A
Please advice any free siftware which can be used to password protect files/folders or photo folders also to upload in cloud storage...hundred of such software in google is mindbogling
Any other free software
Why do you need a free software other than 7-zip?

What you wish for doesn't really exist. Your account login is already a password lock of sorts for you files. Another lock inside that seems redundant, unless storing files using archiving tools
I didn't recommend rclone because he will probably destroy/corrupt his data by using wrong commands.
Just use 7-zip's inbuilt encryption with a strong password.
When you upload any data to big cloud storage providers(basically google & microsoft) then your data security is linked to your account password & as long as your account is safe then your data is safe. Now privacy is another matter where you don't even want your cloud storage provider to see what you are uploading in which case you have to password protect your data first before uploading to cloud by using software like 7-zip.
Compression is not mandatory when using 7-zip as there is a mode with 0% compression/storage mode where your data is just converted to an archive with same size as original data & this process is faster as compressing data takes more processor power.
Ok...thanks