PhotoSync – transfer photos Reviews

by Spacetimer

PhotoSync used to be GREAT, but starting some months ago, it would stealth fail on me. In particular, it would show that there are, say 134 new photos/videos on my iPad, and I would tell it to upload all new photos/videos on my iPad to my Mac, and it would show every sign of success, including showing no error message and showing the usual done message and showing that there are now zero new photos/videos. Unfortunately, when I check my Mac, only less than the 134 latest photos/videos actually exist on my Mac. The failure seems to be that a big file, e.g., a 40-minute video, might be the last file uploaded, and no earlier file would be uploaded.

This is SO dangerous! I have to hand verify that all files seem to have made it!

by Josh_hill

Poorly written app and probably spyware. I wanted to upgrade to the paid version but that’s impossible, because PhotoSync won’t allow me to even see the upgrade menu unless I allow it to access all my personal photos at the same time while it is connecting to the developer’s “big brother” server for upgrading. PhotoSync is probably copying all your photos to some unknown internet server while upgrading, otherwise I can’t explain why the developers have hid the upgrade menu unless you first allow it to see all your photos. These 2 should be unrelated. Normally I should be able to upgrade while disallowing photo access, and then I should be able to turn off cellular internet access before allowing it to see my photos.

by Jimjrfl

PhotoSync is great if you want to transfer just between devices. But I’m using an iPhone. All photos already sync between devices. I got PhotoSync because it supposedly syncs to local storage on NAS. I have USB storage connected to my router. I keep full sized photos stored there. PhotoSync will NOT auto sync to USB storage on your router. You can manually select photos and manually send them there but I could already do that without PhotoSync . Nowhere in the description does it say there is a problem with iOS security interfering with the auto upload feature. But there is. PhotoSync has NEVER auto uploaded to my storage connected to my router. It’s other features are already built into my phone. I so wanted this to work. When I submitted a ticket, only then, did I receive a link which explains the issue with auto upload and iOS.

by User58254

If I rated PhotoSync a year ago, I would have given it 5 stars, but after extensive use I have noticed that it has some issues. A recent transfer of a batch of photos/videos resulted in a handful of corrupt images. I wish I checked the output first, but I relied on PhotoSync , thought that the transfer had been successful and prematurely deleted some of the photos from the phone. Now the much needed images are gone. I have tried various ways to recover them, but none worked. It’s fair to note that the images that do get successfully exported to the computer preserve all metadata (gps coordinates etc), and that’s the main feature for which I purchased PhotoSync.

by Physicles

PhotoSync is the only reason why I don’t need to spend a pile of money on an iCloud subscription for backing up my photos. Sync options are endless (I didn’t even know about webdav before) so however you want to do it, it’s supported.

My only wish is that it would make the most common usage scenarios, like “just backup my photos”, easier to discover and simpler to use. All the options you could possibly want are there, but it sometimes takes a while to dig through them to find exactly what you want.

by Craciant

If you use an iPhone with a windows computer or otherwise don’t like to use cloud services, PhotoSync is for you. Importing photos with the provided utilities from Apple and Microsoft had given me nothing but errors, headaches and wasted time. This will let you use simple, standard protocols (FTP) that have existed since the beginning of time to sync your photos to your home PC or remote server without any nonsense. No proprietary databases, just regular old file transfer. Why in gods name I need to BUY an app to do this seemingly most basic of functions that should come stock is a face palming thought, but $5 is a « fair » price to make my expensive device do something any 1995 dell wouldn’t shrug at.

Only caveat, I’m not sure if there’s a way to simultaneously backup to redundant servers simultaneously, if there is, the UI should be improved, if there isn’t, it would be a nice feature.

by Jimbopilot

I have been a long time user of this app. The improvements PhotoSync has had over the years has been just awesome and is just getting better and better.
My family and I use it for transferring photos to Smugmug and it just works flawlessly.
Most importantly, is the support and commitment of PhotoSync developers to respond and act on resolving small issues I have faced that makes this the best app experience for me. Kudos to this team and hope it continues to grow.

by Avierius

PhotoSync has allowed me to finally achieve a goal of mine: uploading photos to a personally-owned server without relying on any cloud service. It’s incredibly configurable, which is great to help decide how your photos appear once uploaded.

On top of the awesome features of PhotoSync , the developer is quick to respond to feedback and is more than willing to help debug problems! I had a configuration problem as well as an issue where photos were not appearing. I quickly got responses to my inquiries and had an email exchange to resolve my problems. To be clear, neither problem was with PhotoSync , but in my assumptions of the behavior of my given configuration.

If you want photo uploads without using a cloud provider, or if you want to upload to many places, PhotoSync is an absolute must-buy!

by Todd1561

I’ve been using PhotoSync for years to automatically backup my photos to my home WebDAV server for safe keeping. The developer is incredibly responsive. I’ve had a few questions over the years and he responds within minutes. Unheard of in a world of non-existent customer service. Keep up the great work.

My only gripes are actually iOS shortcomings; that you can’t schedule auto backups and there’s a time limit on background transfers. Both of these are because Apple places limits on what apps can do in the background.

by Punchycool

What a sleeper app! This tool is loaded with features. Was shocked by the set of endpoints you can target. Very well done. Lots of options. Works great pushing photos to a Linux server with its camera upload feature. Professional feel of PhotoSync . Transfer experience is fast over sftp. It knows what media it needs to sync but you can also choose the media to sync and also choose to delete the media on the iOS device after it’s transferred. Barely scratched the surface on what this tool can fully do. Kudos to the dev team!

by Gameplayer4400

Flickr’s app only seems to upload as “private” and I wanted to upload as “family”. I had a different app to do this but it stopped working after some iOS 11 changes. I took a chance that PhotoSync would do what I wanted, and it did! I generally use it with a geofence indicator to upload when I get home, but I also use the button function to upload when I am at home or work. I only use it for Flickr, but I am considering using it for other services, too. I recommend PhotoSync.

by Rich Nieves

I don’t give much reviews but today felt I needed to give one. I love PhotoSync and have it installed everywhere, on my iPhones, iPads and on my macs! My friends also have it. It’s the best photo transfer app for the iPhone. It is much more dependable than Apple’s own transfers. I stopped using Airdrop because it failed so many times, or would stall, or simply wouldn’t see the other device. But not PhotoSync! PhotoSync finds my devices immediately, never has had any trouble connecting and the transfers are fast! Highly highly highly recommended.

by Meditation Timer

Been using this since it first came out. Each version even gets better. Lightening "FAST keeps track of what you've synced, where it went, has all the meta data (file size, etc, keeps original file size!, simply amazing. Had a problem of it crashing all of a sudden? Deleted it and re-downloaded it, back to normal again= perfect.
My love of PhotoSync continues to grow over the years! It truly is the only apple app I use Every Day. Can’t imagine not having it. I’m praying it will work with ios13... and after all this time why wouldn't it...it worked smoothly with all the previous upgrades...Mahalo nut load - Michael in Hawaii

by FrankD54

I’ve had PhotoSync for two days and it’s solved all of my backup needs. From iPhone to NAS and to Smugmug. The selection features, auto sync with triggers and folder and file options are are all great. Best of all. Everything works right away. I loaded the companion app on my PC and was syncing photos in 2 minutes. I sent all 5700 of my iPhone photos over to my NAS and can now delete most from my phone and then sort through my pics on my NAS. I wish all apps were so well designed and WORKED so well and so easily. This is a killer app for anyone who takes a lot of photos and cares about backup or too many photos on your phone. Highly recommend!

by BP407

I absolutely LOVE this photo transfer app! I literally downloaded a dozen others as well and compared each one - this was a clear winner by a long shot. Fast, reliable, transfers in full resolution, works perfectly every single time. The desktop companion app is solid as well, makes for a perfect software combination. Lastly, it’s clear the developer really cares about his software. He is incredibly quick to reply and gives thoughtful responses. I love supporting folks who take pride in their products and will spend the money to buy the lifetime premium (despite not needing the features) simply to support a fantastic developer! Kudos for a job well done on this wonderful piece of software!!

by Joelseph T.

Had massive issues importing photos from my iPhoneX to Lightroom 5 on my iMac. This is a widely recognized issue among users. It would literally take 2 hours to import 200 files. PhotoSync moves files wirelessly into Lightroom very efficiently-like when I was using my old iPhone 5! Very easy to configure too. The only minor issue is that you lose date/time metadata on videos. Lightroom will bucket the video on whatever day you imported and ignore capture date. However, the correct time/date info associated with the file is retained in Finder. So you can do some manual organization if you’d like. I think this issue is corrected in the current versions of Lightroom. Other than that, I love this application and highly recommend.

by Carduini

After trying to get the iCloud app to make friends with my Windows PC, in order to empty pictures out of the cloud, I downloaded PhotoSync.
After you download,then PhotoSync has you go to a website, and you download a companion app for your PC.
I had trouble the first try, getting it to find my IP address, and found I needed to go back to the first app Ion my phone, and do a couple of set up steps you see when you open the phone app.
Then it worked.... all 400 pics, even the big ones moved into my Windows photos still in date order! Went hiking yesterday, did it again this morning, turn on computer, find PhotoSync 3 button pushes and they are in your computer before the coffee is done. Thanks developers!

by Wulfeman

PhotoSync has more features than any other similar app, that I am aware of. Someone gave it a poor review; because it wouldn’t auto transfer to a USB device, connected to his router. He thinks that should be considered a NAS, and thus, PhotoSync should sync to it. (If it doesn’t have an IP address, then it isn’t a NAS!).

The only complaint that I could possibly have is that it’s level of customization is so extensive, you could get lost in what you are doing. I don’t have any problems; but I have a degree in Computer Science. Less technical users might have problems. I would recommend that some future version integrate a toggle between basic settings and access to more advanced settings.

I love PhotoSync and use it on a daily basis. Well worth the price.

by Stationdynamic

I have a TrueNAS server that I have been backing up to manually, until now.

I purchased the premium version, then reached out to support to see how I could get it on my wife’s phone too. Support was quick and courteous with very helpful information on how to do it. Now, we can both automatically back up to the server and this saves me so much time.

So far I have tried SMB and FTP for transfer. I have it setup to automatically run at 2am when charging. FTP is much faster, while SMB is painfully slow. From what I have read, SMB is better for large, single files but has a lot of overhead when transferring a lot of small files (like a list of photos). So experiment with the protocols if you are not seeing your desired behavior.

by Benonline2468

I have all my photos on iCloud but I have a large library of photos so I have to use the “Optimize Storage” option which means I have zero local copies of all my photos, they only exist in the iCloud. this app let’s me backup all my photos easily, quickly, and incrementally to my NAS (but it also works for many other types of storage online and offline) without having to jump through hoops. I just have it set up in my iPad (or you can do iPhone) to automatically download all new full resolution photos, and then transfer them to my NAS. Worth the low annual premium cost for this peace of mind!

by Mikesungold

I’ve used this for years with little issue but lately it has not been as good as it has been. For a while it wasn’t properly identifying the “new” photos that hadn’t been uploaded to another device yet. It seems better now, but I’ve recently noticed that it is transferring a lot of my photos to a computer oriented side ways the wrong way. It doesn’t do this to all photos but many and I can verify that they are not the same orientation on my phone from where they came. I don’t want to have to reorient them right side up.

by Frankensinatra

I’ve used PhotoSync for years, with no issues. Now, for the past two or three months, it doesn’t want to work. Transferring from my pc to my phone, it says it can not find my phone. Same issue when transferring from my phone to pc. It is on the same network and the numbers all match. This happens when trying it manually too. Both my iOS and PhotoSync are up to date. So it’s unusable.

by Zkola981

I don’t review many things but felt to write this one. This is PhotoSync you need once you setup home NAS and want to free up space on your iPhone by backing up old photos/videos.
Better than google photos as original quality is maintained. I love the auto backup option, photos get backed up each day once logged into home WiFi.

Faced some problems with SMB1 configuration but the developer was super quick to provide beta update to solve it, highly recommended.

by Billy Skywalker

It is rare that something work exactly as promised, but in this case it is true. I don’t give glowing reviews as a rule, because there is almost always something that falls short. Here however that is not the case. We have had PhotoSync for several years and it has never failed to transfer photos, or videos from many different formats. We have been extremely happy with PhotoSync.