So we updated one of our phones to a Pixel 9a (one of our Pixel 4a phones was the earlier one, that GOogle deployed a “fix” that completely tanked the battery). We then noticed that the Google Drive account with that was dangerously pushing the 15gb limit…and we could update to Google One for a low monthly cost.

It was then my wife made the astute observation of “No wonder they were giving such a large trade-in value on the pixel 4a…now they don’t offer unlimited photo storage.”

That, plus a lot of other things, has made us seriously reconsider the pixel 9a. But, being the annoying tech person I am, I decided to say screw it and find a photos solution myself. The 9a is probably the best midrange phone out there considering the camera and the like. It was less expensive with the trade in and the store credit that they gave for screwing up the Pixel 4a, and so it comes to figure out how to remove us from the Google ecosystem (at least when it comes to photos).

So today begins my setup of TrueNAS Scale and Immich. Following a solid setup instructional from XDA, I’m turning in one of the computers I’ve got around the house (that was slated for recycling) into a NAS and backup for our photos.

Because there are few things worse to my mind than being forced to pay a subscription cost when I can do it myself for much cheaper and much easier.

Might throw jellyfin on the NAS too, dependent on how things go.