Best App for Backing Up Photos – Backing up your photos is important and it’s hard to find a reliable backup. Here is the best app for backing up photos for Android.
Backing up photos is both a simple and complicated process. It’s simple because photos are not that big and you can store them almost anywhere. On the other hand, many people have thousands of photos (often even more) that need to be backed up somewhere.
This poses an interesting and unique problem. Where can you store thousands of files cheaply, without it becoming too complicated? Well, fortunately, there are a variety of possibilities, and they are all quite good these days. The choice depends primarily on preference. Here is the best app for backing up photos for Android and we will also list some other methods.
Please note that we would normally include Plex in this list. However, the photo upload feature was removed in June 2021, so we no longer recommend it.
One last thing before we begin. It is highly recommended to have multiple backups in case something happens. Personally, for example, I back up every photo I take to a micro SD card (my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a slot for this) and then I make a backup with Amazon Photos (I have a Prime subscription).
That way, if Amazon goes down, I still have my SD card, and if my SD card dies, I still have Amazon. I highly recommend doing something similar if you can, just in case.
The Best App for Backing Up Photos
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1. Amazon Photos
Price: Free (with Prime) / $19.99 per year (100GB)
Amazon Photos is a surprisingly good option as the best app for backing up photos. It works well, has some good setting options, and can sort your photos automatically to some extent. I prefer that the photos only upload during the upload process, so you can do it when you go to bed at night.
Amazon Prime members can take unlimited free full-resolution backups as part of their Prime membership. For existing Prime subscribers, it should be on the list of choices anyway. The price is also pretty reasonable, as 100GB goes a lot further than you might think. You can also choose not to download videos so that the larger videos don’t take up your storage space.
2. Dropbox
Price: Free (2GB) / $9.99 per month (2TB)
Dropbox is a big name as the best app for backing up photos and one of the most reliable. The app has an automatic photo backup tool if you want to use it. In addition, you can also store other files in it if you want. With only 2 GB, the free version is not very powerful.
However, at $9.99 a month for 2TB, you have more storage space than you’ll ever need unless you’re uploading hours of 8K video from your smartphone. Dropbox supports over 175 different file types and offers cross-platform support for easy access to other platforms. You can also organize your files into folders if you want. Dropbox is certainly not as cheap as other providers, but it offers enough bang for your buck.
3. Google Photos (Google Drive)
Price: Free (15GB) / $1.99-$9.99 per month (100GB-2TB).
Google Photos is not so easy to recommend anymore, as the free version will be discontinued in June 2021. However, the prices are on par with the competition and the features are excellent. So it is still an excellent choice. 100GB for $1.99 a month (or $19.99 a year) is still more than most people will ever use. The features are also excellent.
Google Photos tags and sorts your photos with its machine learning features. You can also choose to only back up over Wi-Fi so you don’t consume your mobile data. There are plenty of tools to choose from and the price is well worth it. Plus, the 15GB of free storage space is nothing to sneeze at and can very well hold all your photos if you don’t take many.
4. MEGA
Price: $4.99-$29.99 per month (400GB-16TB).
MEGA has risen from the ashes of the great Megaupload controversy of 2012. It is a really good hosting service. Pricing is in line with the competition, and you get up to 16TB of storage, more than many others. The app offers an automatic upload tool for your camera roll, which is always good.
There’s also end-to-end encryption, which is always appreciated. MEGA gives you 50GB as a gift when you sign up for a new account. However, we’ve read conflicting reports about whether you get to keep all the storage or if some of it is just a bonus. Either way, it’s a good option, and the encryption makes it a good choice for privacy lovers.
5. Microsoft OneDrive
Price: 1.5 million HUF: free (5 GB) / $1.99-$6.99 per month (100 GB-1TB).
Microsoft OneDrive is another best app for backing up photos. As a general tool, it is more useful as you can store several different files. The premium version also includes an office suite. But it’s also quite good as a photo-only uploader. Sync your photos and that’s it.
We can only recommend turning off syncing if you plan to delete the photos on your device because many users didn’t and lost a lot of photos as a result. Aside from this little bug (which we hope Microsoft will fix soon), it’s pretty good, especially if you have Office tools.
6. nextcloud
Price: Cloudcloud, the most expensive in the world: free
Nextcloud is one of many good self-managed photo backup apps. Instead of relying on another company’s cloud storage, it hosts its server on your computer and backs up your photos that way. This has the benefit of letting you know exactly where your files are and avoiding monthly fees.
When I tried these options, I used an external hard drive so that I could grab my photos and take them with me wherever I went. Nextcloud is pretty good (but not without bugs) and is completely free for personal use. Their storage is as big as your hard drive, and you can expand it with external storage if you want.
7. Resilio Sync
Price: $59.99-$99.99
Resilio Sync is very similar to Nextcloud. It’s a self-hosted server application that works in much the same way. You host the server on your computer and back up your photos on your computer rather than on the server in the cloud. The free version has some limitations, but you should still be able to back up your entire camera roll.
The premium versions offer some additional features. Unfortunately, the premium versions are quite expensive, but at least they’re one-time and not subscription-based. Either way, it’s a solid option for self-storage and competes well with Nextcloud. Frankly, you can choose one or the other.
8. SmugMug or Flickr
Price: $7+ per month (unlimited photo storage).
SmugMug might not be the biggest name on this list, but it’s a familiar name to many photographers. It offers one of the best storage deals, where you pay $7 a month and gets unlimited full-resolution photo storage. There are more expensive options that offer additional features, but they all include unlimited storage. The downside is that SmugMug only works with photos. So don’t expect to be able to store your music collection here. Fortunately, the application is quite good.
There’s an autoloading feature, the ability to share photos, offline viewing, Chromecast support, and the ability to bookmark your favorite photos to easily retrieve them later. SmugMug also belongs to Flickr (Google Play link), which offers very similar unlimited storage for $7 per month. Honestly, you can choose whichever one you prefer since it’s the same service.
9. Synology
Price: free
Synology is a little different. It is a self-hosted server but uses a NAS instead of your computer. This may require some additional configuration and maybe even the purchase of hardware. However, the software is free to use if you have the necessary equipment. The application is relatively easy to use once you’ve set it up.
You set it up so that the photos are uploaded to the NAS, and then they appear in the application. The app can be buggy at times and it’s certainly not the first choice we’d make for self-hosting (Nextcloud and Resilio are better), but it’s still an acceptable option for technically-savvy users who also want a NAS for other things. This is one of those cases where you can kill several birds with one stone.
10. Your existing NAS or FTP server
Price: free/variable
Many people have already set up their storage space as a NAS or FTP. You can (usually) access it very easily using a series of apps available on the Google Play Store. We’ve linked Solid Explorer with the button below.
It’s easy to use, can connect to FPT, SFTP, SMB, etc., and is relatively cheap. It’s usually a manual method, but it works and you get as much storage space as you have on your NAS server. Solid Explorer can be tested for free and costs $2.49.
Also, try these other methods of backing up photos.
Apps make a lot of things easier, but they’re not the ultimate solution. Those who can devote a little more time and patience will find other ways to back up their photos. Some don’t even require an Internet connection. Some of these are fairly obvious, but we’ll list them anyway for the sake of completeness.
- Use an SD card – Devices with external storage are becoming fewer and fewer, but they still exist. I use this method. The camera app on my phone asks me if I want to use external storage, or you can normally set it in the settings. A large MicroSD card is usually not very expensive, and they are often on sale.
- Manual transfer to computer – For large rolls of film, this usually takes a minute, but if you connect your phone to your computer, you can easily transfer the entire roll of film to your PC. From there, you can organize and manage your photos as you wish.
- Direct transfer to an external hard drive – Modern Android devices allow direct transfer to hard drives. To do this, you need a file storage app and a charging cable, but otherwise, it’s pretty simple and you can keep your external hard drives in safe places to avoid damage.
- Facebook upload – Facebook has a setting that allows you to post photos that only you can see. We certainly don’t recommend it for people with large photo collections, but there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of photos you can upload to Facebook. After uploading, you can set permissions, sort photos into albums, and manage them as you wish. We highly recommend using the desktop site for this part.
If you come across any other methods, let us know in the comments and we’ll try them out and add them to this list if they are a good solution.
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