How I Saved Decades of Family Memories to Digital in Minutes

Here’s one clever shortcut that saved me over 400 hours of work

Somewhere along the line I became our whole family’s “memory keeper.”

I’m not sure how that happened. Maybe because I tend to be the most organized and responsible. Plus, call me super sentimental but I want to keep our precious memories alive to pass along to my kids and their kids.

I guess I just don’t want our heritage to be forgotten…

In any case, I ended up with an attic FULL of old family memories. So many boxes and bins stuffed with home videos, family photo albums, film reels, and carousels of slides.

Maybe this looks familiar?

(Yeah, I know I said I’m organized… Don’t judge! This is the state of what was handed off to me by the rest of the family. LOL)

The project

After my dad died I made it my goal to sort all of our family memories and convert everything over to digital. Our oldest photos were getting more worn and yellowed and I found out that video tapes degrade over time.

I had no idea!

I felt the clock ticking and I didn’t want to lose any precious memories to the passage of time.

I wanted to surprise my mom with a family memory “watch party” for what would’ve been my mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary. With our family gathered together it would also be a perfect time to give everyone their own copies of our digital keepsakes and childhood memories.

My DIY video disaster

With my “spare time” (ha!) I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. First up: our VHS home videos.

I haven’t owned a VCR in years so I borrowed one from a friend so I could take a look at our tapes. I was a little scared, honestly. Was there anything left?

I said a little prayer and held my breath as I popped the first tape into the VCR.

As the first images of my daughter’s dance recital flickered onto the screen, my heart sank. The video was so distorted and fuzzy I couldn’t even make out her smiling face.

Oh no! I was frantic.

I fiddled around with the tracking settings on the VCR but it only made things worse. There were sections of video that were a bit better, but all-in-all the first tape was too far gone to salvage.

I put in another tape, hoping for the best…

Bands of static and sound problems…

I literally cried. Another home video lost.

Thankfully after the first two VHS tapes, I was able to find some that were in much better shape. Yay! But… how do you transfer from VHS to digital? I had no idea.

I read online that you can use your phone camera to video your TV while you play VHS tapes as a way to get a digital copy. (BTW, don’t bother trying that — I did it and the videos came out terrible).

I was feeling super defeated so I scrapped the video project and figured I would come back to it later when I was in a better place. It was time to move on to photos…

My photo failure…

After the video fiasco, I needed to figure out how to digitize old photos, slides and negatives. My printer has a built-in scanner that I had never used, so I thought I would give it a shot. How hard could it be, right?

I started with one of my favorite photos of my mom when she was a baby.

After multiple scanning attempts it was coming out crooked, pixelated, and with an odd bright-spot glare. Here’s the best version I was able to do on my own:

The end result was not exactly awesome as you can see.

All in all my first scanned photo took about… 35 minutes. For one picture. Dang!

My best guess is that I still had at least 1,000 photos to scan. At the rate I was going it was going to take hundreds of hours to digitize everything.

And that’s not even counting all the VHS home videos and old 8mm movies — those were a whole different challenge to tackle.

My little “side project” had gone from feeling daunting to downright impossible. I had to find a better way…

My shortcut discovery

Who has hundreds of spare hours to spend on this stuff? Not me.

I set out on a quest to find the smartest way to digitize ALL of our family memories and I discovered a company called iMemories — They convert everything to digital for you.

They work with all formats of old media, including:

• VHS and camcorder tapes
• 16mm, 8mm and Super8 film reels
• All photo formats (prints, slides and negatives)

Professional results, 100% done for you. Brilliant! I could’ve sworn in that moment I heard a choir of angels sing.

How does it work?

iMemories takes care of everything, start-to-finish. To start the process, they send you a crush-proof, water-proof, shock-resistant box with a pre-paid shipping label for your project.

You just put your old videos, photos, slides, negatives — even full photo albums into the SafeShip kit and drop it off with FedEx for secure transport.

The best part is that there’s no need to sort, label, or organize anything — they do it for you!

iMemories converts everything to digital files, uploads them into a secure PRIVATE “cloud” portal that you can access from anywhere.

SUPER simple.

Once everything is digitized, you get all your originals back for safe keeping.

The “cloud” part is really cool because you’re able to access the files from anywhere — your computer, smartphone or tablet. You never have to worry about your computer crashing, misplacing any of your memories, or losing your videos and photos in the event of a disaster, like a house fire or flood.

You can also use the cloud portal to easily share files online with your family and friends, plus you can download everything to your computer.

(Don’t want cloud storage? No worries. iMemories will put your videos and photos on DVDs, Blu-ray discs, or a USB thumb drive for you.)

What does it cost?

Even though they have the best technicians and equipment in the industry, they’re still surprisingly affordable. (You can check out current pricing HERE.)

One nice thing is that iMemories provides a no-obligation quote before starting your project, so you know exactly what it will cost — no surprises.

When I tried to go cheap and “DIY it” I learned a hard lesson about the value of my time. Trust me — the professional results are 100% worth it!

Is it safe?

Before getting started, I wanted to be absolutely sure I could trust iMemories with our family heirlooms, so I dug deep into customer reviews and company reputation.

What I found is that iMemories is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Since 2005 they’ve helped over 1,000,000 families and have digitized tens of millions of photos and videos.

My experience

After my research I decided to go for it and ordered a SafeShip Kit to get the ball rolling.

I wanted to start off with a smaller “test batch” of videos and photos and it took me less than 15 minutes to pack everything up. Easy peasy!

I got a notification when my kit arrived at iMemories and their technicians got to work right away. Within hours the first videos started appearing in my online account.

I held my breath as I hit “Play” on my first video…

As I watched little “baby me” taking my first steps into my mom’s outstretched arms, her smile beaming… happy tears started flowing.

I instantly knew it was 100% worth every penny.

A few weeks later I finally had the chance to organize a family memory watch party to surprise my mom and it was such a fun time for the whole family. Even the grandkids loved seeing the old footage and pics of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

(Secretly, I loved feeling like the family hero for preserving our legacy and bringing everyone closer together.)

After the watch party everyone agreed: all those once-in-a-lifetime moments and memories are priceless. They’re worth saving before they’re lost to the passing of time.

If you’re interested in preserving your past and bringing your family closer together with a walk down memory lane, my advice is DO IT. Don’t let procrastination rob you of precious moments.

Want help converting your home videos and family photos to digital? I highly recommend checking out iMemories.