Good way to organize family photos across phones and old drives

I've been in a similar spot with family photos scattered everywhere, and Google Photos turned out to be a lifesaver for us. It's free for up to 15GB of storage, works seamlessly on both iPhone and Android, and has built-in tools to sort photos by date and remove duplicates automatically. Start by downloading the app on all your devices, then sign in with the same Google account to upload everything from your phones, laptop, and USB drives. For the old drives, plug them into your laptop and use the Google Photos desktop uploader to batch upload them. It even fixes messy dates by using metadata like when the photo was taken, so your timeline ends up organized chronologically.

To keep costs low and have an offline backup, grab a cheap external hard drive like a 1TB Seagate for around $50 and copy all the originals there before uploading. This way, if the internet goes out, you can still access everything locally on a computer. Share the Google account with your parents for easy viewing, but set up two-factor authentication to keep it secure. We did this for my in-laws, and they love how simple it is to search for photos by face or location without any tech hassle. If you hit the storage limit, you can always upgrade to Google One for a few bucks a month, but starting free should cover most family collections.

Use Google Photos to upload everything from phones and drives. It automatically sorts by date and detects duplicates. For backup, download to an external hard drive for offline access. That's simple and free for basic storage.

Google Photos is your best bet since it's free up to 15GB and works on both iPhone and Android. Upload all photos from devices and drives, let it organize by date and remove duplicates. For non-tech parents, the app is straightforward. Get an cheap external HDD for offline backup by downloading albums. Avoid paid services to keep costs low. This setup handles messy dates by using metadata.

Pick one home base, let phones auto upload, and keep a cheap USB clone.

For mixed iPhone and Android with non-technical parents, Google Photos wins on ease. If you pay for anything, a cheap Google One plan or Amazon Photos via Prime is the best value. Do not trust automatic dedupe alone, run dupeGuru on a PC first and sort by year and month so the mess does not return. Upload once from the computer, then let phones auto-upload on Wi‑Fi only. Offline copy is a plain external hard drive mirrored with FreeFileSync and a yearly Google Takeout for a second snapshot. Skip a NAS unless someone in the house will maintain it.

Lost two phones in one summer, so automatic upload saved everything. Pick one hub to keep the stress down. Amazon Photos is great if you already have Prime, otherwise use Google Photos. On both phones turn on camera upload, Wi‑Fi only, and include videos. Share the library with parents using Partner Sharing or Family Vault so they just open the app and see the timeline.

On a computer, copy all USB and laptop photos into a single Master Photos folder. Run dupeGuru to remove duplicates, then use PhotoMove to file by EXIF date into year and month, and ExifTool only if dates are missing. Upload that cleaned folder to the hub using the web or the desktop uploader. Keep an offline copy by mirroring Master Photos to a 4 TB external drive with FreeFileSync and plug it in monthly. Twice a year export a full cloud snapshot with Google Takeout or the Amazon Photos desktop app to the same drive so you have two local copies.

Pick one cross-platform library and stick to it. Google Photos is the simplest, or Amazon Photos if you already have Prime. Install the apps to auto-upload from both phones, consolidate the laptop and USBs on a computer, run dupeGuru to remove duplicates, use PhotoMove or ExifTool to fix dates, then upload the cleaned set. Keep an offline copy by mirroring that master folder to a 2–4 TB external drive with FreeFileSync and refresh it after big imports or a Google Takeout export.