Ask HN: SmugMug locks-in (part of) my data. What shall I do?
I just discovered that the original video files that I uploaded to SmugMug were downsampled into another format, and to make things even worse - the metadata is lost on download. That is, the original video date and time, location info etc is visible on SmugMug, but no longer available when I download a video (either individually or inside a gallery). This metadata is really important to me.<p>I contacted SmugMug support, but they basically say they can&#x27;t help :( they don&#x27;t seem to be willing to re-apply it to the video, nor to export it into another format (the metadata is still shown&#x2F;stored on SmugMug, so it&#x27;s not totally lost, but it&#x27;s effectively locked-in).<p>What shall I do? I thought maybe submitting a GDPR data portability request for all my data[0]. It seems a bit weird to go down that path, but it is within my rights as a European citizen. Otherwise, any ideas on how to &quot;convince&quot; SmugMug to avoid this weird lock-in? They&#x27;re generally a very helpful company, but not in this case it seems.<p>[0] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ico.org.uk&#x2F;for-organisations&#x2F;guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr&#x2F;individual-rights&#x2F;right-to-data-portability&#x2F;