[poidos]

I would love to self-host this stuff (using Immich, or Ente) but my family's bus factor is 1 and the risk of losing all the pictures really prevents me from taking this step. Sure, maybe my wife could reach out to my techie friends but why create the problem in the first place?

[hamdingers]

The solution is packaging.

My Immich server performs a nightly backup to a 2tb flash drive labelled "PHOTOS" attached to the router. My partner knows where it is and what it's for, and everyone knows how to use a flash drive.

[poidos]

Are you rotating flash drives and such? I would worry about something happening to me, then she goes to use the flash drive, and the data is corrupt or the drive is fried.

[Modified3019]

Is there a way to export things like notes to a sidecar file? Basically need to have photo123.jpg and photo123.jpg_notes.txt available.

I’m trying to archive, document and make accessible family photos, but fear any work I do organizing information in immich may as well be throwing it into black hole.

[threetonesun]

A middle ground worth considering is keeping iCloud as is, as the functional backup your family knows how to use, and Immich as a backup for that.

[CryptoBanker]

If you can't backup your essential local data then self hosting isn't really ever an option for you

[poidos]

It's not about backing up. It's about non-technical family members being able to reliably recover the data.

[kaffekaka]

What solution are you using now?

I feel the same, so I keep photos on hard drives and usb drives in different locations. I have a Restic backup at Backblaze but that is where the bus factor comes in. I don't know what would be best.

[poidos]

Just iCloud for now.