Moving an event photo archive when changing storage providers

Changing storage is a good time to tidy an archive, and also a good time to lose something. Files may be left behind, access may be copied too widely, and nobody may remember which account holds what. A short plan prevents most of these problems.

This guide belongs to our wider guide to event photo delivery, editing and preservation.

What should you list before you start?

Make a short inventory. For each event, note the folder name, the number of files, the total size and who delivered it. This is also a good time to record where the originals are and whether a second copy exists.

Then list who has access today. Include committee members, former staff and anyone who received a shared link. You may find access that nobody remembers granting. Our photo archive planner gives you a table for both lists.

How should you plan access in the new place?

Access is where a move can go wrong quietly. The simplest rule is that people should have only the access their task needs.

Role	Typical access	Notes
Archive owner	Full control	Name a backup owner
Event lead	View and download their events	No delete rights
Communications	View selected folders	Sensitive folders excluded
External recipients	Time-limited links	Review regularly

For folders involving children, health, faith settings or confidential gatherings, limit access further and record who approved it. Private gallery access and onward sharing explains common sharing risks, and our photo sharing and privacy plan is a useful worksheet.

How do you copy safely?

Copy, do not move. A move deletes the source as it goes, which is risky if the transfer fails. A copy leaves the old files in place until you have verified the new ones.

Keep the folder structure and file names unchanged during the transfer, so that your inventory still matches. If you want to reorganise, do that after verification, as a separate step. For very large archives, transfer in stages and check each stage before beginning the next.

How do you verify the new archive?

Verification has three layers:

1. Counts. The number of files and folders matches your inventory.
2. Size. The total size is close to the original. A big gap usually means missing files.
3. Samples. Open images from the start, middle and end of each event, including the largest files.

If you want more certainty for an important archive, compare a list of file names before and after. Checking download completeness before a gallery expires describes the same checks for a fresh delivery. Only when all three layers pass should the old copy be treated as a spare.

A worked example

For example, imagine a community centre moving six years of event photographs from a free account to a paid cloud service because the old plan is ending. There are 41 events and about 9,000 files.

The manager makes an inventory, finds that two former volunteers still have full access, and removes them. She copies five events first and checks them, then transfers the rest in batches over a week. For the children's programme folders, only two people can open them. The old account stays untouched for a further month before she closes it. A short note in the top folder says where the archive lives, who owns it and where the backup is.

What should be recorded afterwards?

Write a short record: where the archive is, who owns it, who has access, where the backup lives and the date of the move. Put it somewhere other than the archive itself, so that a person can find it if the account becomes unavailable.

If the move is forced by a closing account, see photo delivery when the organiser's account is about to close. For the wider question of how long a photographer keeps files, see gallery expiry and the photographer's archive. If you suspect something went missing, event files that may be lost or corrupted explains the next steps.

When is the old copy safe to remove?

Wait until the new archive has been used for a while. Open a few events from the new place a week or two later, and check that sharing links and permissions still work as planned. Only then decide whether the old copy is still needed. Many groups keep it for a further period as a spare, and delete it once they are confident that nothing is missing and the new owner knows where everything lives.