🌥️ Cloud Storage Wrap-Up: What You Missed & How to Get Organized

Frank Bravo 0:00
If your files are still scattered all over your desktop, or maybe an old hard drive, or maybe even three different cloud accounts, don't worry, you're not alone. Last week, a friend texted me and said that they still don't know which cloud service to use. Even after listening to my series on this podcast about cloud storage. And I realize that if there's still confusion after six episodes, maybe we need to do a little recap. So here we go.

Guest 0:31
Welcome to your Tech Makeover, the podcast that gives you tips and tricks to help you simplify and get more out of the technology in your life. I'm.

Frank Bravo 0:37
Your host, Frank Bravo. Today, I'll be officially wrapping up the cloud storage series. Maybe you haven't listened to it all. Or like my friend, you just are still confused. So I'll recap what you might have missed and what I maybe didn't say enough about. And here's how we get going fast. First let's rewind. During the episodes, I looked at the big five cloud storage players. That's Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, box, and iCloud drive. That was just a few episodes ago, so if you missed it, go back in the feed and you might be able to find it. Here's a quick recap, though, and this is how they appeared in the order of the podcasts. First, I talked about Google Drive. It's really best for collaborating and Google Docs and Sheets. Families and schools especially love it. There's Dropbox, known for its reliability and syncing polish. Great. If you work with big files or on creative projects, there's OneDrive. If you're in the windows or the Microsoft 365 world, and it's built right into those and works great with those products. Next there's box. It's great for small organizations that need extra security or sharing controls. And finally, there's iCloud drive, which is seamless for every Apple device, whether it be your iPhone or iPad or Mac users, especially handy for photo and family sharing of those devices of those files. So here's a few things that maybe I didn't cover enough, because there was so much information to go through, and I didn't want to go way into everything on every different product. But here's a few things that I wanted to touch on after the fact here. First, it's fine to mix and match setups. Many people actually use more than one cloud service. I think I mentioned this during the episodes, but I want to emphasize that again. For example, you might use cloud iCloud for, for sharing family photos, for Google Drive for schoolwork, and maybe Dropbox for personal archives. That's totally okay, as long as you have a clear role and it's clear to you. I use several services depending on the person I'm working with and sharing content or what I'm doing. The other thing that I want to mention, and I know I stress this, is that sync is not a backup. This is a big one. You've heard me say it many, many times before that just because your files are in the cloud doesn't mean they're backed up. A delete from one file for a deleting of one file from one service could make it vanish from all your devices, and that's why you need some sort of a backup plan. Take a look at the podcast. You'll find plenty of episodes where I talk about that. Encryption options are also very important in all this. If you're storing something sensitive, you want to make sure it's encrypted before you send it to the sink services, and you want to make sure that the sink services are encrypted as well. It will add a peace of mind so that your files don't end up out there on the public internet. Sharing hygiene is also important. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean that if you share something, think about how that link expires or doesn't and who has access. And remember to go back and remove old sharing links later on. And finally, digital estate basics. You know, this is not fun to think about, and it's definitely something I want to do a podcast on in the future, but it's very helpful to give this some thought. Make sure a trusted person knows how to access your important documents if you need to, and where they are stored, because there's nothing worse than not being able to access the data of somebody who is no longer with us. So you want to make sure that you have a plan for somebody accessing those files. A quick shout out to listeners like you who helped make your tech make over possible. Your support helps keep this podcast going and I truly appreciate it. Want to contribute? Just click the link in the show notes or visit your Tech makeover.com plus as a thank you support. Who give $25 or more will get $25 off a one time consultation with me to help you simplify your tech. Thanks for being part of the Your Tech Makeover community. Now back to what I was saying. So here's a simple seven step checklist to help put your mind at ease and do a quick sanity check of how you're using your cloud storage. First, turn on two factor authentication for your cloud accounts. This will make sure that everything is secure. Second, pick a service that is your primary service and let the others play a smaller role. For me, that used to be Dropbox. I used to do everything in Dropbox, but I've since migrated migrated to Apple iCloud drive as my primary service for my personal life and Google Drive. For my professional endeavors, I still use the other services, but those are where my primary files are. Next, make a type level. Make a top level folder in each of these well, in whatever setting you're using. Make a top level folder so that your family or team can make it easy to find those files. Then make sure that the file naming recipes are consistent so that you know that you are naming things so that they're easy to find later on. For instance, you might want to date the folders with year, month, day, and then the project name. That'll make it really easy to sort later on. Then make sure you keep at least one offline copy on a device. This may be turning on the available offline option on your computer, or by making an archive copy someplace else. Then do a quick link audit every once in a while and remove old or public links. And finally, remember, backups are essential with the 321 rule, three copies of your file on two different places and at least one of them off site. So here's five quick things you can do in ten minutes a week, or in ten minutes in this week, I should say, so that it will make a big difference. So first, maybe take a look at your scan to cloud features of the different of the different sharing devices of the shift and sharing software. You can scan receipts or IDs. There are several services that have this as an option, so you can save offline files online. Set up a request folder. This is great for when you're sharing with a group of people, so that they can just drop people into into your directories without you having to go through email. I used to use this all the time with my clients, where they would have a Dropbox, basically in Dropbox in my case, where they could just give me files and I wasn't emailing these large files back and forth. If you like to download and save email attachments to a folder, you might want to do this via a cloud storage for me. You know, I used to create a two file folder, which meant just basically I needed a file later on and then I'd circle back and organize them when I had more time. You might want to pin your top folders so that you can get them easily on your desktop. Now that might be setting it as an alias or making it just so that it's one click away. And finally, if the service allows for it, make sure you set a default expiration date. This will make sure that you're able to you'll be able to get that shared unshared when you are ready to go longer. Share it. So here's a quick five day cleanup plan that might be useful to you, that you can do in the period of a week. You know, maybe start on a Monday, and by Friday you have this all done. So to get organized in cloud, in the cloud ecosystem. So first you're going to want to decide on your primary platform. That should be relatively easy if you need to go back and listen to episodes about each service to get a clearer idea. Go ahead and do that. But you might want to look at the pricing options and what they really offer. And when you once you've decided, make sure you set up your your folder structure on day two. You might want to consider moving your desktop and documents folder into that if it allows. You know, Apple iCloud allows you to sync up your desktop and documents folder so that your files follow you wherever you are on day three. You might want to pick your photo strategy and stick to it. Is it a cloud library? Is it folders? You should do one or the other, but definitely don't do both because that will just get you confused. Day for you might want to sweep through any old sharing links that you might have on other services and remove the ones you don't need. And then finally, by day five, back up your most important folders to an external drive, and then create a backup strategy so that you always know your safe. There are episodes in this podcast, like I mentioned, where I talk about that. If you can't find them, let me know and I'll be able to point you in the right direction. So here are the questions that came to me most when I was doing the service, doing the podcast episodes, and I wanted to kind of run through them as kind of a lightning route. So I've covered most of this already today, but let's go ahead and run through this. First off, can I use more than one service? Yes, of course. Just give each one a job. Don't let it be a wild West out there. Do I need to still back up to an external drive? Yes. Syncing is not a backup. How much space should I buy? Well, that's a great question. Check how much current usage you have and then add a little bit of buffer and only upgrade when you're bumping up against those limits. Is my data private? If you use strong passwords to two factor authentication and don't overshare links, you should be fairly fine without it being out there on the internet. And then what about photos? Decide on one system. Stick to it and don't keep multiple masters. There's nothing worse than trying to figure out which photo library is the right photo library. So here's the recap. Just so that you can go back and revisit the episodes. If you are still confused about these five services, what I would say is Google Drive is best for collaborating. Dropbox is reliable for syncing. OneDrive is. If you live in the Microsoft 365 world, that is where you want to be. Box is good for admin and compliance tools and iCloud. If you're all Apple all the time, you can find all those episodes just a few slot back in this podcast feed. So which cloud setups are you using and which are you going to stick with so that you can make sure that your data is safe online? And do you still have questions? Well, then let me know. As always, if you have ideas for topics that you'd like me to cover, please feel free to contact me via email at Frank at your Tech makeover.com. That's it for now. Sorry, this episode is a little long, but thanks for listening to your tech makeover, if you haven't already. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss an episode. You can also check out your Tech makeover.com, where you can see more information about this episode and other episodes that I've done. And if you want to find out more about me, please make sure you visit Bravo! It's com. Until next time, I'm Frank Bravo. And this has been your technical.