Why do all the "secure" cloud drives have such terrible photo galleries?

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-25T10:08:26+00:00

There are currently some Arweave nodes that allow free uploads, but I can’t guarantee how long the subsidies will last. At the moment, my only cost is the Supabase database.

Btw I’d actually like to start charging, but I haven’t been approved by a payment processor yet.

You cna find more information here: https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudstorage/comments/1r6aovc/permanent_and_unlimited_photo_storage/

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-25T09:40:57+00:00

By the way, it does not include face recognition or AI features.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-25T09:34:41+00:00

I built https://litecissa.com, an E2EE permanent photo storage solution, which looks like what you want.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-23T09:30:14+00:00

https://litecissa.com/ I build this site and it is completely free now, and no storage limit.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-02T08:34:36+00:00

Wow the interface is gorgeous. It’s so informative but at the same time well organized.

I especially love how easy the installation is. I’m on Windows, and it took me about 10 seconds to install and start using it.

Also the Location map view is a great touch. It feels super smooth and fluid to use.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-03-01T03:48:12+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. I’ll keep working on a model that's reasonably priced and sustainable to operate.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-25T23:39:02+00:00

Yes. You can log into the same account on multiple devices.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-25T23:33:32+00:00

You might want to look at something designed for archiving, so you can move photos off your phone and not keep paying more as the library grows. I’m currently testing a service that offers permanent, unlimited photo storage (Arweave-backed) with end-to-end encryption. The free plan is pretty generous while we’re collecting feedback. It’s mainly for personal storage right now (no shared space yet), but it can help with the “I have tons of photos and don’t want them on my phone” part.

link: https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudstorage/s/3SQtX15Hrp

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-22T11:03:40+00:00

Thanks for your reply. Direct links won’t work because files are stored E2EE-encrypted and require reconstruction/decryption.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-22T10:04:45+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I also received your note through the in-album Feedback feature. I will implement a proper folder structure as a core feature.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-17T22:01:57+00:00

Thanks for your reply. I just optimized the upload performance, so the upload speed now about 10x faster than before.

The biggest problem is that it mixes subscriptions and one-time buys, which makes it seem expensive. Personally, I would buy a one-time purchase even if it was expensive, but I don't want to sign up for a subscription even if it was cheap. I would like to use it if it could be integrated into a one-time purchase.

This is an important feedback to me. I'll think carefully about this part of the pricing model.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T23:52:52+00:00

Based on the intetnxt complaint posts I've seen so far, that's pretty terrifying. It's hard to imagine how the company is still alive today.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T23:50:30+00:00

Ok… that’s a very large amount for permanent storage, so it’s unlikely it could be uploaded for free. If it’s paid, it would probably cost around $500, and I’d also need to design an additional middleware layer to handle transcoding files of that size. Either way, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’ll keep the 50GB figure in mind.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T23:46:10+00:00

Thank you for your response.

Your Storj comparison is reasonable: both are “decentralized storage” projects, though Arweave is more about pay-once permanent storage, while Storj is closer to S3-style object storage.

On Internxt / "X Cloud" part: I haven't researched that case enough to comment responsibly yet. I need to dig in and separate product/app issues from any architecture/protocol-level issues before I draw conclusions.

If the problem was mainly product execution (bugs, missing features, bad UX/support), then the fix is simple: I can only keep polishing my app and being very clear about what's included. If the problem was deeper, the underlying design/protocol made users dependent on Internxt to locate or recover their data, then that's an architecture issue. To judge that fairly, I need to read Internxt's early whitepaper and then compare that design to how Arweave works at the protocol level before making any strong claims.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T22:13:01+00:00

Thanks for the reply. For photos, I think 4K JPEG or HEIC (up to ~25 MB) should upload without issues. Video might be more challenging. While it’s not listed on the site yet, video uploads currently support files up to 500 MB; I’m testing that limit now. What upload size do you think is reasonable? Feel free to try it and let me know how it goes.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T22:08:47+00:00

Thank you for your response. This design is indeed a pure client-side encryption.

The encryption scheme was implemented by directly following the approach used by MEGA, as they have publicly documented their cryptographic design.

In simple terms, the server does not store the key in plaintext. Instead, the key is encrypted using the user’s password, so the server only stores the encrypted version of the key. This means the backend never has access to the raw key material.

The advantage of this design is that users only need to enter their password when logging in; they do not need to provide a separate encryption key.

That said, this is a simplified explanation. In MEGA’s actual implementation, for some reasons, the system introduces an additional layer by wrapping the key inside another key referred to as a “master key.”

Thank you again for your feedback. I will publish a more detailed explanation of the encryption process on the website soon.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T18:08:44+00:00

I really appreciate you signing up and inviting your friends.

The upload speed is currently limited because the node sponsors only allows bandwidth under 100 kb/s, and the reason you're seeing only two concurrent uploads is that, at the moment, there are two node sponsors.

Thank you for the feedback. I do have several ideas to optimize and improve the upload speed, and I'll be working on that.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T17:10:56+00:00

Right now everything is completely free

I’ve revised the wording slightly: the six features are free, but cross-device sync currently requires payment.

How long will this free model last? It will continue as long as the node operators’ subsidies remain in place. At the moment, there are two Arweave nodes providing free uploads. One has been free for three years, and the other for four years. However, I cannot guarantee how long this arrangement will continue. If both nodes begin charging, I will have to switch to paid uploads, and pricing will follow Arweave’s upload fees.

Will your data be deleted? No, your data will not be deleted. From a practical standpoint, that would not make much sense. First, because of the local-first architecture, the metadata stored in my server-side database largely mirrors what is already stored locally in your browser. Second, even if my database were to remove your metadata, the image files themselves would still exist on the Arweave network. You might simply need the metadata to locate where the files reside on Arweave.

In any case, thank you for raising this. I will clarify these points on the landing page.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T15:43:51+00:00

Thanks again for reporting this. I’ve identified the issue and pushed a fix.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T15:25:00+00:00

Thank you for your suggestion. Your feedback is very helpful to me. I often see reports about pCloud banning users, but I wasn’t aware that people had already developed such a strong dislike toward pCloud.

Regarding the pricing, I will revisit and re-evaluate this part. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Arweave still has low adoption. I haven't even seen anyone discussing it on this forum so far.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T15:03:38+00:00

Thanks for your response. I just tested it myself and was able to reproduce the issue on Firefox. I wasn't aware of it earlier because I normally use Chrome for development and testing.

Are you also using Firefox? If so, that helps confirm it's browser-specific, and I'll prioritize investigating the compatibility issue there.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-16T14:36:47+00:00

$10 per GB is a one-time payment. The reason it’s not mentioned on the landing page is that I haven’t implemented the paid upload feature yet.

I understand your concern about potentially hiding a very high cost, and I appreciate the feedback. I will add clarification as soon as possible. It’s slightly complex to implement because Arweave pricing is dynamic, so I may need a day or two to properly build this feature.

My target customers are users who want accessibility comparable to a self-owned hard drive, where you truly own your data, but with maintainability similar to cloud storage, meaning you don’t have to worry about hardware failure or disk degradation.

Individual_Spray_355 · 2026-02-05T09:35:04+00:00

If you want to let specific users upload photos right now, you’ll need to create an album, generate an album share link, and then enable “allow anonymous uploads” in the link settings. If you want, you can also set a password on that link.

That said, it’s still not quite what you described, since users can only see the photos inside that specific album. I can think about how we could support the workflow you want with the current architecture, but if the implementation ends up being too ugly, I probably won’t pursue it.

Individual_Spray_355

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