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Backing up iPhone photos to an external disk is pretty easy. It's not the happy path because most people cannot handle their own backups.

by HWR_14 4y ago

plussed_reader 4y ago
Not if you want to avoid itunes or icloud.
- simjnd 4y ago
  If you have macOS you don't need either, just plug your iPhone open up "/Applications/Image Capture.app" and it will show your photos. You can select and drag and drop to a disk and delete them all from this app.
  - lostlogin 4y ago
    Having it happen automatically is what I was after, and that isn’t particularly easy to achieve. There must surely be a better way than my nasty hack, but I do now have automatic backups of iPhone photos onto a nas: A VM running macOS and a script. Open Photos.app and sync with ‘Download Originals’ checked. Quit Photos.app and rsync the folder ‘Originals’ out of the app bundle and onto a NAS. Once finished, reopen Photos.app. It’s quite horrible getting the script to run as permissions get tricky with chrontab, so I used Lingon X to schedule it.
    - glorioushubris 4y ago
      Maybe try it with an app on the phone instead? I've been using Synology's photos app to automatically upload everything in my photos library to my NAS for a couple of months now, and it's been seamless. Other apps, like PhotoSync, seem to offer similar functionality in a platform-independent way.
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        Thank you - I’ve had this suggested before but just couldn’t get it to work. I’ll have another go as that is obviously way better (and saves running a very large VM).
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      Modern versions of iTunes and modern iOS versions can be set up so that whenever they are on the same network iTunes automatically backs up over WiFi in the background. Then it's just a matter of a cron job pushing the files to the NAS.
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        That’s not a million miles off what I’m doing. It’s unhelpful that there isn’t a built in way to get images out of Photos.app as downloading a full library can use a lot of storage.
    - simjnd 4y ago
      My bad, I misunderstood. Do you do all of this with an AppleScript? I would be really interested to look at this if you have it hosted on a repo somewhere.
- 0x0 4y ago
  Image Capture.app, which is built in to macOS, is very no-nonsense and works great.
- acdha 4y ago
  You can use an adapter: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-us...
- HWR_14 4y ago
  I mean, "avoiding backup software on your computer" seems like a big ask for organized backups. But, yeah, I have lightening drives that connect directly to download pictures onto (well, purchased as a gift).. They even also have USB to be read in a computer.
capableweb 4y ago
Can you just connect a external disk into the iPhone and click on "Backup" or it requires more than that?
- MagicMoonlight 4y ago
  No, but you also can't do that with a linux computer or any other device. You can easily copy and paste all of the photos onto a computer though.
  - josephcsible 4y ago
    What's stopping me from setting up a Linux computer to do that?
  - dividuum 4y ago
    Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, but idevicebackup2 does exactly that.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  They make special external disks (that may require an iOS app). I bought some for a friend. But you can also have it connect to a computer over wifi and auto-backup. Does Google let you do that?
m463 4y ago
this is false. Apple does not support this. If they did, you could connect a USB drive to your phone or tablet and save the photos. To some extent this was eventually solved by third party vendors laboriously creating lightning flash drives and creating an app to talk to them. But it is definite that you cannot backup your phone. Even apple's backup method is crippled. I would like an image backup - where you could back up every bit of phone data - but apple gets in the way of that.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  You can have it automatically generate an image over WiFi to a computer with an external drive. I mean, it requires iTunes, but it's trivial. But compare that to an Android phone, where I have no idea how to get access to anything more than pictures without ADB.
  - kornhole 4y ago
    This is where Android shines. I have everything on my phone daily backed up to my personal Nextcloud server. If I ever get in a bind, with a few gestures I can wipe my whole phone and then later restore everything. One can alternatively use Syncthing to sync files to a PC.
    - Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y ago
      Well, I suspect you are rooted for this and a whole bunch of app complain about rooting. I have android and appreciate the ability to backup, but it's infuriating what apps are doing.
      - kornhole 4y ago
        I am not rooted, but I am using GrapheneOS which is technically a fork of Android. I am using the built in Seedvault for app backup to Nextcloud. Files are synced with Nextcloud client.
  - m463 4y ago

Backing up iPhone photos to an external disk is pretty easy. It's not the happy path because most people cannot handle their own backups.

by HWR_14 4y ago

Backing up iPhone photos to an external disk is pretty easy. It's not the happy path because most people cannot handle their own backups.

plussed_reader 4y ago

Not if you want to avoid itunes or icloud.

simjnd 4y ago
If you have macOS you don't need either, just plug your iPhone open up "/Applications/Image Capture.app" and it will show your photos. You can select and drag and drop to a disk and delete them all from this app.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  Having it happen automatically is what I was after, and that isn’t particularly easy to achieve. There must surely be a better way than my nasty hack, but I do now have automatic backups of iPhone photos onto a nas: A VM running macOS and a script. Open Photos.app and sync with ‘Download Originals’ checked. Quit Photos.app and rsync the folder ‘Originals’ out of the app bundle and onto a NAS. Once finished, reopen Photos.app. It’s quite horrible getting the script to run as permissions get tricky with chrontab, so I used Lingon X to schedule it.
  - glorioushubris 4y ago
    Maybe try it with an app on the phone instead? I've been using Synology's photos app to automatically upload everything in my photos library to my NAS for a couple of months now, and it's been seamless. Other apps, like PhotoSync, seem to offer similar functionality in a platform-independent way.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      Thank you - I’ve had this suggested before but just couldn’t get it to work. I’ll have another go as that is obviously way better (and saves running a very large VM).
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    Modern versions of iTunes and modern iOS versions can be set up so that whenever they are on the same network iTunes automatically backs up over WiFi in the background. Then it's just a matter of a cron job pushing the files to the NAS.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      That’s not a million miles off what I’m doing. It’s unhelpful that there isn’t a built in way to get images out of Photos.app as downloading a full library can use a lot of storage.
  - simjnd 4y ago
    My bad, I misunderstood. Do you do all of this with an AppleScript? I would be really interested to look at this if you have it hosted on a repo somewhere.
0x0 4y ago
Image Capture.app, which is built in to macOS, is very no-nonsense and works great.
acdha 4y ago
You can use an adapter: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-us...
HWR_14 4y ago
I mean, "avoiding backup software on your computer" seems like a big ask for organized backups. But, yeah, I have lightening drives that connect directly to download pictures onto (well, purchased as a gift).. They even also have USB to be read in a computer.

capableweb 4y ago

Can you just connect a external disk into the iPhone and click on "Backup" or it requires more than that?

MagicMoonlight 4y ago
No, but you also can't do that with a linux computer or any other device. You can easily copy and paste all of the photos onto a computer though.
- josephcsible 4y ago
  What's stopping me from setting up a Linux computer to do that?
- dividuum 4y ago
  Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, but idevicebackup2 does exactly that.
HWR_14 4y ago
They make special external disks (that may require an iOS app). I bought some for a friend. But you can also have it connect to a computer over wifi and auto-backup. Does Google let you do that?

m463 4y ago

this is false. Apple does not support this. If they did, you could connect a USB drive to your phone or tablet and save the photos. To some extent this was eventually solved by third party vendors laboriously creating lightning flash drives and creating an app to talk to them. But it is definite that you cannot backup your phone. Even apple's backup method is crippled. I would like an image backup - where you could back up every bit of phone data - but apple gets in the way of that.

HWR_14 4y ago
You can have it automatically generate an image over WiFi to a computer with an external drive. I mean, it requires iTunes, but it's trivial. But compare that to an Android phone, where I have no idea how to get access to anything more than pictures without ADB.
- kornhole 4y ago
  This is where Android shines. I have everything on my phone daily backed up to my personal Nextcloud server. If I ever get in a bind, with a few gestures I can wipe my whole phone and then later restore everything. One can alternatively use Syncthing to sync files to a PC.
  - Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y ago
    Well, I suspect you are rooted for this and a whole bunch of app complain about rooting. I have android and appreciate the ability to backup, but it's infuriating what apps are doing.
    - kornhole 4y ago
      I am not rooted, but I am using GrapheneOS which is technically a fork of Android. I am using the built in Seedvault for app backup to Nextcloud. Files are synced with Nextcloud client.
- m463 4y ago