Back up family memories

Quick answer: Three copies, on two kinds of media, one of them off site. Add open file formats and at least one other person who knows where everything is and how to get in.

Most family collections are not lost in a dramatic event. They are lost to inactivity: a drive nobody has opened in years, an account whose password nobody knows, a card reader that no longer exists.

This guide is about making that safe in one evening. It is not about digitising — that is covered in preserving family photos — but about making sure what you digitised is still there, and still readable, in twenty years.

The 3-2-1 rule in one sentence

Three copies of your data, on two different kinds of media, with one copy in another place.

The photographer Peter Krogh popularised the rule in his 2005 book on digital asset management, and the whole IT industry adopted it, because it solves one simple problem: no single event may be able to destroy every copy at once.

In practice:

Copy 1: the working version on your computer or phone
Copy 2: an external drive kept at home
Copy 3: cloud storage, or a second drive at a relative's house

The last point is the one people skip. Fire, water damage and burglary take everything in the same room. A copy elsewhere is the only defence.

Which file formats last

The more ordinary and open a format, the more likely you can still open it later. The Library of Congress publishes a ranked list of recommended formats for digital photographs: uncompressed TIFF first, then lossless JPEG 2000, then PNG, then ordinary JPEG.

For a family collection that means:

Scans of important originals — certificates, old portraits — are worth keeping as TIFF or PNG if you have the space.
Everyday photos can stay JPEG. It is not the most durable format, but it is the most widespread one, and ubiquity is itself a form of durability.
RAW camera files should be saved as JPEG or TIFF alongside the original. Manufacturer formats are tied to software.
Notes and text belong in PDF/A or plain TXT, not in a format that depends on a subscription.
Your family tree should live in an open file you can read without the original program.

How long storage media last

The honest answer: there are no reliable numbers. Manufacturer figures are laboratory values and real-world results vary enormously. What can be said:

Hard drives have moving parts and fail mechanically, often without warning.
SSDs and USB sticks hold data as electrical charge. Years unpowered in a drawer is precisely the case they are not designed for.
Memory cards are built for carrying pictures around, not for archiving them.
Optical discs vary enormously by quality — and drives are getting rare.

The conclusion is not to hunt for the perfect medium. There isn't one. The conclusion is to keep several copies and refresh them. Put a yearly reminder in the calendar: check a copy, open a few files at random, replace ageing drives.

Cloud storage: what it does and does not do

Cloud storage handles the hardest part of the 3-2-1 rule almost by itself — the off-site copy. For most families it is the simplest third copy there is.

But it is not a complete backup, for three reasons:

Sync is not backup. Delete a file locally and it often disappears online too. Check how long your provider keeps deleted files in the bin.
The account is the bottleneck. A forgotten password, a lost second device for two-factor confirmation, a locked account — and the copy is out of reach even though it exists.
Providers change. Services shut down, free tiers shrink, accounts close after long inactivity.

Use the cloud — never as your only copy.

The forgotten part: who gets in later?

This is where otherwise careful collections fail. A backup only you can open is a backup with an expiry date.

Rules differ by country, and in some places they are clearer than people assume: in Germany, the Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2018 that a social media account passes to the heirs much like letters or diaries, so heirs have a claim to access. But a legal claim helps little if nobody knows the data exists in the first place.

So every backup needs an access plan:

Write down where the copies are — device, place, provider.
Make sure at least one trusted person can reach the credentials. Many password managers have emergency access for exactly this; a sealed envelope with your will works too.
Use encryption deliberately. An encrypted drive with no recorded password is not hard for your family to open — it is impossible.
Tell your family the collection exists. The shoebox in the cupboard had that advantage built in.

What this means for your family tree

A family tree is compressed work: hundreds of hours of research in a single structure. It deserves the same treatment as the photographs.

In FamilyTree Free your data lives only in the browser on your device. That is good for privacy, and it also means: clear your browser data and the tree goes with it. One click on "Backup" downloads the whole tree, photos included, as a single JSON file. That file is plain text, it opens in any editor and it is tied to no program — treat it as copy 1 and put it into the same 3-2-1 structure as your photos.

Do it after every serious session of work, not "sometime soon".

Backup checklist

Gather everything in one place (photos, scans, notes, tree file)
Create copy 2 on an external drive
Get copy 3 off site (cloud or a drive at a relative's)
Keep important originals as TIFF or PNG
Export your family tree backup file
Write down where everything is
Arrange access for one trusted person
Set a yearly reminder and spot-check the files

Next step

Start by downloading your family tree backup — it is the one file that restores fastest and gets forgotten most easily: Create a free family tree.

FAQ

What exactly is the 3-2-1 rule?

Three copies of your data, stored on two different kinds of media, with one copy in another location. That way no single event — a failure, a fire, a theft — can destroy everything at once.

Is cloud storage enough on its own?

No. Cloud storage makes an excellent third copy, but syncing is not backing up: files deleted locally often vanish online too. And everything depends on continued access to one account.

Which format should I use for old photos?

TIFF or PNG for important originals; JPEG is fine for everyday pictures. What matters is choosing open, widely supported formats over manufacturer-specific ones.

How often should I refresh my backup?

Make a fresh copy after every significant session of work, and check the whole set once a year: open copies, spot-check files, replace ageing drives.

How do I arrange access for my family?

Write down where the data lives and make sure a trusted person can reach the credentials — through a password manager's emergency access or a sealed envelope with your estate papers. Without access, the best backup is worthless.