Introducing Photos Backup Anywhere: A Simple Backup Solution for Your Photos

[gerdemb]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of a Catch 22 situation here. The program will not proceed past the setting screen. I can't use any of the suggested methods of submitting the problem to the developer so I'm submitting here.

I joined the beta and installed. I couldn't get past the initial "Photos Backup Anywhere Settings" screen. No combination of backup locations, deleted items and startup choices would initiate furthere action by the program.
I stopped testing in test flight and removed the program.

Being a gluton for punishment I then purchased the program from the app store. Upon inital launch the program crashed. I submitted the report. I then restarted and still am unable to get past the settings window.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mac Mini M1, 15.1.1

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm sorry to hear about the frustrating experience you're having. It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into getting it running, and I'm grateful for your patience and I'd like to be able to help you solve this issue.

I can see in the app analytics what I think are your crash reports from yesterday. This issue has been fixed in the beta version. If you don't mind, can you try deleting the version you purchased from the App Store and reinstalling the beta version from TestFlight again, as it includes the latest fixes for this issue?

Also, Photos Backup Anywhere is a menu bar app, so you'll find its icon at the top of your screen. No icon will show up in the dock. Can you check if you see an icon that looks like a photo frame up there?

I really appreciate your help with debugging this. I’m a solo developer, so it's tough for me to test in a lot of different environments. But I totally understand if you can't help out. If that's the case, you can request a refund (Apple doesn’t let me do this for you) through their support page: Request a Refund.

Thanks again for your patience and support.

 

[gerdemb]

My interest in your app is perhaps a little different from that of others. I have for a long time managed photos (scanned prints and digital) within the Finder structure, backing up large collections organized by date to multiple drives, a NAS, OneDrive, etc. Although I've used iPhones for years, and have 50GB in iCloud, I've paid little attention to iCloud storage and not used Apple's iPhotos and Photos apps. I don’t want to be locked into a particular app or library construct, which can change at the whim of the developer.

As for iPhone photos, my routine is to periodically connect it to a Mac and use Image Capture to transfer photos to a drive, which are then renamed by capture date. All very manual. But, I see your PBA app as a great tool to bypass all that and maintain an automatically updated local copy of photos, as they are acquired on the phone, synced to iCloud and then downloaded by PBA. Is that a correct understanding of how it could work for me?

Thank you for sharing your experience and interest in Photos Backup Anywhere. I understand your approach to manually managing photos for more control and flexibility.

The app makes backups of photo libraries created by Apple's Photos app. In your case, since you are not using the Photos app, you would first need to create a new photo library by importing your existing photos. Then, Photos Backup Anywhere will automatically backup your library to a folder you choose. The files are backed up in a date-based organization. The format is YYYY/MM/DD/IMG_1234.JPG

If you enable iCloud, any photo added to iCloud from any device, such as an iPhone, will automatically be downloaded and backed up. This means you no longer need to manually connect your iPhone to your Mac.

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions or need further clarification, feel free to ask.

 

[n(H@rD$e]

Thanks for responding so quickly and in the wee hours!

I followed your instructions and removed the App Store app. Then reinstalled the Test Flight app.

Your program seems to be working now. I can see a little blue dot on the menu bar icon and the files to be backed up is counting down.

I apologize for not realizing the icon might have been in my menu bar all along. I use an app, Ice, to manage the many icons up there and aparently it put your apps icon in the " always hidden" menu bar.

Maybe in the future you could mention this in the initial setup?

As for a refund that won't be necessary. Glad to pay for your work. Also thank you for your prompt help in this and educating me about menu bar only apps.

 

[gerdemb]

Thanks for responding so quickly and in the wee hours!

I followed your instructions and removed the App Store app. Then reinstalled the Test Flight app.

Your program seems to be working now. I can see a little blue dot on the menu bar icon and the files to be backed up is counting down.

I apologize for not realizing the icon might have been in my menu bar all along. I use an app, Ice, to manage the many icons up there and aparently it put your apps icon in the " always hidden" menu bar.

Maybe in the future you could mention this in the initial setup?

As for a refund that won't be necessary. Glad to pay for your work. Also thank you for your prompt help in this and educating me about menu bar only apps.

I'm glad to hear the app is working now, and I appreciate your patience in troubleshooting. Other users have had similar confusion with the menu bar app, and I'm working on making it more intuitive in the next version which I plan to release in the coming weeks. This update will also include a fix for the crash on startup issue that you encountered.

If you have any other questions or feedback, feel free to reach out anytime. I appreciate your support!

 

[vcopola]

Hello
congratulations for the APP
I am testing the beta and I have just one question
How often the copy is launched? or is it only in manual mode?

 

[gerdemb]

Hello
congratulations for the APP
I am testing the beta and I have just one question
How often the copy is launched? or is it only in manual mode?

Thanks for testing the beta and for your kind words.

To answer your question: the app monitors your photo library in the background and backs up any changes every hour.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[gerdemb]

Hi everyone!

I've been working on a major update that introduces the ability to back up your photo and video edits, in addition to the original files. This means you can securely preserve not just your original photos and videos but also the adjustments and enhancements you've made.

I’m looking for beta testers to help ensure this new feature works well across various setups and libraries, but first an important note before getting trying the beta version:

• DISABLE "Automatically start backup when opened" and select a new backup destination BEFORE downloading the beta. This step is crucial because using the beta version on an existing backup destination will automatically upgrade the backup database to the new beta version. This is a one-time irrecovable process which means that after the upgrade you will be unable to downgrade and use currently released version of Photos Backup Anywhere for this backup destination.

If you’re interested in participating you can download the new beta version here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TcDH3ccO

Please provide feedback through the TestFlight app. Specifically, I'd like to know about any issues you encounter, suggestions for improving the user experience, or any unexpected behaviors. I will send a promo code for a free download of the released version to anyone who shares feedback.

Thank you so much for your support and for taking the time to help improve Photos Backup Anywhere. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

 

[d3vilsadvocate]

This looks like it might be usefule. Right now I'm backing up manually once a month via PhotoSync which is a bit tedious...

 

[Jzul]

Thanks for your work, it's a convenient solution to a big problem.

Just one question. With the backup done, what happens if I delete a photo in photo library? What happens if I edit a photo in photo library or crop a video? Are those modifications carried over to the backup, causing that photo to be deleted or the video to be cropped?

If I delete a photo from the backup, does it get copied back from photo library?

Thank you very much for your work and for your answer.

 

[vcopola]

Hello.
I just bought the application
Simple and does what I want.
Good work

 

[gerdemb]

Thanks for your work, it's a convenient solution to a big problem.

Just one question. With the backup done, what happens if I delete a photo in photo library? What happens if I edit a photo in photo library or crop a video? Are those modifications carried over to the backup, causing that photo to be deleted or the video to be cropped?

If I delete a photo from the backup, does it get copied back from photo library?

Thank you very much for your work and for your answer.

Thank you for your questions. Regarding deleting items from your photo library, there are three settings you can choose from: Ignore, Move, or Delete. 'Ignore' means that any deletions in your photo library will not affect the backup, so the item remains in the backup. 'Move' transfers deleted items to a “Deleted Items” folder within your backup, allowing you to retrieve them if needed. 'Delete' mirrors deletions from your photo library by also removing those items from the backup, ensuring that the backup matches your current library.

The current version of Photos Backup Anywhere backs up only the original version of photos and videos, but not the edits. I have a beta version that will also backup edits that you can try here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TcDH3ccO

In this version, the edited version of photos can also be backed up together with the original version. Any edits to the photo or video will update the edited version in the backup.

Let me know if you have further questions.

 

[BuddyRich]

Ive just tried the beta version and it seemed to work well. Sent you a testflight report.

It was dead easy and worked very well, its a great app.

One hick-up I noticed, though this is only judging by the finder item count compared to the count in my library there is a discrepancy. Since I have some photos that are both RAW and JPG and some edited photos I would have expected to have more items in finder, but I am short about 8000 items that were written to my NAS... is there anything that isn't actually exported by this tool, or a non-obvious way to account for the discrepancy. There is no error logging that I could see, so I am not sure if there was a failure along the way, but I hot the green checkbox say its done... and as I test I took a couple of photos with my phone, which synced back to the Mac and then got backed up automatically.

 

[gerdemb]

Ive just tried the beta version and it seemed to work well. Sent you a testflight report.

It was dead easy and worked very well, its a great app.

One hick-up I noticed, though this is only judging by the finder item count compared to the count in my library there is a discrepancy. Since I have some photos that are both RAW and JPG and some edited photos I would have expected to have more items in finder, but I am short about 8000 items that were written to my NAS... is there anything that isn't actually exported by this tool, or a non-obvious way to account for the discrepancy. There is no error logging that I could see, so I am not sure if there was a failure along the way, but I hot the green checkbox say its done... and as I test I took a couple of photos with my phone, which synced back to the Mac and then got backed up automatically.

Thank you for testing the beta version and for the positive feedback! I'm glad to hear that the app was easy to use and worked well overall.

Regarding the discrepancy in the item count, I am going to send you a DM so that I can help you look into this without cluttering the main thread.

Thanks again for your feedback and thorough testing – it’s incredibly helpful in improving the app!

 

[zqbobs]

iCloud storage is limited to 5GB, 50GB or 200GB in the first 3 tiers. So, when iCloud storage is full, one has to delete photos to “start over”, so to speak. But how to prevent erasure of all those deleted photos from the downloaded library in the next auto-cycle? It seems that before deleting in iCloud, one should start a new local download library space and connect PBA to that space. Repeat as needed each time iCloud is full, or at regular intervals such as once/year, right?

 

[lostPod]

Any plans or iOS or iPadOS?

 

[gerdemb]

iCloud storage is limited to 5GB, 50GB or 200GB in the first 3 tiers. So, when iCloud storage is full, one has to delete photos to “start over”, so to speak. But how to prevent erasure of all those deleted photos from the downloaded library in the next auto-cycle? It seems that before deleting in iCloud, one should start a new local download library space and connect PBA to that space. Repeat as needed each time iCloud is full, or at regular intervals such as once/year, right?

There would be no need to create a separate backup each time. Simply use the setting "Ignore Deletions". This setting ensures that any items deleted from your iCloud library are ignored during the sync process and remain safely stored in your backup.

 

[gerdemb]

Any plans or iOS or iPadOS?

No plans for an iOS version at the moment. The backup destination is usually an external drive or network drive like a NAS, which iOS doesn't support. I'd be interested to hear how you’d like to use this on iOS!?

 

[nowakj66]

Thanks for a nice app. I bought the app and after a few days it did create a copy of my 1 TB Photos library on my NAS. I did notice that when I get back to my Mac over night, the menu bar icon for the app is gone and the NAS volume is unmounted. Is this normal behavior and does it re-launch every hour or is something going wrong? I am on the App Store version of the app (not the TestFlight beta) and running Mac OS Sequoia v15.2.

 

[zqbobs]

There would be no need to create a separate backup each time. Simply use the setting "Ignore Deletions". This setting ensures that any items deleted from your iCloud library are ignored during the sync process and remain safely stored in your backup.

Ah, of course - my bad! Thanks.

 

[gerdemb]

Thanks for a nice app. I bought the app and after a few days it did create a copy of my 1 TB Photos library on my NAS. I did notice that when I get back to my Mac over night, the menu bar icon for the app is gone and the NAS volume is unmounted. Is this normal behavior and does it re-launch every hour or is something going wrong? I am on the App Store version of the app (not the TestFlight beta) and running Mac OS Sequoia v15.2.

Thank you for your feedback and for purchasing the app. I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing issues.

Regarding the behavior you described — the app's menu bar icon disappearing and the NAS volume unmounting overnight — this is a problem that I have already identified and I believe should be fixed in the beta version. Basically, the app didn't respond well when losing the connection to the NAS volume and would crash. When the app crashes, the menu bar icon disappears without an alert. The new beta version, responds better to losing access to the backup destination and will retry the connection before displaying an error and stopping the backup cleanly.

However, I believe the root of your problem is that your NAS volume is being unmounted overnight. There is only so much the app can do when it looses access to the backup volume.

If you have time, I would love to hear how the beta version performs for you. One word of warning though--DISABLE "Automatically start backup when opened" and select a new backup destination BEFORE opening the beta version. This step is crucial because using the beta version on an existing backup destination will automatically upgrade the backup database to the new beta version. This is a one-time irrevocable process which means that after the upgrade you will be unable to downgrade and use currently released version of Photos Backup Anywhere for this backup destination. The beta version is available here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TcDH3ccO

Thank you again for your support. If you decide to try the beta version, I would really appreciate your feedback.

 

[mk313]

Just wanted to say thanks for creating this app. Just bought it & it seems to be working great. Super Simple to set up & start, but first backup not done yet). I've always been a little leery of just leaving everything in Photos/iCloud. but also too lazy to back everything up every month or so, so this is fantastic. Well worth the $5.

 

[nowakj66]

Thank you for your feedback and for purchasing the app. I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing issues.

Regarding the behavior you described — the app's menu bar icon disappearing and the NAS volume unmounting overnight — this is a problem that I have already identified and I believe should be fixed in the beta version. Basically, the app didn't respond well when losing the connection to the NAS volume and would crash. When the app crashes, the menu bar icon disappears without an alert. The new beta version, responds better to losing access to the backup destination and will retry the connection before displaying an error and stopping the backup cleanly.

However, I believe the root of your problem is that your NAS volume is being unmounted overnight. There is only so much the app can do when it looses access to the backup volume.

If you have time, I would love to hear how the beta version performs for you. One word of warning though--DISABLE "Automatically start backup when opened" and select a new backup destination BEFORE opening the beta version. This step is crucial because using the beta version on an existing backup destination will automatically upgrade the backup database to the new beta version. This is a one-time irrevocable process which means that after the upgrade you will be unable to downgrade and use currently released version of Photos Backup Anywhere for this backup destination. The beta version is available here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TcDH3ccO

Thank you again for your support. If you decide to try the beta version, I would really appreciate your feedback.

The Beta is working well and I appreciate it. I tried it out on a NAS and direct attached storage. I did have a hard drive fail in my NAS at the same time I was testing it so perhaps that caused some disconnects. I have moved to the TestFlight and it handles dropped connections from the NAS more gracefully.