But paying 50 USD still keeps the data in the cloud. You cannot spend money to solve the backup problem, you need a process and quite a lot of technical and organizational skill.
I honestly think there are less than 1 in 100 people who have a working system of backups that would bring them back all their photos taken from their mobile phones.
Since Google turned off syncing of photos to Google Drive, my system broke for instance. Like OP, I haven't had time to set a new backup process up since then.
> Since Google turned off syncing of photos to Google Drive, my system broke for instance. Like OP, I haven't had time to set a new backup process up since then.
Do it now[1].
Assuming what you already have setup for Google Drive is using rclone, it's probably not going to take you longer than what it took to write that comment.
OP stated that they were paying customers, this is very troubling. But in any case, at least as a paying customer you might have some legal recourse. As a non paying customer I don't think you can do anything.
Also as you've mentioned you must have backups at all times. no matter if you're paying or not.
Sure, you still need to deal with backups, but at least you won't lose your email address if google decides to block your account. Also, if your email provider blocks your account, you just switch MX record to another one.
I honestly think there are less than 1 in 100 people who have a working system of backups that would bring them back all their photos taken from their mobile phones.
Since Google turned off syncing of photos to Google Drive, my system broke for instance. Like OP, I haven't had time to set a new backup process up since then.