A Google Drive alternative for collecting event photos

When a wedding, trip or party ends, someone usually says “I’ll make a Drive folder, put everything there”. It sounds like the obvious answer: everybody has heard of Google Drive, it keeps original files, and it is free to start. Then a week later the folder holds the organiser’s photos and almost nobody else’s. This guide explains why that happens and what to use instead when the goal is to collect from a whole group.

Where Google Drive works well

Drive is an excellent cloud drive. It is the right tool when:

• The people uploading already use Google accounts and are comfortable with the Drive app.
• You want the photos to live next to your other files, long term, in your own storage.
• A small, trusted group is working on the folder together, such as a family or a team.

Files keep their original quality, folders can be organised however you like, and you control who has access.

Where it gets in the way at an event

The trouble starts when the people adding photos are thirty or a hundred guests on their phones:

• Sign-in. To add files to a shared folder, a guest normally has to be signed in to a Google account with edit access. Some guests do not have one, some use a different one on their phone, and some will not bother.
• The app. On a phone, the Drive link often pushes people towards the app. Uploading dozens of photos through it is a task, not a tap.
• Edit means delete. The usual shortcut, “anyone with the link can edit”, also lets anyone with the link rename other people’s photos or remove them from the folder. Links get forwarded.
• Their storage. In a normal shared folder, each guest’s uploads count against their own Google storage, which is shared with Gmail and Google Photos. Guests who are low on space may not be able to add their videos at all.

None of these is a flaw in Drive. It was designed as a personal and team drive, not as a drop box for a crowd.

What a group actually needs

For collecting event photos the checklist is short: one link or QR code, upload from the phone browser in a couple of taps, no account for guests, original quality, and the organiser in control of what stays. Ideally the link also stops working on its own when the event is over.

Using a Room instead

A JustSendFiles Room is built around that checklist. You add your own photos, the Room exists, and in its Settings you switch on uploads for others. Guests open the link or scan the QR code, choose photos and videos, and they upload straight from the browser. No account, no app.

• Files are never compressed, resized or converted, so the date and camera details inside each photo stay as the phone sent them.
• You can require your approval before new files appear, and add a PIN if the link might travel.
• Guests can add files, but they cannot delete everyone else’s.
• Anyone with access can download single files or the whole Room with Download all.
• The Room expires on its own, within your plan, so old event links do not stay open forever.

Use both, if you like

Many people end up with a sensible mix: a Room to collect during and after the event, then Download all and keep the archive in Drive with the rest of their files. Drive stays your long-term home, and the guests never have to learn it.

For more on this kind of setup, see our guides on collecting wedding photos from guests and Google Photos shared albums.