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iPhone Photos backup to Mac over Wifi

E

elliots11

macrumors member
Original poster
May 23, 2011
53
12
I've got too many GB of photos on my iPhone as I've transferred all of them phone to phone since iPhone 4 via iTunes. It's become overkill.
- I've moved from iPhoto to Apple Photos in El Cap and just spent a good amount of time organizing stuff for the first time in a long time.
- I hooked up my iPhone over lightning cable and brought years of photos over, and I clicked the box to delete the photos it brought over but Apple Photos didn't delete any of the photos on my phone for some reason. I guess I could go in with image capture and delete them, but I'd like it to work more cleanly.

What I want is pretty simple in theory: for my iPhone to backup photos to Apple Photos every night over wifi, ideally when iTunes is syncing.
Recent Photos: I'd like to set up a smart album that keeps track of photos added over the last 6 months or a year and then have those photos either stay on my phone or be synced to my phone. This way I have all my recent photos without the heft of several years of older photos & videos.
WiFi Only: I don't want to use iCloud in this process, or any other remote server. Local network only.

I see a way for iTunes to sync photos to the phone, but not from the phone, which is odd. I'm down to use third party apps if I have to, it's worth a couple of bucks if need be. Does anyone know a way to do this?
 
Last edited:
blaine07 said:
ITunes aside, I use this with local NAS via FTP incase anything we're to ever happen. Might be of help in your endeavor. Sorry I can't answer more questions.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photosync-wireless-photo-video/id415850124?mt=8

It has option to delete on transfer and a wifi browser from PC I believe. May check more of your boxes than I realize. Works good for me to save them. I still use iCloud too though
Click to expand...

This is working out pretty well, thanks blaine07.
 
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elliots11 said:
This is working out pretty well, thanks blaine07.
Click to expand...

Your welcome Glad I could be of use.

Make sure to go into settings and tell it on wifi to backup highest/original quality photo so it doesn't compress and turn on "Live Photos" if you want those backed up too!
 
I use PhotoSync too. It's great. The only complaint I have is not being able to backup automatically and periodically. It would be perfect to have such automatic backup like iCloud.
 
silverblack said:
I use PhotoSync too. It's great. The only complaint I have is not being able to backup automatically and periodically. It would be perfect to have such automatic backup like iCloud.
Click to expand...

I wish there was a way for it to automatically back up when connected to a certain wifi network after Xx amount of time. That way it would always backup when I connect to wifi at home. I guess problem probably is background service limitations in IOS?
 
blaine07 said:
I wish there was a way for it to automatically back up when connected to a certain wifi network after Xx amount of time. That way it would always backup when I connect to wifi at home. I guess problem probably is background service limitations in IOS?
Click to expand...

Actually, I take back what I said. There is an "auto transfer" option, and iBeacon support in PhotoSync. Will try it some day.
 
I use an app called photosync. its not free, but not expensive. I've been using it flawlessly for more than 2 years.
it can upload photos/videos to your designated network location (ftp, afp, webdav, amazon, dropbox, you name it). you can assign naming rules, folder structure. you can also have the upload triggered by location (which I'm using, and it takes pretty much no extra battery for location, which is a win for dropbox, I feel like when I used dropbox's auto upload, it take a big hit on battery life).

what's better is that there's a free Mac app, which you can upload to and from, and also you can have it automatically import your pics into your photo library after transfer is done.

also it can transfer pics between two phones/tablets.

plus, if you have decent 802.11ac wifi, the transfer speed is usually much faster than lightning (~60m vs. ~25m)


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based on your needs, you can have the app set to auto upload to your computer whenever you arrives home/office.
 
garyleecn said:
I use an app called photosync. its not free, but not expensive. I've been using it flawlessly for more than 2 years.
it can upload photos/videos to your designated network location (ftp, afp, webdav, amazon, dropbox, you name it). you can assign naming rules, folder structure. you can also have the upload triggered by location (which I'm using, and it takes pretty much no extra battery for location, which is a win for dropbox, I feel like when I used dropbox's auto upload, it take a big hit on battery life).

what's better is that there's a free Mac app, which you can upload to and from, and also you can have it automatically import your pics into your photo library after transfer is done.

also it can transfer pics between two phones/tablets.

plus, if you have decent 802.11ac wifi, the transfer speed is usually much faster than lightning (~60m vs. ~25m)


---------

based on your needs, you can have the app set to auto upload to your computer whenever you arrives home/office.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the app/use we mention above mate
 
garyleecn said:
looks like everyone loves the app.
Click to expand...

Photosync is pretty useful. I just wish it supported albums, but I think you'd need a first party support from Apple / iTunes for that. I could swear that I used to have it set up where iTunes automatically backed up my phone including the photos, but I guess I'm dreaming.
 
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