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DSM 7.1 Backing up PC (and iPhones) to NAS

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13
4
NAS
DS920+
Operating system
  1. Windows
Mobile operating system
  1. iOS
Last edited:
Looking for recommendations for a good backup software. I have a Windows PC (approx 16TB of data) and couple iPhones and iPads (approx 3TB data) in the family. Ideally, I'm looking to backup all these on my DS920+. Which software would you recommend?

My preferences:
  1. I don't have a problem paying a premium for an upfront one-time purchase but I hate subscriptions. I don't need/want cloud backup.
  2. The main thing worth backing up on my PC are some data partitions.
  3. Backing up the system image (OS/settings/applications) would be a nice to have but not a must. The system image shouldn't be coupled with my data partitions - i.e. I should be able to just read/restore the data partitions without the system image.
  4. Although I'd love to retain past 2-3 versions of my backup, I can probably live with just a 1-way sync/mirroring (no versioning).
  5. I would prefer a way to simply browse the latest version of the files from my last backup on the network drive mapped in Windows Explorer without having to jump through hoops through the backup software's UI.
  6. I'm imagining something that runs on my PC periodically and backs up to my NAS overnight.
  7. For iOS devices I imagine I'll periodically connect them to my PC and take a full backup with iTunes on my computer. The underlying files saved by iTunes on my PC will automatically get backed up to my NAS when the next backup runs.

Looking online I see Arconis, Ashampoo, Paragon and EaseUS to be the popular choices. Can't makeup my mind from one of these though and can't understand the pros/cons. Besides, I just bought my DS920+ but I don't know if it is already bundled with software for this purpose. AFAIK, the packages I saw on the NAS (Hyper Backup and Hyper Backup Vault) are more geared toward backing up the NAS itself instead of backing up to the NAS.

Would appreciate any help, thanks!!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum.

For PC take a look at the Active Backup for Business package on your NAS: Synology Inc.

For iOS devices, I use iMazing which works great for all our iOS or iPadOS devices in our household: iMazing | iPhone, iPad & iPod Manager for Mac & PC . All devices are backed up wirelessly so it is also very convenient.
 
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One more vote for ABB. It will cover all the bullets that you stated.

On the matter of iOS devices and backups, if you are looking to back up for example only images and videos, the new Synology Photos app has a great backup feature that works in the background. Ofc if you want a full device backup then @SynoMan solution would be perfect.
 
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I'll cast a vote for the multi-platform application, Syncovery with nearly every capability imaginable. Yes, it's a paid product, but there is a 30-day trial (fully-functional). I've used it for 10+ years on both Win and Synology machines. Excellent developer support.
 
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Thanks for the helpful suggestions! Checked out all those options and they look pretty cool :)

@Telos - although ABB only seems to run on a Synology NAS it is free and reasonably powerful. Have you tried that? Curious why you decided to go with Syncovery instead and how you see it stacking up to ABB.
 
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@Telos - although ABB only seems to run on a Synology NAS it is free and reasonably powerful. Have you tried that? Curious why you decided to go with Syncovery instead and how you see it stacking up to ABB.
These are entirely different tools. I did try ABB (which images your drives) but had performance issues, and restore issues, and as well, I wanted encrypted backups.

For Win machines, I image with Macrium Reflect, and Veeam for Windows, both established and reliable products with a good support base. In contrast, I find Synology software buggy and barely acceptable with limited features., and Synology's tech support weak (I'm trying to be nice here).

Syncovery is not an imaging product. It handles file backup/sync/mirroring/versioning to a number of targets and transfer standards. Synology ABB is entirely different.

Use what suits you best.
 
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Actually, I've never used iTunes, but yes, iMazing will do a full restore.

Take a look here: iPhone Backup Software | iMazing

And a screenshot from iMazing with options:

Screenshot 2022-07-19 at 20.50.02.webp
 
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Actually, I've never used iTunes, but yes, iMazing will do a full restore.

Take a look here: iPhone Backup Software | iMazing

And a screenshot from iMazing with options:

View attachment 10249

Do you need to have the computer with this software on, in order for the phones to backup? That is one of the reasons I hate iTunes, you need to have a computer on in order to do a backup.

I’ve been chasing some sort of software where I can make backups of the iPhones to the nas, without having to leave any computers on. I have looked into iMazing in the past and now recall this was the roadblock for us.
 
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Did you find something equally good but that runs on Nas? Curious what you solution you went with.
ATM there is nothing that I can find to do this. I wish Acronis/synology would have continued with their app and solution.
 
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Just a thought: what if you installed Windows 10, for example, as a virtual machine on your NAS? Then you could run iMazing or something similar inside 10. I assume that you may not be able to install Mac iOS as a virtual machine, but this may be incorrect. A quick search on Google shows that the Virtual Machine for Win 10 installation is possible, although I have never tried it.
 
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Just a thought: what if you installed Windows 10, for example, as a virtual machine on your NAS? Then you could run iMazing or something similar inside 10. I assume that you may not be able to install Mac iOS as a virtual machine, but this may be incorrect. A quick search on Google shows that the Virtual Machine for Win 10 installation is possible, although I have never tried it.
Thats actually a good idea for those without a windows pc. You can do mac in a vm, I have one on my proxmox server, though I never use it but it is possible, not sure if this could be done in VMM thru DSM or not?
 
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For the iphones/ipad, I do not bother about the backup, just use icloud. Photos are synced to the nas using the synology app. Costs are just 12$/ year for 50Gb and that is sufficient as photos are not on icloud but copied to the nas immediately (and backup from there).

for pc/MacThere is no data on any PC/mac. all the data is on the NAS. The NAS has cross backup to a second NAS every night, and valuable data is sent to a separate cloud as well.
I do not make Windows or Mac system mirror backups as fresh install is always faster and better.
 
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I don't put any faith in iCloud anymore, my wifes iphone 13 pro max stopped booting one day, just stuck on the apple logo.. I figured the same thing - its all in icloud, reset and restore it no big deal. Well, turns out for whatever the reason the icloud backup would not restore. It was there, showed it was there, but would not or could not restore back to the phone. Got apple tech support on the phone (voice), which has the ability to screen share in with your device and step you through exactly where to press, what to enter, etc... its really cool seeing a big red arrow controlled by the persons voice on the phone your talking to controlling the iphone your holding (I am easily impressed I suppose).. He couldn't explain it either, said he can see there is xx amount of data stored but it simply failed to restore back to her iphone, so everything was just lost (except pictures). Texts, notes, etc, all gone. Phone book restored (possibly from gmail? cant remember) and pictures were on google photos and nas, but nothing else came from icloud. I am sure that was a rare case, but it happened to us in March 2022 I think.

So ours was just a bad example of not having control of your own data. iCloud had it, but would not restore it... and the battle was over.
 
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Just a thought: what if you installed Windows 10, for example, as a virtual machine on your NAS? Then you could run iMazing or something similar inside 10. I assume that you may not be able to install Mac iOS as a virtual machine, but this may be incorrect. A quick search on Google shows that the Virtual Machine for Win 10 installation is possible, although I have never tried it.

This is true and can be done, however it's one additional device that I need to manage and ensure its being updated and working properly. Additionally, it adds load to the NAS' system resources which would otherwise be unneeded. I would do this as a last resort if need be, but definitely attempting to find a way where I don't have to manage another device. There's a lot of up keep that I already do having a somewhat advanced network and IOT devices. It's even more of a pain when something goes down and having to rebuild things.
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For the iphones/ipad, I do not bother about the backup, just use icloud. Photos are synced to the nas using the synology app. Costs are just 12$/ year for 50Gb and that is sufficient as photos are not on icloud but copied to the nas immediately (and backup from there).

for pc/MacThere is no data on any PC/mac. all the data is on the NAS. The NAS has cross backup to a second NAS every night, and valuable data is sent to a separate cloud as well.
I do not make Windows or Mac system mirror backups as fresh install is always faster and better.

So we currently use iTunes, (manually plugging in to do the backups) at the moment. Currently I don't have Synology photos do the photo backups because I don't have full confidence in it yet, although its close, but I think I need to see it age a bit more. The other thing I don't like about this process is that the photos essentially live on the phone and on the NAS. I know you can delete the photos off the phone after upload; I'd rather have something with an option if I delete it off my phone do I want to delete it off my NAS, or just the phone, this just keeps everything cleaner and less maintenance work.
 
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