Hello everyone
I am looking at a Synology DS233j to back up photos and videos from the family iPhones.
In the event of a catastrophe requiring a new phone, how do I get the photos and videos onto a new iPhone.
Backing up via the synology photos app is covered well on various sites. But I’ve not found much explaining how to restore in the event you’ve replaced your phone.
Thanks for reading
Is there a means with the Synology Photo App to view the photos on the NAS, and then save them back to a replacement phone?
Is perhaps a clearer question.
Well, Just did this with the wife’s phone. We (I) did not want to move 200Gb of photos to the new iphone. We just added the Synology photos app. If she wants to look at or use older photos, she can find them on her new phone in Synology app. Her new photos are stored in iPhotos and backed up to the photos app.
But back to your question:
On a computer open iPhotos in the upper file menu choose import. Select the folder on the synology where your old photos are stored. Click review for import. Wait a long long time, Click Import all new items. Wait a longer time. Once all your photos are copied to iPhoto you can transfer them to her phone.
Hopefully your family is different and you don’t have to move hundreds and hundreds of gb’s. If you do you might have to do it in smaller chunks.
Thank you SteveD for your suggestion.
Not at 200GB yet. Just 60+.
Was the on the fence wether a NAS was the way to go us. Restoring iPhones was a must ability.
I believe IPhotos is a Mac program, sadly I don’t use one.
However, I have found a way that is not totally dissimilar to yours. Tested it last night.
It requires access to another iPad or iPhone.
Mount the network folder containing the pictures and videos in „Files“ on the other iPad/iPhone. Select the pictures and videos required and Airdrop them to the phone being restored. Everything appears in the correct order. And it copies pretty fast.
A little clunky, but I think reliable enough to get a NAS.
Question…did you re-establish the photo backup functionality with the new phone after you airdropped them back? I’m curious if you did and whether you now have duplicate copies of your photos on the NAS. I changed phones in December and as part of the restore process had all my photos moved to the new phone. When I re-installed the photos app and set the backup, I ended up with duplicates of nearly all my photos.
Hi CmdrSolo,
Afraid I can’t answer that question (yet).
I asked as part of working out if a Synology NAS was the right solution for me to buy.
I think it is and funnily enough ordered one just yesterday.
It could be tested by
Taking a photo
Backing it up
Send it to a friend
Delete it
Have friend AirDrop it back
Does it get backed up again
I suspect it would.
Given your experience, if I ever have to restore a whole phone of photos, I point the backup app at a new folder before I start. That way you end up with two identical folders and just need to delete the old one with a click.
However, I just checked a video for the backup app set up and it does give the option of just backing up new content from „now“. I interpret that means you can avoid backing up the restored content and just any new added photos.
Still prefer this to giving all my pictures to some company to look after.
I can confirm the Photos Mobile app will save photos and videos back into your iPhone camera roll. They appear at the correct date and time too in the standard iPhone photos app
The Airdrop method also works, but through the app is probably easier.
Under “export” (Share in iPhone language), you get the option to “Save Image”. Or in a folder select everything and you can save the lot in one go.
Happy days.
In answer to CmdrSolo’s question.
I took a photo. Backed it up. Deleted it from Camera Roll (first closing Photos Mobile otherwise the backup gets deleted too. Closing Photos Mobile prevents backup pictures getting deleted when you delete from the iPhone photos app). Restored it from Photos Mobile. Restarted Photos Mobile and it did not attempt to back the picture up a second time.
NB. When I deleted the restored test photo from Camera Roll on the iPhone with Photos Mobile also open, it didn’t automatically delete the back up photo I restored it from.