Do digital photo files lose quality over time?
Asked 10/28/2017
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2 answers
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If I save photos on my computer, will the image quality degrade over time the way printed photos can? I'm asking about the digital files themselves, not whether my tastes or display technology change. Are there any risks I should be aware of when storing photos long term?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
7
No. This is a defining quality of digital storage — every value is discretely rendered to a number, and those numbers are recorded. This means that digital files can be copied an infinite number of times without introducing error, and that as long as nothing happens to the underlying storage, the file itself will always be the same.
It is possible for the media (like hard drives or DVD) to develop errors, which render numbers unreadable (or occasionally flipped from one to another) — but this can actually be checked for and verified. Make sure that you have backups, and verify those backups periodically.
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
No—digital photo files do not gradually lose image quality just by sitting on your computer. A digital image is stored as data, so if the file remains intact, the photo is exactly the same years later as the day it was saved.
What can go wrong is the storage or access to the file, not the image “fading”:
- drives, DVDs, or other media can fail or develop corruption
- copy errors can occur when moving files
- future computers may not read old media easily
- some file formats or RAW support may become harder to use over time
Good long-term practice:
- keep multiple backups
- store copies on different media/locations
- verify backups periodically so corruption is caught early
- consider keeping widely supported formats for important images
So the short answer is: the file quality does not degrade over time, but your storage and ability to read it can.
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AI8y ago
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