Ditch Google Photos - How to Backup Your Phone To Synology NAS using Synology Photos (DSM7) 

I really appreciate that!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks!

Yeah, you can also just go into the folder view and select the entire backup folder and share that! It's really useful for sharing everyones pictures back and forth

No need. They will be downloaded at full resolution

Excellent question, I’d like to know as well.

@@soldermecold7456 so I took the plunge. Turns out it does download from iCloud Photos behind the scenes when a photo isn’t cached locally. It’s completely transparent and works just fine! I’ve backed-up my entire library using the Synology Photos app, which were mostly not cached locally, and wouldn’t all fit on my iOS device at the same time. The way that iOS apps access the photo library is handled behind the scenes by Apple’s API’s.

@@DyslexicChris awesome, thanks for the reply! Were you able to confirm if it’s unmodified originals or the compatible version of the file only? Same for video?

@@soldermecold7456 original HEIC files for photos. I’m assuming the equivalent for video too. Appears to be the same at least - using a mov container. No transcoding happening as far as I can tell.

@@DyslexicChrisThanks, had a client asking me exactly that today, great that you were successful :)

You should never have to open it again!

Unfortunately as far as I know the only thing you can backup to your synology is your photos

Do you mean the “optimized photos” then yes

@@SpaceRexWill Perfect Thank you! To save upload time from my phone can I upload the initial photos from my ipad?

Yes, the only thing you would want to do is make sure that when you switch it to your phone (after the iPad is done) you make sure its not having issues with duplicates. If its having issues with duplicates you can set the "new photos only" option to make a clean switch over

Hey good to know! I had heard of people using it on android but it’s hard to get a “yes this works well with no bugs” from the internet sometimes

hahaha I have a Pi video coming out with this shirt on where my start is “wait, is this a Hawaiian shirt”

@@SpaceRexWill Can't wait to see it. lol Always learning new things from you about networks. Take care

😂😂

2 options: 1) upload them to shared space 2) in photos just share the backup folder with your wife

@@SpaceRexWill thank you and does it make any difference or matter if my wife is set as Admin, which she is and hence why I thought she should be able to see all the photos in the same folder?

Keep in mind I am using DS file to backup my whole Samsung phone.

This is setup much cleaner and purpose build

I do not think so

I use this for all my high res DSLR images and videos, with iPhone photos staying in iCloud, but I am ok deleting images as I know they are backed up

You may want to look at Conrad's comment (in reply to Not ReallyME) which goes over a script to sync that meta data (Attached bellow): "I just had to do the same process recently. I can recommend you mattwilson1024's scripts on Github. Just search for google-photos-exif. He describes very clearly what steps you need to do to associate the JSON files with the photos. I have merged over 10000 photos with the tool and there were no problems."

I have not done a video on this yet as I do not use google photos. You use google take-out

Yes! If you have quick connect

@@SpaceRexWill thank you for the fast answer! 😊

If I were you to ensure everything works perfectly I actually would archive the DS file backup and start a new from the iOS Photos app. If you have not deleted any pictures you want to keep or anything out of your photos. Otherwise I would copy them through DSM into the right folder then select "backup future photos" in Photos

@@SpaceRexWill hmm sounds good, I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip and video! :)

What will happen is every photo will be downloaded full res before sending it to synology. Then as the files are not needed they will be deleted to save space (and the optimized versions kept)

I don't use google photos so I can't quite do that. May take some time to set it all up though. Google photos wants to make it as hard as possible for you to leave

you can delete from your phone and it will stay on the NAS

@@SpaceRexWill lovely! Exactly what I wanted. Now I just need to research which Synology model to get :)

@@panman2632 which one did end up going with?

So your iPhone just uses those optimized photos to show you. When Synology Photos asks for the photo from your phone your phone will hand it the full res file

@@SpaceRexWill If it’s really the case, that’ll be awwwsome! Thx

For me I have had no issues with it backing up, even after not opening the app for months. There are a few things you want to make sure, to make sure that iOS / Android will keep letting the app run: 1) don't quit the app 2) for iOS make sure background refresh is enabled and allowed for the app

Yes it will everything in your photos

Try photos instead of DS photo. Works great for me and my videos

Did you find a way to do this? I also want the same thing

Yes and no. The personal space is 'private' to each user where no regular users can see each others. However anyone with admin privlages on the NAS will be Able to see everyones photos

No need. Just make sure to turn on “background app refresh”

@@SpaceRexWill ok thanks. I have it turned on and even when the app is closed or open in the background it doesn’t make any backups or uploads.

yes create a shortcut to open app...i have mine trigger when Do Not Disturb enables at 11pm daily

@@skinny_panda yes I just did that but even then it’s not uploading something at all. Just did a relogin etc.

Ah, when on desktop you only use the web interface to use synology photos or the SMB share

@@SpaceRexWill Thanks so much!! Appreciate the videos. I bought the 420+ a week ago and then realized why did I buy this...saw your other video on 1522+ Do you have a video on how to migrate my drives to the new nas? It comes on Tuesday next week.

I think that's for the 6-digit 2FA code from your authenticator, log into your authenticator and put that six digit code at the log in screen

I just had to do the same process recently. I can recommend you mattwilson1024's scripts on Github. Just search for google-photos-exif. He describes very clearly what steps you need to do to associate the JSON files with the photos. I have merged over 10000 photos with the tool and there were no problems.

@@pascalconrad7879 awesome, thanks! I’ll check it out!

Instead of using takeout, I just downloaded them directly. Select and choose download. The downside is that you can only select 500 photos at a time, and if you have a lot of photos it will take a while. I have ~80,000.. so it took a fairly long time, but you only need to do it once and everything has the metadata. I would recommend trying to do a year at a time, and then uploading to your NAS.

Thanks Pascal Conrad! I never used google photos so haven't been able to make a video on it!

@@notreallyme425 I can't find your new comment, so I'll reply here. First, download the complete scripts and unzip the ZIP file. In the src folder there is a config.ts which determines which file types are taken into account (jpeg, png etc.). You can already adjust this and set the corresponding types to true. To use yarn I installed it via the npm package manager. I did the migration via Windows and installed node.js for npm first. node.js already contains npm as a bundle. You can download node.js on nodejs_org (I installed version 16.14.0 LTS). Using npm, "npm install --global yarn" should be sufficient to install yarn. After that create 3 folders (input, output, errors) and put your Google Takeout files unpacked into the input folder. Don't change anything in the Google Takeout structure and put a copy of your original photos in the input folder in case something goes wrong. After that you only have to change the paths for the following command "yarn start --inputDir ~/input --outputDir ~/output --errorDir ~/errors". Run the command in the console and it should show you a progress bar. If photos cannot be assigned, they will end up in the errors folder. If you have any questions, please let me know. Good luck

It will be kept on the synology

@@SpaceRexWill nice.thanks a lot

Got it, could not connect to quickconnect through PC either, just when I used my IP address in the searchbar. I needed to change some dns settings in dsm, now it works.

They added in an update where you can be very selective with shared space!

@@SpaceRexWill Sorry, I wasn't super clear, I had forgotten what the issue was. What I meant was that in the shared space it creates a copy of your photo, rather than a sym link in an album. I want to only share some photos in the shared space and do so without creating a second copy of photos. To my knowledge that isn't possible and a shared album needs to be used. The biggest down side with shared albums is that if you're not the owner, you have to first go to the album before you can add a photo. The album doesn't show up when you're in your personal space and when you click "add to album".

Its really designed to run in the background and not overwhelm your phone. Normally it can complete an initial backup overnight while you are charging, and from there it will just stay backed up pretty easily, even if you take hundreds of photos in a day

That is really strange. When I am away I have never had any issues getting thumbnails with no lag. Any change your NAS is busy running many things?

@@SpaceRexWill it doesn't say/show it is. Nothing significantloaded onto if for weeks other than a photo a video from my phone a few times a week. I think it may be the way I logged into it from my phone?? I used the IP address and I noticed you had a web address? I am still a little confused about the quickconnect stuff with multiple users.

Looks like there are not a ton of great FreeBSD Jails as an equivalent. If you are running SCALE then photo prism is your best bet

So the downside to this is you would not get the automatic backups

This was for the first time load into photos. After I uploaded the images, I enabled automatic backup on my iPhone. So all new pictures gets backed up this way.

Ohhh smart! Have you noticed any difference in the photos before / after?

I did not find any difference between pictures backed up directly from iPhone and ones backed up this way.

@@SpaceRexWill @praveengovindan This is what I plan on doing, so I can use a folder structure I’m already creating when downloading from iCloud and other sources before a massive de-dupe exercise e.g. 2022/‘April_Birthday Party’. Any advice on whether it’s better to drop these pre-organised folders into /Photos, (using File Station; Syn Drive or File Finder on Mac), to keep my folder structure, rather than upload through Timeline where they’ll get the dated folder structure and end up in /Photo/PhotoLibrary? Pro’s/con’s of each? I’ve assumed the former to keep the structure, but conscious that new photos after the backup is enabled will end up in the /Mobile Photos folder…what then for consistency?…archive the new ones into my folder structure in /Photo, and delete from /Mobile Photos? Thanks in advance

Just update the app

no

@@SpaceRexWill thank you

It will auto backup video as well. You control that in your backup settings