5 Steps to Preserve Photos Stored in Magnetic Photo Albums

Do you have any magnetic photo albums that look like this?
I sure did!!
I remember putting together photo albums of me and my siblings in the late 70s. We thought that sticky adhesive was great – it kept the photo in place. UGH – little did we know that would come back to haunt us!
Do you have magnetic albums where the photos have plastic overlays and are on magnetic pages? If so, you will want to follow these 5 steps to start to remove and preserve your photos that have been stored in magnetic photo albums.

Step 1: Gather all your magnetic photo albums in one place and organize them. Use clues from the photos to help if there are no dates on the albums or pages. Some of these albums will be deteriorating so handle with care. This will ensure that the loose photos do not fall out of the albums.

Step 2: Gather your supplies.

• Cotton gloves because the oils on your fingers can negatively affect the photographs
• Dental floss  – Teflon (because it won’t shred) and unwaxed. Feed under a lifted edge of a photo on a self-stick page. Pull side to side – but do not lift up on the image otherwise it can rip or curl.
• Archival safe storage envelopes or boxes for storing the photos
• Sticky notes so that you can capture any text (written in the album) and adhere to the back of the photo.

Step 3: Culling the photos. It is unlikely that every photo in the albums are keepsakes. Thus, only remove the photos that you want to preserve. Process one page at a time especially if there are captions tied to the photos. Take care to keep them in the same order. Even though it might not always look like it there is most likely order or theme to the photos in the albums.

Step 4: Scanning & File Naming. Caption the text on each photo (via a sticky note) and then scan. Next, name the digital file and be sure to include the year, month and day (if available) as part of the name of the photo file. For example 1975-10-25-Carolyn’s-First-Birthday.

Step 5: Backup your scanned photos. Store the best of the removed photos in an archival safe box. Save the photos in three places. 1) On your computer (I recommend Backblaze for an entire computer backup.) 2) Save to an external hard drive. 3) Save the best in an archival box.

A client dropped off these photo albums (above picture) to have me scan and make digital photo books for her. She marked the photos with an X indicating the photos she did not want. I scanned the rest, renamed, organized, and uploaded to SmugMug. This way she could show her siblings their childhood photos. She wanted me to throw away her photo albums. Instead, I took the above photo and gave it to her. She said that was a keepsake that she did not know she would treasure. I also gave her back the albums.

Would you like help with a project of preserving your photos from magnetic albums? Schedule a 20-minute complimentary phone consultation today!

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rita norton

I am the momma to two children and was an Oregonian for the past 25+ years. A job transfer for my husband (in the summer of 2016) resulted in a cross country move and now I am a Massachusettsan. I confess, I had to look up the demonym! The birth of my son 20+ years ago was also the start of my entrepreneurial adventure. Photos have always been at the core of my businesses and continue to inspire and drive my passion to create beautiful keepsake photo collections for my clients.