What to Do With Old Family Photos

By the Resly AI team · Updated 18 October 2026

The short answer

Start by labelling who is in them while someone still remembers, then store the prints somewhere cool, dry and dark in acid-free boxes or sleeves. Scan them so a copy exists if the prints are lost, and share the scans with the family. Restore copies of the damaged or faded ones, and keep every original exactly as it is.

First, ask who is in them

The most urgent thing about a box of old photos is not the fading or the creases. It is that the people who know who is in them will not always be here to say. A print can be restored decades from now; a name, once nobody remembers it, is gone.

Sit down with the oldest relatives and go through the box together. Write down names, places, rough years and any story that comes up. Recording the conversation on a phone is even better.
Write on the back of the print in soft pencil, near the edge. Ballpoint and felt-tip ink can press through or bleed into the photo over time, and sticky notes leave residue.
For prints you can't write on, number them and keep the names in a list or spreadsheet that travels with the box.

Sorting without getting stuck

A box of hundreds of photos is easy to put off for years. Don't try to make it perfect.

1
Sort roughly first
By decade, by family branch or by person, whichever comes naturally. Envelopes or index cards are fine as dividers.
2
Pull out the ones that matter most
Weddings, the only photo of a great-grandparent, a parent as a child. These are the ones to scan and protect first.
3
It is fine to let some go
Blurry duplicates, scenery nobody can place, twenty near-identical shots of one birthday cake. Keeping the best of each moment makes the rest easier to look after and to enjoy.

How to store old photos

Cool, dry and dark: an inside closet or under a bed, not the attic, basement or garage. Heat and damp are what fade prints, stick them together and grow mold.
Acid-free, photo-safe boxes, sleeves and albums. Look for "PAT passed" (the Photographic Activity Test) or "archival" on the label.
Stand prints upright in a box or lay them flat; don't pack them so tight they bend.
Hang copies on the wall, not the original. Light fades a print within years. See why old photos fade.

Old "magnetic" albums, the ones with sticky pages under a plastic sheet, slowly yellow and damage the prints in them. If a photo lifts off easily, move it to an archival album or sleeve. If it is stuck fast, don't pry it off: it can tear. Scan or photograph the whole page with the photo still on it instead.

Scan them, and share the scans

A scanned photo cannot fade, burn or get lost in a move, and it can be in every relative's hands at once. A flatbed scanner at 600 DPI is ideal; a phone works too: lay the print flat by a window, flash off, phone straight above. Free apps such as Google PhotoScan remove glare.

Name the files with who and when ("grandma-rose-wedding-1952.jpg") so the label survives even if the print's doesn't, and keep them in two places, for example a computer and a cloud folder the family can open.

Restore copies, keep the originals

Some old photos are loved partly because they look old: the soft focus, the cream border, the warm fade. There is no need to change those. Restoration is for the ones where damage is getting in the way of the people: a crease through a face, a corner torn off, a print gone so red nobody's skin looks right.

Restore the scanned copy, never the print itself, and keep both. The restored version is for framing and sharing; the original is the record. Resly restores scans and phone photos on the restore old photos page and can colorize black-and-white ones, keeping faces as they were.

A 19th-century sepia portrait of a bearded man with a crack across his face, restored and colorized — A 234 × 340 pixel copy of a cracked 1880s portrait, restored and colorized by Resly. Photo: Eugène Pirou, public domain.

A 19th-century sepia portrait of a bearded man with a crack across his face, before restoration — A 234 × 340 pixel copy of a cracked 1880s portrait, restored and colorized by Resly. Photo: Eugène Pirou, public domain.

Restore a photo from the box

Upload a scan or a phone photo of the print. Damage and fading are repaired, faces are kept as they were, and you can add color or choose a print size.

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Questions

What should I do with old family photos?

Label who is in them, store the prints cool, dry and dark in acid-free boxes, scan them, share the scans with family and restore copies of the damaged ones. Keep the originals.

How should I store old photos long term?

In acid-free, PAT-passed boxes or sleeves, somewhere cool and dry with a steady temperature, such as an inside closet. Avoid attics, basements, garages and old sticky "magnetic" albums.

How do I get photos out of an old sticky album?

If a photo lifts easily, move it to an archival sleeve. If it is stuck, don't force it, because it can tear. Scan or photograph the whole page with the photo in place.

Is it OK to throw away old photos?

Yes, for duplicates, blurry shots and scenes nobody can identify, once the ones that matter are kept. Scan anything you are unsure about before letting it go.

Should I restore old photos or leave them as they are?

Both: keep the original untouched and restore a scanned copy. Many old photos are best left looking old; restoration is for damage that gets in the way of the faces.