Dear Lifehacker,I love taking pictures with my smartphone, but — call me lazy — I never take the time to sync them to my desktop or the web. How can I back up and synchronise my Android phone’s pictures without plugging it in? Signed, Too Slothful for Sync
Dear Slothful,
We hear where you’re coming from. As our devices become more connected to the cloud, it feels more and more tedious to have to manually plug in and sync your pictures.
Pictures aren’t backed up automatically on Android in the same way contacts and calendars are, so we’ve picked out the best apps that will do it for you automatically, without wires. If you’re using an iPhone, we’ve already got you covered.
Two Options: Sync to the Web or to Your Desktop
There are two ways you might want to back up your pictures: to your PC or to the cloud. Each option has pros and cons:
| Pros | Cons | |
| PC | * You get a local copy of pictures on your PC * You don’t use your data allowance to sync | * Your photos aren’t backed up right away when you’re not at home * Your photos aren’t integrated with online services |
| Cloud | * Your photos are integrated with online services like Flickr and Picasa * Your photos are backed up right away, even when you’re not at home | * You don’t automatically have a copy of your photos on your PC * If you take a lot of photos, it can eat up a lot of your data allowance |
Some of those cons can be worked around and I’ll talk about that at the end.
Sync to PC
Here are two options for automatically syncing between your desktop and your phone. Neither of them perfect, but they’re both pretty good depending on your needs. We’d recommend setting up either:
- DoubleTwist with AirSync
- Scheduled upload to an FTP server running on your computer
Again, you’ve got some pros and cons to consider:
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| DoubleTwist | * Regular sync * Syncs music, too | * Not free (costs $4.99) * Doesn’t run in the background or minimise to system tray |
| Scheduled upload to FTP server | * Free * Can work both at home and away from home with the right setup * Works with any folder—not just limited to pictures | * Not easy to set up * Sync scheduling isn’t very flexible |
We’ve covered how to set up DoubleTwist with AirSync before, including a guide to scheduling sync, so I won’t go over it again here. If you think you’d prefer scheduling uploads via FTP, here’s how that works.
Scheduled upload to a Local FTP Server
Since you’re syncing from your phone to an FTP server you’re going to run on your desktop, there’s a PC part to this setup and an Android part.
The PC setup: If you’ve already got a home server or FTP client installed, the PC part is taken care of. If you haven’t, our guide to building a home FTP server with FileZilla will get you set up on that front.
The Android setup: Setting up your Android is easy. First download FSync from the App Market.When you first run it you’ll be presented with the contents of your SD card. Scroll down and click into DCIM.
