iPhone 11 Why is backing up photos so difficult?

[cyberstudio]

It is easy if you pay for iCloud - eternally, month after month, year after year.

I can backup to a Mac over WiFi but that's an opaque archive and I cannot view the photos inside. When time comes I actually have to restore I had to pray that this archive is not corrupt.

To my dismay, iTunes "sync" is for transferring photos into the iPhone. It is not for getting photos out.

Copying from DCIM folder after installing iTunes for Windows never got past a few dozen photos without disconnecting or crashing. No matter PC or Mac, a wired connection is required. Did I miss something obvious? Or is it the way it is? Every means to get photos out involve a wired connection - even something like the expensive (but good) SanDisk iXpand.

Non-apple cloud drives are not permitted to backup in the background. In the foreground, the iPhone goes to sleep when idle and the backup stops. People have been resorting to tricks like playing music just to keep the phone awake.

Is there no "set and forget" way? Or did I miss something obvious?

 

[Paddle1]

It does feel like there's a bit of a challenge to do anything other than an iCloud backup.

It does seem like Google Photos has an automatic backup option after looking it up. I don't know about any other cloud apps.

 

[Cbarnett202]

OneDrive and Dropbox also offer this functionality.

I’ve never found it that hard….

 

[Slartibart]

Get FileBrowser (Pro) or FE File Explorer Pro and copy/sync your photos directly from your Photos library to any device… a shared folder on a Mac or PC, a NAS, a directly connected SSD… or use Send Anywhere or Snapdrop.net to transfer between devices…

 

[eyoungren]

OneDrive and Dropbox also offer this functionality.

I’ve never found it that hard….

This is what I've done since Dropbox first offered the Camera Uploads folder. I do have mine set to only upload when I open Dropbox though.

Goes to every device I have that is using Dropbox, including all my Macs that use it. Periodically, I'll move every image in the Camera Uploads folder to a dated folder on my NAS, which is part of another folder that gets backed up daily.

I do have a 2TB sub with iCloud, but Dropbox has been my primary use for years now. Had to restore back in May and every photo I've ever kept since I started using smartphones (2009) was restored.

 

[tranceking26]

Dropbox always works well for me, for quick transfers.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

OneDrive, Google Drive, Drop Box and various other cloud based services that usually come with those frequently used services make it super easy. I've never had a problem. In fact the opposite. I want it to stop doing that so I can pick the specific one I want to sync to. Both on wifi and mobile.

 

[MisterSavage]

I use the Image Capture app to get photos off of my phone onto my Mac (wired connection). It has been a little clunky in the past, but I used it for the first time in over a year just a few days ago and moved hundreds of movies and photos with no issue.

 

[Azathoth123]

iMazing will extract your photos off iOS to a backup drive.

 

[ian87w]

It is easy if you pay for iCloud - eternally, month after month, year after year.

I can backup to a Mac over WiFi but that's an opaque archive and I cannot view the photos inside. When time comes I actually have to restore I had to pray that this archive is not corrupt.

To my dismay, iTunes "sync" is for transferring photos into the iPhone. It is not for getting photos out.

Copying from DCIM folder after installing iTunes for Windows never got past a few dozen photos without disconnecting or crashing. No matter PC or Mac, a wired connection is required. Did I miss something obvious? Or is it the way it is? Every means to get photos out involve a wired connection - even something like the expensive (but good) SanDisk iXpand.

Non-apple cloud drives are not permitted to backup in the background. In the foreground, the iPhone goes to sleep when idle and the backup stops. People have been resorting to tricks like playing music just to keep the phone awake.

Is there no "set and forget" way? Or did I miss something obvious?

Just like what others have said, iCloud is not the only solution. Google Photos and OneDrive can do it as well. But yes, their background processes can be limited (same issues with OneDrive on Android because I use it).

The ultimate set and forget it is iCloud. If you don't want to pay a cent, just keep downloading your photos from iCloud to your computer and delete them to free up some space. Then back them up using traditional means from your PC. I mean in the olden days, that's what we do anyway, except we use SD cards on a digital camera.

 

[winxmac]

Send Anywhere is what I use to transfer files from iOS/iPadOS devices to a Windows computer and vice versa. It also has a version for macOS.

Send Anywhere Download