this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
7 points (100.0% liked)

Android

441 readers
1 users here now

A place to discuss anything related to Android or Android adjacent.


INFO:


Check Out Our Partner Communities:

!android@lemmy.world

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've mostly just relied on Google Photos, and I really like its features. However, I have always been deathly afraid of losing access to my Google photos account and losing all of those, so I need a better way to actually back up my photos. Right now all I do is do a Google Takeout every so often, but that's inefficient as hell.

How do you do it? How do you backup or sync your photos with a PC/local server?

top 34 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Syncthing, super easy to set up and use on android and linux. It works with everything, not just photos.

To access files stored on my home server from my phone, I use Material Files with sftp set up

[–] naoseiquemsou@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Syncthing is awesome. I'm never losing data to a damaged or stolen device again, and it makes accessing data from a computer and sending data to the phone so much easier.

But we have to keep in mind that syncthing doesn't protect by default us from accidental deletion, so it's not a 100% replacement for a backup.

[–] toketin@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago

Quote Syncthing! I've also a Nextcloud instance shared with my girlfriend in order to share selected photos.

[–] Crabhands@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Just gonna chime in and agree with this guy. Syncthing is great! I use it with Android and Windows for my photos and password manager.

[–] peanuts4life 4 points 1 year ago

I ran out of space on my Google photos 😔 I've converted to Christianity and pray every night to God in heaven that my phone doesn't die.

[–] sloth@latte.isnot.coffee 4 points 1 year ago

Google 1. I should really do a manual back up as well but I get lazy.

[–] musaoruc@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I use syncthing. Once setup its really nice.

[–] ScottE@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Same here, syncthing is fantastic and I use it for all kinds of stuff - including backing up phone media.

[–] akp 1 points 1 year ago

Syncthing is a godsend

[–] MoTheAmazing@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I just use Google Photos.

[–] xonigo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I use syncthing to sync my camera folder on my pixel 6a phone with a folder on my NAS.

Then I have an old moto x with pixel experience rom (the rom has unlimited Google photos backup) and syncthing. This phone turns on once a day at night with a smartplug - the folder on my NAS syncs with a folder on phone. The phone backs up the photos to Google photos at full quality.

I'm still mad that Google took away the photo backup for pixel phones. But this seems to work for now

[–] SaintPaul 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Look into getting a USB-C flash drive and transfer the photos to that. You can find a 128gb drive for $15.

[–] coldblade2000 1 points 1 year ago

You mean manually moving it using a file explorer on my phone right? I mean that's my plan B but I'm hoping for some app that could help me sync or do delta updates in a more simplified way

[–] TwinTurbo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

USB flash drives are not reliable for long-term storage. Please make sure you have another backup if you keep your photos on one.

[–] withersailor@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

I have two backups systems. One uses rclone the other is a python script using ADB.

[–] meat_glue@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I recently set up an immich server.

[–] JshKlsn@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yes! Immich is incredible. It's a self hosted Google images for anyone that doesn't know, and it's really close to being an exact replica.

I absolutely love it. https://immich.app/

[–] rawrspace@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

With my Samsung s22+ I can just plug in a usb-c cable to my PC and then browse the files on my phone to back them up.

I also have a flash drive where one side is usb-c and the other is USB A. SanDisk Dual Drive

Another alternative (more technical) could be to to use Solid Explorer which has the ability to setup remote connections to online backup. It also has a built in FTP server you can start on your phone and then from your PC you can connect and get your photos.

[–] ososalsosal@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Plug in to lappy, run shell script that crawls DCIM for dngs, jpgs, mp4s etc and sticks em in folders named by date

[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Syncthing-fork /sdcard so I don't need to worry about losing my phone. Saved me when my nexus 5x suddenly boot looped

[–] spookedbyroaches@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Why the forked one and not the main branch?

[–] MindlessZ@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I have a two-pronged approach. I use Google photos as is with their normal compression for searchability and casual browsing of photos, but I also have Nextcloud running on my own server where my photos are all backed up in full quality. Both uploads happen automatically so I don't have to think about it

[–] vintageballs@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

I run a nextcloud instance and sync everything using the mobile app. Works very well.

Additionally, "memories" for nextcloud gives a Google Photos-like experience in the browser. The only thing I am missing is a proper mobile app.

[–] Hexarei 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I selfhost a Nextcloud server at home, and use its "auto upload" functionality to automatically upload my photos and videos as I take them.

I have that server automatically backed up (in encrypted format) nightly to an Amazon S3 bucket and then to an external hard drive once a month.

[–] coldblade2000 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's pretty interesting. I've thought of setting up a Nextcloud but it didn't ocurr to me it could help out with this.

About your S3 backup strategy, I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind:

  • Do you essentially just make an encrypted .zip or .tgz of your whole NC instance and upload it straight? Or do you have some kind of delta updating

  • What S3 tier do you use? Intelligent-Tiering or something else?

[–] Hexarei 1 points 1 year ago

I actually have the files stored in a pool on a TrueNAS machine, which handles the backup process for me in an automated fashion. I have it set to do ZFS snapshots and ship those.

I used IA tiered storage for a long time; Though I actually moved to Wasabi recently, as it's cheaper. It's just easier to say S3 because people recognize it lol.

[–] Holdmydrpepper 1 points 1 year ago

I export them to an external. Once I move them I delete my Google photos. Rinse and repeat. I've considered paying for expanded cloud storage so I don't have to dig for a picture or video from months/years ago, but that's another project for another day.

[–] edent@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

I use https://nextcloud.com/ - it's a bit like DropBox in that it copies data to a cloud server and also to computers directly under my control.

I use Nextcloud instant upload. As soon as i take (or even download) a picture or video it is automatically copied to my server.

[–] Willow536@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Wothhe spirit of degoogling and looking at your own drive backups, look into Synology drive and Photos as your photos and cloud backup.

[–] Gort@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get unlimited photos backup included with its Amazon Photos app.

Edit: Hmm... the downvote helped me realise that I wasn't really being on-topic. Sorry that my post was off-topic. I misunderstood what was wanted by OP. Still, it's not a bad thing to have more than one online backup.

[–] confetti_8tVST5@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can keep using google photos/drive as your cloud backup with cryptomator if you would like privacy. Locally with a cable, I use a 1 tb external hard drive for all my backup needs (photos,videos and other files) and then I have a copy of that same drive's contents on a different 1tb hard drive as a sort of backup backup drive all encrypted via veracrypt. I just remember to copy over my original photos every week or so. It should be noted that I'm not taking hundreds of photos a day though. Storage is pretty cheap nowadays if you opt for spinning mechanical hard drives and pair them with a case and its a pretty good, local backup method imo.

[–] fucker@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just pay for Google Photos and forget about it, it's the easiest way and worth my money. Most apps are backed up in a server anyway.

[–] evo@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

immich is really promising. Works well for the basic stuff (and quickly adding features) but it's still early days.

load more comments
view more: next ›