[HN Gopher] I built an app to backup Live Photos from iPhone to ...
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I built an app to backup Live Photos from iPhone to external hard
drives
I noticed so many iPhone users are dealing with the same storage
nightmare. Here's a common scenario that sounds familiar to a lot
of people: The widespread problem: iPhone storage fills up crazy
fast, not everyone has a Mac, many don't want to pay monthly for
iCloud storage, and home NAS setups aren't realistic for most
users. The manual approach of creating folders and selecting photos
one by one is tedious, and keeping up with new photos becomes
overwhelming So I built an app called BackiGo that addresses this
exact pain point - it allows direct backup of Live Photos from
iPhone to external hard drives, no Mac needed. What makes it
useful: Backs up your Live Photos with all the motion intact Can
restore Live Photos back to your iPhone camera roll Super easy to
backup new photos You can browse and view all your saved Live
Photos directly from the external drive without having to restore
them first You can test it out with up to 500 photos & videos
backup before deciding if it works for your needs
Author : xmasterdev
Score : 51 points
Date : 2025-06-23 04:36 UTC (2 days ago)
| gerdemb wrote:
| Where is the link? How can iPhone backup directly to an external
| hard drive?
| Amorymeltzer wrote:
| I believe it's this: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/backigo-
| live-photos-backup/id6...
| criddell wrote:
| Plug it in to the USB port on the phone. iPhone Pro can
| transfer at up to 20 Gbps but the non-pro models are much
| slower.
|
| The iPhone camera can also shoot directly to an attached SSD.
| supportengineer wrote:
| I have bad news for you, that's not a real iPhone
| enzanki_ars wrote:
| This is a real feature of iPhones since the iPhone 15 Pro
| model. https://support.apple.com/en-in/109041
| discostrings wrote:
| > iPhone Pro can transfer at up to 20 Gbps
|
| Citation/proof strongly needed on 20 Gbps
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| How is this different from iMazing?
|
| https://imazing.com/backup-iphone-ipad#:~:text=Choose%20iPho...
| msh wrote:
| It's more like PhotoSync as it only does photos
| tempodox wrote:
| I loved the idea until I saw that it's only available as a
| subscription.
| keroro wrote:
| How much does it cost?
| recury wrote:
| In-App Purchases
|
| BackiGo Pro Yearly (1 Year) $6.99
|
| BackiGo Pro Monthly (1 Month) $0.99
|
| BackiGo Pro Lifetime $14.99
| er0k wrote:
| I just use rsync, works great
| rsync wrote:
| Would you explain how you are using rsync to backup photos on
| an iPhone ?
|
| I'm not aware of an iOS app named "rsync" and ... presumably
| you don't have a shell ... ?
| slicktux wrote:
| You can load the IPhone's pictures on Linux using the folders
| namespace and then rsync from the loaded namespace to
| /local...
| wood_spirit wrote:
| I use a usb cable and a Linux laptop to copy to a couple of
| external hard drives (which I store separately). It's all
| manual but not too orrenous although i ought backup more
| often. The biggest hassle is accessing the new heic format
| on pretty much everything.
|
| Could it all be made into a sd card image for a pi zero
| perhaps? Even with a web ui accessible over Wi-Fi? A basic
| cheap sync-cable-appliance that non-techies can easily use?
| rsync wrote:
| I think I heard that the latest 'rclone' now, finally,
| support iCloud ... but I think there is an issue there
| because you can't sync full quality / RAW photos to
| icloud, can you ?
| trinix912 wrote:
| But does it work for Live Photos which is the main premise
| of this app?
| gaudat wrote:
| >home NAS setups aren't realistic for most users
|
| Citation needed. Get a Synology NAS and use their Photos app
| which backups Live photos on both iDevices and Androids. Buy it
| for life.
| pdxandi wrote:
| I've been doing this for many years and am pretty happy with
| it. I can sync from my Android and my wife's iPhone. The Photos
| app is nice and smooth. Backups happen automatically in the
| background. It can even de-dupe and clean up old photos that
| have been backed up. All in all, quite pleased with it.
| HuwFulcher wrote:
| You're looking at PS300ish for an entry level Synology and the
| storage. That isn't a realistic expense for many users.
| thenaturalist wrote:
| Let's be real, that's already far less approachable to 90% of
| consumers I know.
|
| The simples hurdle just being knowledge.
|
| The existence of NAS is probably an unknown unkown to a large
| part of the population.
|
| Compare that to "there's an app for that" & plug USB.
|
| Drastically simpler.
|
| No skin in the game either way, but I can very much understand
| OPs reasoning and would reach the same conclusion.
| SwamyM wrote:
| I would love this if it allowed me to backup all photos taken
| with the iPhone to an external drive. Currently, Apple dumps all
| pictures (from the Camera, from iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.) into
| folder makes it difficult to backup just my pictures.
| jlarocco wrote:
| I wouldn't use it personally, but I could see it being useful for
| my parents or family.
|
| ifuse and rsync works fine for me.
| mindwork wrote:
| Would immich work for this? You can run it locally in docker
| container
| polymatter wrote:
| Thank you for including a non subscription "lifetime" payment
| option.
| mfa1999 wrote:
| Will it work with large (huge) photos libraries? Eg. 150k
| photos/videos - most of them in iCloud. Does it preserve
| album/folder structure?
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