How to store old camcorder tapes

How to store old camcorder tapes

Nothing too complicated

• store the tapes in a cool and dry place, away from any direct sunlight and humidity
• Store the tapes together- a plastic box with a sealable lid would do the job

That’s pretty much it for how they need to be stored, the more time consuming process is making sure the tapes are still playable. Doing the below should help keep the tapes in working order for longer

• Regularly clean the tapes with a soft cloth to wipe away and dirt or dust, avoid letting it accumulate. No chemicals! No fibre cloths!
• If you have a large collection of tapes, might be worth investing in a tape cleaner. It’s used to clean the tape heads and rollers to make sure the tape can play smoothly without anything obstructing the rollers.

Doing these should help keep your tapes working for much longer than if you were to do nothing so we’d encourage taking the time to do that but all these will do is prolong the lifespan of the tapes, they will deteriorate at some point and they are prone to damage. Since you’ve taken the time and effort to record things on the tapes, take the extra step of making sure you won’t lose those memories by digitising them.

There are a bunch of options for digitising- getting done at say Walmart or one of those specialised digitising service places. Both easy options but expensive depending on the number of tapes you have plus you’d have to go through the hassle of dropping them off and collecting them.

An easier method we’d recommend that we’ve usually done for our tapes is digitising them at home, which depending on the software you use can be affordable and easy to do or cost way too much and leave you with a headache. If the former is what you’re after, LifeFlix is your software. Affordable and easy to use- headache free.

We’d give the steps for using it but I don’t think we need to cause it is just that simple. Buy LifeFlix, open it, and follow the instructions. They have loads of guides, tutorials and little information pockets on their website Lifeflix.com and on their YouTube channel, so do check them out if you hit a snag.

We tried to keep it brief, no life stories, no story about grandma, just what you need to do, why you need to do it and how. Get to it!