Introducing Photos Backup Anywhere: A Simple Backup Solution for Your Photos

[Mike Boreham]

Beta 2.0 Now Available – New Feature: Restore backups

I've released version 2.0 for beta testing. This update introduces a major new feature: the ability to restore backups directly into the Photos library, preserving as much original meta data as possible. This includes:

• Non-destructive edits to photos and videos
• Albums
• Live Photos
• Portrait photos
• Slo-mo and Cinematic videos
• Burst photos
• Adjustments to the date or location made inside the Photos app
• Favorites and Hidden items

Additionally, the backup engine’s database layer has been completely rewritten to improve reliability, especially when storing backups on a NAS or other network-mounted locations.

You can download the beta here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TcDH3ccO

Upgrade Notes

• If you use an existing 1.x backup, the first time you run 2.0, it will perform a one-time migration. This migration won’t affect your 1.x backup.
• You can downgrade back to the released 1.x version at any time. The two versions work in parallel.

Please share any feedback or issues you run into. I’m especially interested in results from real-world restores and backup behavior with different storage setups.

Looking forward to your feedback!

— Ben

Looks like a great app, but can someone clarify a key point for me please:

My initial understanding is that the folder structure of the back up is YYYY/MM/DD, but the above says that beta 2.0 supports Albums. How does this work?

I have c92,000 photos and videos going back to the 1880s. Many of these are scans or photos of photos done at various times, and the date info in the metadata bears no relation to the date the original photo was taken. In Photos I have an album and folder structure which is based on the dates the original photo was taken. I maintain an independent folder based backup of the Photos lib, with structure corresponding to the Photos albums based on original dates.

If this app preserves the Photos app album and folder structure it could replace my manual backup which would be great.

Thanks for any input.

 

[JemTheWire]

I have a strange GUI issue that occurs randomly. The 'Backup Completed' text is upside down!