FAQ
Following are answers to questions you might ask. If yours isn’t answered, email your question to us.
| Who are you? | We’re Eric and Eric. We run a small design studio called smashLAB and build handy tools like Campnab, Telgard, and Emetti. |
| Why did you make this? | Eric S. is paranoid and wanted a second copy of his photos. He couldn’t find an app to do that, so, he built one. |
| Are you saying that Google Photos is unsafe? | Nope. Google Photos is a great service. We’re just the kind of people who like some redundancy. |
| Aren’t there other ways to back up my photos? | Absolutely. The big advantage of Pixaver is that it happens in the background, without you needing to think about it. |
| What are the other competing solutions? | Google Takeout allows you to download all of your Google data to your local machine (zip files). There are many backup services out there. That said, we aren’t aware of any other automated solutions that focus on backing up Google Photos. |
| Why should I should trust you with my precious photos? | We’ve been in business for a long time, and don’t have evil motives. Eric S. built this to address his own need, so, he’s highly motivated to keep the service secure. |
| Are my photos secure? | Yes, we use industry standard AES 256 encryption. Additionally, files are transferred directly to cloud storage using Streams, which means we never hold your data in an unencrypted state (although we do need to decrypt files to restore them) |
| Will you backup my videos? | Yes, your videos will also be backed up. Google only provides access to an optimized version of your original file, so that’s what is backed up. |
| Is there an option to restore photos from your service if anything bad happens to the originals? | Yes, you can either restore your files back to a Google Photos account, or download them. |
| How does the trial work? | We give you 7 days to try out the service and see that it works. Trial accounts are limited to 5 GB of storage. So, if you like how it works, just determine your space requirements and start your paid plan. |
| Why do you charge for this service? | Because that’s how business works. With every paying customer, we’re afforded more time to provide support, and make this service better. |
| How much does this service cost? | Pixaver plans start at $1.99/month for backups and 25 GB of storage (approximately 5,000 x 5 MB photos). Prices increase from there, based on your storage requirements. |
| Can you tell me how much space I need? | We’d like to, but are unable to access this information from Google Photos. For now, start by checking your photo count. The average photo tends to be around 5 MB, so multiply your photo count by that number for a rough estimate. |
| OK—so how do I get my photo count? | Navigate to your Google Dashboard on your computer and log in. Scroll to Google Photos and click on it. This will show you your photos count. (Please note that the size of your photos—and videos—will affect usage.) |
| Why do you ask for access to my Google account? | We request read access of your photos, in order to create the backup. We also ask to see your profile info so we can reference you by name, and auto-populate your avatar in the app (this is just in your dashboard, and not made publicly visible). |
| What happens if I cancel my plan? | You’ll have access to your backups until the end of your paid period. At that point, we’ll delete your Pixaver backups and close your account. |
| How can I reach you? | Email us or call us (at smashLAB): 604 683 2250. We’re quite responsive, and generally respond within the hour—sometimes a little longer. |
Pixaver automagically backs up your Google Photos library, giving you some extra peace-of-mind.
✓ Secure & encrypted ✓ Free 7-day trial (to 5 GB) ✓ Easy setup