DSM 7.0 How to backup camera photos on iPhone to NAS?

[slvrhwk]

Hi everyone. My wife and I have a newborn daughter and we both click a ton of pics of her on our phones. I recently bought the DS220+ with one of the main intentions being able to backup photos in full resolution and share with each other. I was able to backup photos from my phone using the Synology Photos app. I'm trying to do the same on my wife's iPhone to backup camera images and videos to the NAS. I downloaded Synology Photos and enabled backup, but it's listing 27,000 files for backup! I went to Apple Photos app and it shows me 23,000 photos! Even that seems too much. I'm guessing that Apple Photos is showing all the photos, including screenshots and other pics and Synology Photos is basically identifying all the images on the phone, including the ones received in chats, WhatsApp, messenger, etc. I remember there used to be a Camera Roll folder (?) previously. I don't see it anymore. Is that gone? Does iOS have a DCIM or Camera folder like Android that we can select as the source folder? Is there a way to tell Synology Photos to only backup the images that were clicked from the camera? Or is there a different app I should be using? Hoping for help from Apple users here. Thanks!

 

[EAZ1964]

Unfortunately the Apple system is not as open as android.

You can use an app like ES file explorer from the app store (other file managers available as well). You have access to a folder called system folders with all photo's.

Additionally you can use DS file to copy the photo's from the iphone using a selection from the photo library.

 

[Robbie]

I just use iMazing with my NAS as the target. As soon as any of our iOS devices are on the home network they complete a backup and photos can be grabbed. All this without your phone leaving your pocket or the wife putting her iPad down whilst cooking.

 

[slvrhwk]

I just use iMazing with my NAS as the target. As soon as any of our iOS devices are on the home network they complete a backup and photos can be grabbed. All this without your phone leaving your pocket or the wife putting her iPad down whilst cooking.

Thanks! I will check it out. Do you know if it backs up all the photos on phone or only the ones clicked from the phone camera?

-- post merged: 30. Dec 2021 --

Unfortunately the Apple system is not as open as android.

You can use an app like ES file explorer from the app store (other file managers available as well). You have access to a folder called system folders with all photo's.

Additionally you can use DS file to copy the photo's from the iphone using a selection from the photo library.

Are you talking about Android or Apple?

 

[EAZ1964]

Iphone Apps, I do use FB (file browser).

 

[Robbie]

Thanks! I will check it out. Do you know if it backs up all the photos on phone or only the ones clicked from the phone camera?

I probably should have enquired if you have a Mac on your home network as iMazing works through that. For years I had a secondhand Mac mini running headless sorting all the Apple stuff out transparently in the background and using little power. Now I have a Mac mini M1 doing the same job, for even less power.

The photos are available through the backups or browsable through iMazing to the device itself, if on the local network. I also use the Apple Photo Stream through iCloud to sync photos to all the devices of my choice. Although it runs through iCloud it does not use any space. If you use a Mac as described above you can set it to cache Apple content so the syncs don't have to traverse the internet, plus faster updates etc.

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[slvrhwk]

I probably should have enquired if you have a Mac on your home network as iMazing works through that. For years I had a secondhand Mac mini running headless sorting all the Apple stuff out transparently in the background and using little power. Now I have a Mac mini M1 doing the same job, for even less power.

View attachment 5130

The photos are available through the backups or browsable through iMazing to the device itself, if on the local network. I also use the Apple Photo Stream through iCloud to sync photos to all the devices of my choice. Although it runs through iCloud it does not use any space. If you use a Mac as described above you can set it to cache Apple content so the syncs don't have to traverse the internet, plus faster updates etc.

View attachment 5131
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I don't use a MacBook, only an iPhone. I do have a MacBook through work, which I am hesitant to use for personal stuff, although there's nothing preventing me to do so.

It does look like iMazing works directly on the iPhone as well?

Backup an iPhone or iPad to an external drive, or another location

imazing.com

 

[Robbie]

I'd buy cheap / secondhand Mac mini, set it up and forget it. Everything in the iOS and Mac world works better with a 24/7 Mac on the network - lots to discover there!

 

[jeyare]

a simple and useful solution for Win based users with iOS or Android smartphones:

Syncing 16TB of photos from PC to NAS, what option to use?

I want to sync and keep synced my photo catalog (around 16TB) from my PC to my NAS. I want to know what options to use? Synology Drive? Just mount a folder using SAMBA or NFS? What software to use for sync? Resilio? Allway Sync? Syncthing? Please advice! Thank you!

www.synoforum.com

Advantages:
- Backup just Photos from your smartphones (all / selected) to the defined path (NAS, computer, ...) .... the path can be the same or unique for each user
- pure rsync based backup - then you can define the sync features (copy/cut, sync, sources, dest,...)
- APP in your smartphone will remember which photos have already been synced to the destination (NAS), so only new ones will be used for the backup. OFC, you can resync all of them again and again and again (one of the options).
- scheduled tasks (e.g. daily at 6 pm) or just manually (simple)
- include logging of the events (if some photos weren't synced)
- ...

It can fit your described environment (win) w/o obstacles and fees.

Note: You can use it from your home environment to sync any data from the computer into your NAS or back (advanced setup). Defined by triggers, scheduled timer, or all possible rsync features (copy one/two way, cut, ...) to your SMB/NFS targets. Even by SFTP for advanced users.

This thread is also recommended:

EXIF editor?

I'm looking for a Windows 10 EXIF editor to edit some photos in PhotoStation. Some items I need to update are missing "Date taken & Time" and Location of photo. Would prefer a free or opensource app.

www.synoforum.com

 

[EAZ1964]

The camera roll folder is a windows thing, created by W10 photo app.

Whatever solution you will find, you have to clean up the 23k files.
Manually select the valuable stuff, and copy it to the nas, and then delete the rest
or
delete manually the files from the iphone, keep what you want to keep and set the sync.

Then implement your solution, which may well be the standard sync provided by Synology photo app or DS file.

 

[slvrhwk]

The camera roll folder is a windows thing, created by W10 photo app.

Whatever solution you will find, you have to clean up the 23k files.
Manually select the valuable stuff, and copy it to the nas, and then delete the rest
or
delete manually the files from the iphone, keep what you want to keep and set the sync.

Then implement your solution, which may well be the standard sync provided by Synology photo app or DS file.

Wait, do you mean iOS has no way to distinguish which photos were taken from camera and which images are screenshots, saved for other sources, etc?

 

[EAZ1964]

possibly partly based on filename.
For sure if you browse the iphone with the filebrowser, you will see that there separate albums for e.g. Whatsapp, but not sure which other selections can be made.

 

[jeyare]

Wait, do you mean iOS has no way to distinguish which photos were taken from camera and which images are screenshots, saved for other sources, etc?

no worries- with right tool (mentioned above) you can see all the basic structures:
- recent (camera roll)
- albums
- types of photos (panorama, portrait, live photos,…)
- apps (WUp,…)