photoam Loc: Fergus Falls, MN

Thanks All.
Jerry PhotoAm

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Deleted.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You don't have to delete them, and it's a good idea to keep them on the card if you're traveling. On the other hand, if they are backed up on other devices, there's no reason to keep them. I never let a card get more than 75% full.

Dannj

You may be able to set folders on your camera/card which would make it easier to upload from the card to the computer. If you set the folders by date, you only have to remember...write down😊...the last date you uploaded.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

After copying files to my PC, I format the card in-camera and start over with it.

zug55 Loc: Naivasha, Kenya, and Austin, Texas

There is nothing wrong with keeping your photos on the card. Sooner or later you will run out of space. Like you, I never delete photos from card after downloading.

I periodically format my cards, if I am sure that all my images are properly backed up. On the Canon G9X (I own the same camera and use it as a back-up), press "menu." Got to "setup"--it uses the wrench icon and is coded in yellow. Then go to the first menu ("setup 1"). The third item is "Format." Select it. The window that pops up will show how much space you have on the card and how much of it is used. Press "OK" and your card will be formatted. Done.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Each time I download photos onto my computer the iMac asks: “Delete photos from card after downloading?” --- I would take that as a friendly reminder if that is what you do. Not a suggestion of a good practice.

I never do, and my SDXC card currently contains about 3500 images, going back to when I bought the Canon G9X, mark 1, 4 yrs ago. --- Fine, it works for you doesn’t it?

I do have my photos backed up onto iDrive, Time Capsule, and another external hard disk. --- Good on you. Not many do I am afraid.

What is the downside to using a card that is partially full? --- When you down load you have a step where you select the new ones to down load. I down load with Lightroom and it has to read the all the files to decide which ones it has seen so it won’t import them again. That wastes two or three minutes.

Does a partially filled card write new images slower than a blank card? --- Not until it is full. Then it stops. That is very slow.

Suggestions? --- No worries.

Well, I haven’t run out of space in 4 years. --- See?

They are backed up. --- Most excellent!

Why reformat? --- So the card won’t be full. The notion that the card is refreshed and will perform better is false. Rotating magnetic disks benefited from a low level format and defragmentation. These concepts do not apply to solid state devices. In fact these operations would waste write operations. SSDs do have a limited number of writes to each memory location. Fortunately the limit is 10’s of thousand writes which is just not a factor. If you are concerned someone is going to steal your photos some cameras can overwrite os to the entire memory. Or you could physically destroy it as is it were classified information.

Does an almost full card work slower? --- Nope. I do but cards don’t eat too much.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Up to you. I always save cards with important stuff on them, unless I have the pics stored in several independent storage devices for safekeeping. For cameras that do not support shutter count output, it would be another way to track actuations, if that matters. Some say you should not completely fill a card, can cause corruption, but I have never experienced that.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Don't delete in computer. FORMAT the card in the camera once you have your images backed up. Formatting allows the camera to write OVER the old images, by deleting the file directory. So if you somehow need them back BEFORE they are overwritten, file recovery software can get them back.

One downside of adding images to partially full cards is organizational. But if you're careful, it's not an issue. Using a partially full card may also limit how many photos or how much video you can record. So if you do that often, have some spare cards around.

There is no speed effect from using a nearly full card. Flash memory records images many times faster than conventional rotating platter drives.

photoam Loc: Fergus Falls, MN

How do you determine how full the card is? I guess I know it is a 64 GB card and something will show me how much is already on the card. I should look. Also, the OS instructions on the card must take up one or two GB.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

the only time I save images on a card is on a trip, even though I have copies on two external drives. when I am home and the images are on my main computer then I re-use my cards

ronaldwrightdallas

just in case no one points it out. always, always, always backup your photos.

since I use lightroom, I let it make a backup copy of each photo at the same time it is downloading to my computer. (backup is to an external disk, in my case a drobo system). then at least once a year I copy the lightroom versions to a different stand alone disk (they really are getting quite reasonable in price)

no12mo

Any memory card is a bit unreliable as a backup medium. Best to copy them off to an external hard drive or external SSD and then you can eventually store the memory card as an independent backup and buy a new card.

So, assuming you have them already on your computer, you could have 3 sources of your valuable photos not including a cloud backup which I have never considered all that reliable. I have had two such cloud drives give me notice that I have X days to download my photos to avoid losing them forever. Why bother with cloud drives in the first place

no12mo

I'm guessing you are using some form of USB connection to download your photos to your computer. You can get a SDXC card reader that connects it to your computer directly through a USB port.

Depending on your computer OS, you can read the card and at the same time find out how much free space you have

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana