would like to request that if you are going to let me do one, you should let me do the other.  I am already paying for a lot of storage and would be happy to provide two different locations within my Onedrive account to do both .  I don't, however, want to pay for extra storage in my Personal OneDrive account whe I already have plenty of capacity in my Business account.   If you feel that business accounts should not be allowing sync,  the work with Microsoft so that Business Admins can either turn that permission off or have the default set to off and force them to turn it on.   

[adoubleu]

Dude how do u only backup to one drive. The only option i have is sync and I hate it cause I can't delete any photos off my phone or it deletes them in one drive too. I wish I could get backup. I hate the sync. Can't believe u like it. Everyone tells me its annoying , and thats what I got out of it too.

[Members_1GZLH9q]

Synching is accomplished by setting it up thru the Gallery app; Menu, Settings, Backup with OneDrive.   Backup is accomplished by Opening the OneDrive App, tapping on the Briefcase icon in the upper left and selecting Camera Backup.   When I first learned this, I thought they were the same thing.   Clearly they are not.   Hope this helps.   If I think about it, I am probably more happy with the backup than the sync but the inconsistency bothers me.   Why is Samsung allowing one and not the other when it comes to the Business OneDrive account?

[adoubleu]

Oh dude... u just made my year. Wow. I hate the sync. Its so annoying having to scroll through all those photos and not being able to delete them or else they delete on my phone plus drive. Would much rather just have pure backup. How do u enjoy that?

[Tom6068]

How is that a Samsung issue if one is unable to use their business One Drive subscription they they determine does not allow automatic back up? But on MS it does says this, which backs up your conclusion of that 1TB One Drive account..

Perhaps setting up a routine and reminder to back up your photos etc to a USB drive and then save them would be a good choice outside of paying for a personal 1TB cloud storage account. Google only gives 15gig of storage free, but their 100gig offering is not a bad deal if one really wants their stuff stored in the cloud.

[Members_1GZLH9q]

Regarding the excerpt you showed, thanks.   I spent over a week dealing with both Samsung and Microsoft and nobody ever showed me that.  This is why we love tech support!   It is not clear to me that neither Samsung or MIcrosoft understood this or was able to give me an explanation as to why one feature works with a Business OneDrive account and the other does not, I guess we are just supposed to accept this as true and move on.  It is the Samsung phone, however, which when you go thru Gallery and setup Sync with OneDrive will not allow you to log into your Business Account but, when you go thru the Backup feature, allows you to use that account.  Maybe I'm wrong but it seems inconsistent to me!

Regarding your other suggestion, there are lots of things that work to do backups.   I have been an IT Consultant my entire working career and my feeling is that if they are not automatic, backups are useless (or maybe marginal) because eventually we forget to do them or we do them too late.  Also, backing up to a USB drive is not very convenient when you are traveling and taking 100s of pics a day.  Regarding Storage costs, yes, Google has offerings just like Microsoft does, I'm already paying for Microsoft and have capacity there.   I want all my data in one place.

[Tom6068]

As far as being inconvenient to use a hard drive of some kind, consider newer ones are very cheap, can connect C to C and have lots of storage sizes and are very small, easily stored and carried along. After a day of photo taking, simply transfer those images to the drive. You also will have sizable storage that will not cost you anything more than the drive itself.

As far as already paying for MS One Drive for your business, well they do not allow personal photos to be used on ti as per their rules, so if your displeasure is with MS, call them. You can either cancel that or if insistent on having cloud storage, buy a personal one. MS raised their annual cost for 365 personal from $69.99 to $99.99. Google has a plan for 2TB for the same price.

In any case, whatever you decide I hope it works best for you.