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One takeaway: a cloud account isn't a sufficient backup on its own. If you have to log into Apple/Google to download your files and photos, then they're at risk

One takeaway: a cloud account isn't a sufficient backup on its own. If you have to log into Apple/Google to download your files and photos, then they're at risk. Make regular backups to an external hard drive or something, and ideally have your stuff automatically back up to a NAS somewhere as well. Also, after reading this I'm going to have to think about what would happen if someone stole my phone. I take it everywhere with me. It's not an iPhone, but it's still worth a few hundred dollars and it has all kinds of data and logged-in accounts on it. I assume if it was stolen at gunpoint, I wouldn't be in a position to refuse to unlock it and unlock some apps/accounts.

travisporter 4y ago
Can you routinely and reliably back up iPhone photos to a NAS? I have a NAS but synlogy app is just not reliable
- Gigachad 4y ago
  With Google I have it set up to email me the Takeout download link every 2 months which I then download manually
  - sitkack 4y ago
    https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/ I recommend everyone who hasn't done it before, to hit the above url while logged in and firing off an export. It will respond back after some time with URLs you can download. Great for downloading your Youtube playlists and history.
    - CharlesW 4y ago
      BTW, Apple's version of Takeout is at privacy.apple.com. Once you log in, click on "Get a copy of your data".
  - climb_stealth 4y ago
    Doesn't the takeout strip the metadata from the photos? Things like the location data. I vaguely remember looking into this in the past and from what I remember there was no good way around it. I haven't seen any alternatives to Google Photos either. Ente might be most promising, but their iOS app is not great at actually automatically uploading photos.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Google Takeout dumps the files exactly how they were uploaded without any modifications. It then provides it's own info/metadata as a json file with the same name. There are some situations where you may have entered geolocation data on the app/website and this will end up in the json file rather than embedded in the image file metadata. It's up to you to work out how you want to merge this back in.
      - climb_stealth 4y ago
        That is good to know, thanks! I might be misremembering it. It has been a while since I looked at it.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > Can you routinely and reliably back up iPhone photos to a NAS? The way I do it is slightly roundabout but works well — I sync to iCloud, which in turn syncs to my desktop, which I backup to my NAS from there. (Important note: You'll need to turn on "Download Originals to this Mac" in Photo's Settings, otherwise you'll get hi-res proxies rather than bit-for-bit source images.)
- voltaireodactyl 4y ago
  I highly recommend PhotoSync for iOS. I believe it’s about $25-$40 for a lifetime license. It’s hugely configurable in terms of targets, triggers, and schedules for upload. But most importantly to me, it’s been rock solid and I’ve never run into an issue with it. Only thing to remember is to open it once upon reboot. Works brilliantly after that.
  - thedanbob 4y ago
    Seconded. I don’t keep photos on my phone for very long, instead I regularly upload them to a self-hosted PhotoPrism instance via PhotoSync.
  - benhurmarcel 4y ago
    Make sure to check the saved photos. I stopped using it after I found that random photos were blank after the export. It wasn't reliable, and I only backed up 20Gb, so not that much.
    - voltaireodactyl 4y ago
      I definitely check it regularly because I’m insane; but in the years I’ve been using it I’ve thankfully never had the issue you describe.
- ssss11 4y ago
  I use the syno app just fine. I setup a geo boundary so that if I’m at home it backs up - for my wife’s phone it just happens in the background, for me though I have to open the app for some reason… so I do it every week or so.
- fmajid 4y ago
  PhotoBackup rsyncs your photos and is free (a nag pop up at the end, that’s it). You have to trigger it manually, however: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-videos-via-rsync/id945026388 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-...
- nowahe 4y ago
  I found a tool to do just that, iCloud Photo Downloader[1] (tho you do need to have your photos backed up to iCloud). I run it as a cron on my NAS, and the only intereaction I need to have with it is to give it a new 2FA code every ~2-3 months. Highly recommend it [1]: https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...
muppetman 4y ago
Exactly this. I have Google photos and I use it all the time, for every photo/video I take. But I also back up everything I can using the [gphotos-sync](https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync) python script. As it says, it's not the 100% quality in either photo or video, but it's still the memories. Please if you aren't backing up your cloud storage photos/important files, stop reading HN and go and set it up now. I can recommend backblaze for cheap reliable storage and the restic backup client which is brilliant (a single, small binary). There's also rclone, or even the backblaze cli client. [Sorry I sound like a Backblaze shill!]
limitedsupply 4y ago
That's basically the old idea that a single point of failure/backup is not sufficient. It's not specific to Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. One copy can get damaged, hijacked, erased by accident - so ideally keep 2 or more (encrypted) copies.

travisporter 4y ago

Can you routinely and reliably back up iPhone photos to a NAS? I have a NAS but synlogy app is just not reliable

Gigachad 4y ago
With Google I have it set up to email me the Takeout download link every 2 months which I then download manually
- sitkack 4y ago
  https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/ I recommend everyone who hasn't done it before, to hit the above url while logged in and firing off an export. It will respond back after some time with URLs you can download. Great for downloading your Youtube playlists and history.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    BTW, Apple's version of Takeout is at privacy.apple.com. Once you log in, click on "Get a copy of your data".
- climb_stealth 4y ago
  Doesn't the takeout strip the metadata from the photos? Things like the location data. I vaguely remember looking into this in the past and from what I remember there was no good way around it. I haven't seen any alternatives to Google Photos either. Ente might be most promising, but their iOS app is not great at actually automatically uploading photos.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Google Takeout dumps the files exactly how they were uploaded without any modifications. It then provides it's own info/metadata as a json file with the same name. There are some situations where you may have entered geolocation data on the app/website and this will end up in the json file rather than embedded in the image file metadata. It's up to you to work out how you want to merge this back in.
    - climb_stealth 4y ago
      That is good to know, thanks! I might be misremembering it. It has been a while since I looked at it.
CharlesW 4y ago
> Can you routinely and reliably back up iPhone photos to a NAS? The way I do it is slightly roundabout but works well — I sync to iCloud, which in turn syncs to my desktop, which I backup to my NAS from there. (Important note: You'll need to turn on "Download Originals to this Mac" in Photo's Settings, otherwise you'll get hi-res proxies rather than bit-for-bit source images.)
voltaireodactyl 4y ago
I highly recommend PhotoSync for iOS. I believe it’s about $25-$40 for a lifetime license. It’s hugely configurable in terms of targets, triggers, and schedules for upload. But most importantly to me, it’s been rock solid and I’ve never run into an issue with it. Only thing to remember is to open it once upon reboot. Works brilliantly after that.
- thedanbob 4y ago
  Seconded. I don’t keep photos on my phone for very long, instead I regularly upload them to a self-hosted PhotoPrism instance via PhotoSync.
- benhurmarcel 4y ago
  Make sure to check the saved photos. I stopped using it after I found that random photos were blank after the export. It wasn't reliable, and I only backed up 20Gb, so not that much.
  - voltaireodactyl 4y ago
    I definitely check it regularly because I’m insane; but in the years I’ve been using it I’ve thankfully never had the issue you describe.
ssss11 4y ago
I use the syno app just fine. I setup a geo boundary so that if I’m at home it backs up - for my wife’s phone it just happens in the background, for me though I have to open the app for some reason… so I do it every week or so.
fmajid 4y ago
PhotoBackup rsyncs your photos and is free (a nag pop up at the end, that’s it). You have to trigger it manually, however: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-videos-via-rsync/id945026388 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-...
nowahe 4y ago
I found a tool to do just that, iCloud Photo Downloader[1] (tho you do need to have your photos backed up to iCloud). I run it as a cron on my NAS, and the only intereaction I need to have with it is to give it a new 2FA code every ~2-3 months. Highly recommend it [1]: https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

muppetman 4y ago

Exactly this. I have Google photos and I use it all the time, for every photo/video I take. But I also back up everything I can using the [gphotos-sync](https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync) python script. As it says, it's not the 100% quality in either photo or video, but it's still the memories. Please if you aren't backing up your cloud storage photos/important files, stop reading HN and go and set it up now. I can recommend backblaze for cheap reliable storage and the restic backup client which is brilliant (a single, small binary). There's also rclone, or even the backblaze cli client. [Sorry I sound like a Backblaze shill!]

limitedsupply 4y ago

That's basically the old idea that a single point of failure/backup is not sufficient. It's not specific to Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. One copy can get damaged, hijacked, erased by accident - so ideally keep 2 or more (encrypted) copies.