Hi,
I’m trying to find a way to have my iPhone’s photos be automatically (or even manually) backed up/synced with my home server.
I heard about photo prism here and got it up and running, however I could not find a free app that lets you sync. Photo sync is their main recommendation and it puts high quality photo backup behind premium.
Is there any solution that lets you backup your photos through home wifi?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: thanks to the suggestions, I found this handy chart listing many and comparing them: https://meichthys.github.io/foss_photo_libraries/
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This is amazing, exactly what I was looking for!
This. Its excellent. Cross platform. AI search. Location tagging. Everythibg u want.
Sounds overkill just for backing up files.
Its more of a complete Google Photos replacement than a basic backup/syncing system
Immich. Come for the photo backup, stay for everything else because it’s awesome.
Like everyone is saying, Immich.
But keep an eye on updates because it is under active development so breaking changes tend to happen every once in a while.
Does Immich auto update / breaking changes?
On itself it doesn’t auto update, you do get a notification in the app if your server is outdated.
You can setup watchtower or something similar to update it but it is discouraged due to the active development
Does Immich auto update
Only if you auto-update the docker images on your server.
There have been a few breaking chances, but it just takes a minute to tweak the compose file and it’s up and running again.
Apparently docker images must be manually updated, so currently I don’t. Thanks for the info.
The server doesn’t, except if you have watchtower or something similar.
The app auto updates on your phone though, unless turned off.
Damn. I think a few updates have happened on the App but not seen an issue yet. Guess I’ll update the docker image when an app update does break it - family don’t use it often and I don’t want to manage their phone updating the app.
Luckily the app is generally (but not always) backwards compatible. It’ll just nag you to upgrade the server.
I use syncthing to keep all my documents and pictures synced between my devices.
Yeah this.
I don’t keep all my photos in sync though. Only the last few months.
I’m using photoprism to browse photos on my server but I’ve been meaning to look at other options because it’s not that great IMO.
Immich has a setting that does automatic photo backup over WiFi, I use the android app as a Google photos replacement. You can choose however many folders on your phone as you want (I just do camera roll) and enable only backup over WiFi and it backs up all the photos in original quality. I self-host the server on my Synology with a reverse proxy (can’t forward ports at my current place due to cgnat) so I can access it from anywhere.
I believe the app is cross platform so the iPhone version should be identical to the android one.
Immich has completely replaced Google Photos for me, love it!
My only bugbear is that it is updated very frequently (what a nice problem to have!) which in my case requires a manual once-over of my docker-compose file every time in case there are breaking changes.
I go the other way, auto-update and fix the file if it goes down lol
I use Immich, and I love it.
Nextcloud’s instant upload feature?
Whenever I take a picture or screenshot it’s uploaded there.Nextcloud might be overkill if that’s the only feature you need. I’ve never used the more involved stuff like chat or document editing, just sync.
You can use the Nextcloud app with the much simpler KaraDAV backend. Works fine for photo backups.
Nextcloud has so many bugs when you store a lot of files, and photos on a phone accumulate to a big number. Both their Android app and server doesn’t deal with a few years’ worth of photos.
That feature kinda works, but it’s incredibly fragile. It has caused so many annoyances for me over the last year or so that I’m finally done with the thing. Just go with immich instead, less headache.
Nextcloud. Works super well.
I think right now it is a throwdown between:
- Nextcloud Photos
- Immich
- Ente Photos
Nextcloud photos is in the “proof of concept” stage, not even alpha.
I’ve been using it for a couple of years though. I have not really had any problems with auto-upload from my android phone. So not sure if that “not even alpha stage” comment is correct. I don’t know the state of it on iOS though.
Can confirm that nextcloud photo back is for the most part rock solid, they have had some issues when Android changes something and that mess up the process.
But I took have been running it for years, of your nextcloud install is ropey then your photo sync will be.
Automatic photo upload works good, but it’s the album creation (and sharing with other users) that severely lacks in features. 3rd party modules like memories are also better
But for official photos, last time i checked it 3 months ago, you could add photos to an album only at the moment of creation, and not add later
You can easily add photos to an album from the web interface. But still not from the Nextcloud android client.
I’ve been using folder sync pro for ages and ages https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full
It basically syncs a folder from your phone to a folder on your home servers share.
I think it was paid… But it’s been years so I couldn’t tell you.
It doesn’t matter what software you use, Apple doesn’t allow automatic backups on their phones. Consider buying a different phone that allows you to use it as you see fit.
Photo sync claims it does and as I mentioned in the post, I’m okay with needing to trigger it myself via its own app.
You shouldn’t be okay with that.
Do you need a hug?
Uhhh I’ll take one if you’re giving them 😃
I have all my photos synced to iCloud and have Apple Photos running on my Mac with the option to “always download originals” enabled. Then, I run a daily backup of my Mac’s photo library to my NAS. For this, I’m using CCC at the moment but I’m planning to switch to restic.
