Remember Jim Nabors portraying Private Gomer Pyle during the mid-1960’s? He would be telling a mixed-up version of a story in his hometown Mayberry southern accent punctuated by “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
Nowadays, it is a phrase used to say in a joking or ironic way that something is not surprising at all. Well, that is how I was feeling when I received this email on January 11—maybe you did, too. The heading of it looked like this:
Interestingly, Costco phrased it as “new offerings for Costco members” – like you should get excited about something special they are providing you. Read on….
The full message was that Costco was shutting down their photo services completely as of January 28, 2023 (they have been transitioning out of printing photos for a while now). Oh, but they have graciously given you the opportunity to transfer your photos and address book to Shutterfly (or you could try to download all your Costco photos) before January 31.
- Can you transfer your projects also to Shutterfly (mugs, posters, calendars etc) – nope
- Is there a guarantee of how long Shutterfly will be in business – nope
- What’s the “Happiness Guarantee” they say Shutterfly has – I searched it — “if you’re not satisfied we’ll make it right” – interesting
OK, I printed lots of things at Costco over the years because their quality was good and they did 12×12 prints which I could pick up the same day (and yes, I am one of those “last minute Lucy’s”) and they did a great job on posters I created for special events. But honestly, I have not heard the same praise for Shutterfly.
Something not mentioned in the Costco email which notified you to transfer photos to Shutterfly is something that popped up on the internet. “Free” unlimited storage on Shutterfly is no longer free – they are putting a limit on it. Plus they will now require “active participation” in its services in order to use its free unlimited photo storage (meaning you have to purchase something within a certain time period or lose your photos in the free space).
In addition, their Shutterfly Share Sites which supported unlimited free photo hosting and albums is being completely shut down.
And since it has been a lot of simple projects I printed at Costco over the years, I have a ton of photos there. Thankfully, my photos live in another program – I did not count on Costco as my holding place. Whew!
I can’t imagine the “hustle” those who counted on finding their photos in the Costco online place went through. My email came on January 11 and shut-down was January 31.
Of course, wisdom is that storing photos or any type of important data in just one place (computer drive, external hard drive, thumb drive, laptop, even Costco or a cloud-based location – whatever) is a mistake. You need copies of your data in more than one place to actually feel safe about having a backup.
In case you think I am just picking on Costco and Shutterfly, remember that Amazon in July of 2022, shut down their “consumer-focused storage service, Amazon Drive” taking a year to close it out. They did “more fully focus” their efforts on photos. But one now has to ask – for how long?
Go back a year earlier, June, 2021, when Google officially ended saving as many photos and videos as you wanted – even though they slightly reduced the quality, they still didn’t have space to keep it up. They changed to a 15GB limit after that date. And iCloud offers 5GB free storage but you have to sign up for paid storage after that.
And what is the estimated “life-span” of Google, iCloud – or even Shutterfly and any other cloud or photo storage?
AHA! That’s my point – and why I became enamored with FOREVER a few years ago. I had known “of” them because I loved (and purchased) the creative software from them (the ones I used to use at Creative Memories many years ago).
But eventually I heard of their FOREVER permanent storage – not renting storage, but “owning” it. And not just for a while but for a term they call “FOREVER” and define as “your lifetime plus 100 years”. Say what? How can they guarantee that?
Here’s how they explained it – with every permanent storage purchase, a large percentage of the payment is deposited into the FOREVER guarantee fund. It is invested so it increases and pays for recurring costs of saving content and migrating it to new file formats over time. Pay once (as you purchase it) and that is it – they then have a “legal obligation to store, protect, and maintain your photos, videos and files.”
WooHoo – not having to do double external hard drives backed up by a cloud drive, and worry about which kids or grandkids will care (or NOT) enough to get items migrated to new formats as needed. Yep, FOREVER lets you just designate someone as account manager and they do the same for the next generation and so on.
One unexpected, but truly appreciated, feature of this was that there is no “data mining” (which is why I am careful about anyone posting photos on FB).
And there is no advertising or anyone else poking around in my photos. Honestly, when OneDrive pops up in my email sharing photos they say are from a year ago, I just get “creeped out”. Who else is looking at them? Why are they pawing through my photos? Not happy.
And yes, I set the privacy in FOREVER permanent storage. I choose with whom I share and it only goes to them – not over any service that has a secret clause in their use agreement that allows them to use my photos as they wish.
So, enough from me – check it out yourself. Click HERE and search the information under “Preserve & Share”. I never knew this was available until a few years ago and I am so glad I found this feature of FOREVER.
Think of it – you can preserve a legacy without having to worry about future generations being as active as you have been in setting it up! Wouldn’t you like to see the photos and documents and stories of your great-grandparents?
