We all store our photos on the cloud. Our family events, festival photos, drone shots, parties, celebrations, and we could go on. The cloud technology has made it incredibly easy to access our photos anytime, anywhere with an Internet connection. With just a few clicks, you can share your photos with friends and family.
If you’re storing your precious memories online, it becomes imperative to organize, manage and protect them. Read on as we reveal some of the best techniques you probably haven’t heard of.
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Tip 1: Remote Print your Photos
Remote Cloud is a wireless printing technology that enables you to wirelessly print anything, anytime and anywhere. If you’re using a smartphone from your office to view and manage your cloud photos, you’ll be amazed to know that you can still print them wirelessly without being physically present at the home. The remote printer technology sends print jobs straight from your device (mobile, tablet, PC, iPhone, BlackBerry or Mac) to your printer. Your home printer must be turned on, and you must download the corresponding sync client app on your smartphone to use this technology. Once the printing job is completed, you shall receive a push notification about it.
Tip 2: Set Short, Readable & Descriptive File Names
Another way to organize digital photos on the cloud is to set short, readable and descriptive file names. Everytime you take photos with your digital camera, it names them with a base file name and an incremental number. In some cameras, the incremental numbers are replaced with a date & time stamp. Regardless of whichever format it uses, usually these file names are not friendly to human eyes and they’re difficult to remember as well. Afterall, who can remember long, complex filenames like DMG_4726054.jpg, DMG_4726055.jpg, DMG_4726056.jpg, ….?
- Rename Files Using Adobe Lightroom
It’s not realistic to rename every single photo in your collection. There can be hundreds of thousands of photos. If you’re using Adobe Lightroom to export photos, you can easily get the task done in minutes. Keep in mind that you can only rename files with Lightroom that are yet to be exported, and not those that have already been exported.
When you begin to export your Lightroom photos, the program displays several additional options including the batch renaming functionality. To start with, select the photos you want to export. Press the Shift key of your keyboard and hold it. Select the first photo in a row. Now, select the last photo in sequence. Lightroom will auto-select all the photos in between the first and last selected files. Alternatively, you can select all the photos using the Ctrl + A keyboard shortcut key. After selecting your photos, press Ctrl + Shift + E to open the Export dialog and specify the target location.
In the Rename to drop-down box, select the Custom Name- Sequence option. Type in a Custom Text as the base name for your files. The default Start Number is 1. You can change it, if you like. Select a case for your text, for example, lowercase or UPPERCASE and Lightroom will automatically display the preview. Hit Export to start batch renaming and then export your files. Once your photos have been exported, you can sync them with your cloud syncing app or manually upload online. Either way, there is also another third-party plugin alternative to export Lightroom photos directly to the cloud.
There are some drawbacks with this method. Lightroom is NOT a specialized file renaming software. As such, it doesn’t provide advanced renaming patterns. You’re limited to a single renaming pattern- a base file name (that you can set to anything you like) with an incremental number (that you can change as well). But that’s not normally sufficient for most people. People are looking to change the case of the text, remove specific characters from the file names, add new characters, or add date & time stamps. Another major drawback is that you cannot rename files that are already uploaded to the cloud. You can only rename photos that are stored on your hard disk, external HDD or USB stick. Lightroom does NOT have a cloud renaming feature.
- Rename Files Using Easy File Renamer
If you’re looking for a more advanced batch renaming software with industry-standard renaming patterns and integration with cloud services, Easy File Renamer is for you. EFR supports integration with the most popular cloud services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3 (through its web-app Cloud File Renamer). With official APIs, your privacy is guaranteed. Easy File Renamer can batch rename files that are already uploaded on the cloud, as well as files that are stored on your local hard disk, USB stick or external HDD. It has many more add-on features too. Easy File Renamer comes with plenty of file renaming patterns that you can choose from. You can remove or replace text, change case (upper/ lower), add incremental numbers, add prefix or postfix, and do much more.
Easy File Renamer works in three steps. First, you link your OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or Amazon S3 account with EFR. Second, you add the files/ folders that contain your files and choose your desired renaming pattern. Third, the program displays a preview. You can approve the changes by starting the renaming process. It’s that simple. Within a few seconds, you’ve renamed hundreds of files on your cloud.
Tip 3: Encrypt your Data before Uploading to the Cloud
Data encryption is the process of converting plain text into cryptographic format. Only the authorized person with the Decryption Key can decrypt it back to the readable format. There are different sorts of encryptions- Symmetric and Asymmetric.
If you’ve got confidential data, it is a good practice to encrypt it first before uploading on to the cloud. Encryption is widely used to protect sensitive information from disclosure, theft, modifications and malicious attacks during and post data transmission. For example: If you’re using an unsecured public Wi-Fi on airports, hackers could implement Man-in-the-Middle Attack to monitor your network activities and “read” your data. There are different encryption standards used across the world. One of the most commonly used encryption standards is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-256.
Tip 4: Activate Two-factor Authentication
Two-factor Authentication (2FA) is an additional layer of security. It provides a higher level of security to your cloud account by requiring the user to confirm their identity with a One-time Password (OTP).
Typically, many users protect their accounts with a single password. If you’re using the same password on multiple websites, it could put your other accounts at risk. In the event of data breach on one website, your other accounts would be vulnerable to hackers. Hackers could use your credentials to login to your other accounts, steal your data, obtain money from your bank accounts, and do much more harm.
The only way to protect your cloud account is to activate the 2FA. It will prompt the user to enter the one-time code sent to the registered mobile number or 2FA app (such as Google Authenticator) linked with the account.
Tip 5: Set Descriptive Tags to your Photos
If you’ve got a huge photo collection, you won’t always be able to remember your file names. Setting tags to your photos will help you find them faster. Use descriptive keywords such as “office” for your office photos, “family” for your family photos, and so on.
