How to Back Up Your Phone Photos Properly

A dead phone shouldn't mean losing a decade of photos. Here's how iCloud, Google Photos and a local NAS actually compare, so you can pick a setup you'll actually stick with.

Option 1: iCloud (best for iPhone users)

iCloud+ is the obvious default if you're on iPhone, since it backs up photos automatically in the background with zero setup after the first toggle. Apple's NZ pricing tiers (paid monthly) are 50GB, 200GB and 2TB, with the 200GB tier commonly priced around NZ$4.99/month and the 2TB tier around NZ$16.99/month — plans can also be shared with family members under one subscription. The catch: iCloud photo storage is tightly bundled to your Apple ID, and if you ever stop paying, Apple will eventually prompt you to download your library locally rather than deleting it outright, but you lose easy access in the meantime.

Option 2: Google Photos / Google One (best for Android, or cross-platform)

Google Photos works on both Android and iPhone, which makes it the better pick if your household mixes device brands. Storage counts against your overall Google Account quota (15GB free, shared with Gmail and Drive), with Google One paid tiers starting around 100GB and 200GB, scaling up to 2TB and 5TB plans. Google One plans in NZ are typically billed in NZD with the 100GB tier priced at a few dollars a month — check Google's current NZ pricing page directly, as tiers have shifted more than once in the past two years.

Option 3: Local NAS (best for large libraries and long-term control)

A Network Attached Storage device (from brands like Synology or QNAP) sits on your home network and backs up photos over wifi automatically using each brand's own app — no ongoing subscription once you've bought the hardware and drives. This is the best option if you shoot a lot of RAW photos or video, since cloud storage subscriptions get expensive fast at multi-terabyte scale, while a NAS is a one-off cost (typically $400–$900 NZD for a basic 2-bay unit plus drives) that you own outright. The tradeoff is setup complexity and the fact that a NAS living in your house isn't protected against fire, flood or theft unless you also pair it with an offsite or cloud copy.

Our recommended approach for most NZ households

• Turn on automatic cloud backup (iCloud or Google Photos) on every phone in the house — this is your day-to-day safety net against a lost or smashed phone.
• If your photo library is large or you shoot professionally, add a NAS as a second copy you control, and sync it to a cloud backup service or an offsite drive for true redundancy.
• Do a real recovery test at least once — download an old photo you haven't looked at in months, from whichever service you use, so you know your backup actually works before you need it.

What each option actually costs at scale

For a household with roughly 500GB of combined photos and video, iCloud's 2TB family plan or Google One's 2TB plan both land in a similar monthly range and can be split across family members, which usually works out cheaper than everyone paying separately. If your library is genuinely large (multiple TB, common for anyone who shoots a lot of 4K video), a one-off NAS purchase becomes noticeably cheaper than an ongoing multi-terabyte cloud subscription within 2-3 years.