Identify rather than guess
An original may be a camera file, a scan or the earliest available export. File size alone cannot establish provenance: an enlarged derivative can be larger than its source. Compare dimensions, format, date context and where the file came from. Where the original is unavailable, label the best surviving copy honestly rather than inventing a recovery claim.
Keep meaningful derivatives
A corrected scan, a carefully cropped portrait or a version with a family annotation can be valuable even when it is not the master. Preserve it as a related derivative with an understandable name. Do not overwrite the source in order to make the collection look uniform. The archive can contain several purposeful versions without becoming an uncontrolled duplicate pile.
Make the distinction visible
Use separate master and working locations or clear suffixes that survive an ordinary file download. A note inside one photo app may not travel with an export. Test the actual exported package before relying on its relationship metadata. pCloud’s documented photo presentation features should not be mistaken for proof that every original-to-edit relationship will survive another application.
A fictional pair
A household has a scanned portrait and a brighter cropped JPEG used in a birthday slideshow. Keep both: one as the available scan source, the other as the presentation copy. Record that the paper original is elsewhere and the scan date differs from the photograph’s date. This makes future editing possible while allowing relatives to use the readable version now.
Record the relationship
For each meaningful derivative, retain enough context to find its source again. A short private note can explain that one file is a cropped working version and another is the available scan. If the relationship is uncertain, preserve that uncertainty. The goal is not to force a single winner among useful files, but to prevent later edits from erasing the evidence needed to make another version.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- Library of Congress: personal digital photographs — Research study · digitalpreservation.gov · Publisher independence not verified · checked 2026-09-28
- pCloud Photos — Merchant documentation · pcloud.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-28