How do you backup iPhone Photo/Video

xiaofan

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Just wondering how people here backup photos/videos taken on the iPhone?

In the beginning I imported the photos to Mac iPhoto or Windows and then backup to external HDDs (usually 2 copies) using Time Machines and/or FreeFileSync (FreeFileSync works across Windows/Linux/Mac), same as other documents on the computers. Later I also got an WD My Cloud 3TB to have one more backup copy. This is good enough for my documents (using FreeFileSync to the NAS instead of the lousy WD program). No need to backup to the cloud since I have at least three copies.

Later the photos are simply too much to the computer and I kind of stop backing up the photo and switch to Google Photos and also the WD NAS. But WD My Cloud iOS app is not very good so I kind stop again and chooses Flickr (free up to 1TB) as the second backup to Google Photos.

Now Flickr is going to limit the free account to 1000 photos— so it becomes useless again. We have one 128GB iPhone 6S and an iPhone 7+ 256GB as well as an iPhone X 256GB actively being used at home.

How do you backup you iPhone photos?

I do not to pay for iCloud as it is a bit expensive since I need the 2TB plan (200GB not enough) at S$12.98 per month. But it is pretty convenient.

Google Photos are good but still want to have another one. One Drive (1TB each person for Office 365 Home at S$148 per year) seems to be one option. SingTel Office 365 Home Plan is at S$9.9 per month.

NAS with better iOS photos backup seems to be another option.
 
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xiaofan

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Flickr Pro at US$50 per year (unlimited storage) seems to be another option. But two accounts will then cost US$100 per year.
 

xiaofan

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Anyone using Synology NAS and can comment how good the iOS app is? Or other NAS?
 
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deathst

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iCloud 2TB the best. It is steep cause it works for all files even on your MacBooks and can even backup your iOS devices there.

So one shot backup everything there.
 

xiaofan

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Copy and paste

That was what I did last time, copy to first external HDD and/or NAS and then cut to the second external HDD.

A bit lazy now to do that. Only left one Windows laptop with only 256GB SSD
after my Mac Mini 2011 died early this year.

Prefer to use apps on the iPhone to backup the photos.
 

PetPet

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TLDR;Purchase additional iCloud Drive storage. Use iCloud Photo Library and backup

Why? Because it cuts down 99% of the time you need to invest to housekeep your device.

You don’t have to worry about

- Did I backup my device last week?
- Did I extract my photos?
- Is my backup reliable? Can I rely on it if my device gives up on me tomorrow?

And the list goes on.

We take photos so that we’re able to re-visit them sometime later. More often than not when you manually backup your photos by manually isolating them in folders. It gets forgotten.

Invest in iCloud Drive and keep these memories in the cloud instead. Spend your time worrying about something else
 

xiaofan

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Invest in iCloud Drive and keep these memories in the cloud instead. Spend your time worrying about something else

Yes that seems to be one of the best ways to go since the 2TB plan has got family sharing feature. Still I’d like to compare with other cloud based options and NAS options.

I can live with Google Photos for now (it is the best since it is free and unlimited) while I am exploring options.
 

xiaofan

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Yes that seems to be one of the best ways to go since the 2TB plan has got family sharing feature. Still I’d like to compare with other cloud based options and NAS options.

I can live with Google Photos for now (it is the best since it is free and unlimited) while I am exploring options.

BTW, even if I go with iCloud or other Cloud solution, I may still want to add NAS option as a backup. Triple redundancy is good. 😄
 

cnt

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With nas raid 5, why do you need so many backup? Chances of 2 hdds failure at the same time is very low
 

xiaofan

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With nas raid 5, why do you need so many backup? Chances of 2 hdds failure at the same time is very low

I have not used two Bay NAS yet. Not so sure if the apps are good or not.
 

cnt

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I have not used two Bay NAS yet. Not so sure if the apps are good or not.
You need min 3 hdds for raid 5. I haven't try backing up file to nas but it shouldn't be too difficult. You can take a look at synology
 

xiaofan

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You need min 3 hdds for raid 5. I haven't try backing up file to nas but it shouldn't be too difficult. You can take a look at synology

I am looking at Synology. The problem with my WD My Cloud app is that it is not able to organise the photos and the file name will roll over after10000 photos.

Google Photos is perfect for my usage. Not so sure if any NAS app offered similar functionality (less is okay, at least to organise the files based on month/year).

I do not worry too much about using single Bay NAS as I can buy one more (say from Seagate to have a bit of diversity to avoid common cause failure) but the WD app is not good.

So far none of my external USB HDD or NAS died as I used them only once per week or two weeks. Even my 10 year old WD My World 500GB personal NAS is still working (with all my old stuff and now backup to two new external 4TB 3.5 inch HDD, one from WD and one from Seagate).

Still I do not mind pay a bit for for RAID.
 
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xiaofan

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https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/Mobile/help/DSphoto/iOS_iPhone

Looks like Synology DS Photo app seems to be okay for basic usage. The initial backup could be painful because of the 3-5 minutes background task limitation.

“To upload photos in the background:
iOS apps cannot perform background tasks for more than 3 to 10 minutes. Using geofences to add locations will trigger and resume upload tasks in the background for another 3 to 10 minutes whenever you leave or re-enter the defined areas. Tap > Geofence > Create to add geofences.”
 

cnt

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I am looking at Synology. The problem with my WD My Cloud app is that it is not able to organise the photos and the file name will roll over after10000 photos.

Google Photos is perfect for my usage. Not so sure if any NAS app offered similar functionality (less is okay, at least to organise the files based on month/year).

I do not worry too much about using single Bay NAS as I can buy one more (say from Seagate to have a bit of diversity to avoid common cause failure) but the WD app is not good.

So far none of my external USB HDD or NAS died as I used them only once per week or two weeks. Even my 10 year old WD My World 500GB personal NAS is still working (with all my old stuff and now backup to two new external 4TB 3.5 inch HDD, one from WD and one from Seagate).

Still I do not mind pay a bit for for RAID.
I never use my synology for iPhone backup so I can't comment. Maybe I'll try it when free
 

xiaofan

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For the Cloud solution it seems nothing beat iCloud in terms of features/convenience with Google Photos being No 2 (but it is free).

OneDrive only comes to picture if Office 365 is desired. So far Office 2010 is still supported under Windows 10 so not yet needed to upgrade. I was using Office 2010 under Mac Mini as well before it died early this year.
 

theoryofr

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i am pissed with itunes because each time i try to back up my phone , my laptop storage is full so i bought 2TB icloud plan
 

xiaofan

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BTW Flickr is actually pretty decent in terms of upload speed for photos but videos upload is quite slow — I have not got my Wife’s videos fully uploaded yet before the announcement that it will limit free member to 1000 photos. She got more than 180GB plus of photo/video in her iPhone 7+ (many videos) but much less in her current iPhone X now (7GB) since I have told her to take less videos.
 
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