u/appjun

Hi everyone, I’m the developer of Watermelon Backup.

I built it because I wanted a more reliable second backup of my iPhone photo library, outside of iCloud Photos and outside of any single cloud or NAS ecosystem.

Watermelon Backup lets you back up photos and videos from iPhone/iPad directly to storage you control:

- External drives
- SMB file shares
- WebDAV servers
- S3-compatible storage
- SFTP servers

The app is meant for people who care about keeping their original photo/video files, preserving metadata as much as iOS allows, and having a backup that is not tied to one vendor.

A few important details:

- It backs up directly from your device to your selected storage.
- It is backup-focused, not two-way sync.
- Deleting photos from your iPhone does not delete them from the backup.
- It supports restore, including month-by-month restore.
- Credentials are stored in iOS Keychain.
- It is open source, so the storage and file handling can be inspected.
- No subscription. There is only a one-time lifetime Pro.

I shared the app in another Reddit community recently and got a lot of useful feedback. Some people were confused by parts of the setup flow, especially around adding storage destinations and using external drives. A few also ran into connection/setup issues.

Since then, I’ve updated the onboarding and usage guidance, and fixed several connection issues people reported. I’m sharing the updated version here because I’d like to hear more opinions from iOS users, especially people who back up photos to a NAS, home server, external SSD, S3-compatible bucket, or SFTP server.

The lifetime Pro is currently free through June 29, then goes back to the regular price (about 2 cups of coffee) on June 30.

App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6762260596

I’d really appreciate any feedback, especially on:

- Whether the setup flow is clear enough
- Which storage destinations you would actually use for photo backup
- Which cloud or network services you would want supported next
- What would make you trust an app with your photo backup workflow

Hi, AppHookup!

I’m the developer of Watermelon Backup.

iPhone Photos take up most of the storage for me. I do have an iCloud plan, but after a few heart-stopping moments, I decided not to enable iCloud Photos and to manage my photos myself.

I had a Synology DS216play for years, and setting it up was not too difficult for me. But over time, the poor hardware became more and more slower.

Last 2 years, I bought a new device and started using unRAID to store all my photos and videos, and use a more powerful Mac mini to drive Immich and manage unRAID photo folder via External Library feature. Immich mobile is great, but it cannot backup photos directly to unRAID.

So I needed an app that could backup the photos from my iPhone while keeping the original files and metadata, without reducing image quality or removing EXIF data. Ideally, it should support background backups, not be tied to a specific brand or cloud service, perform well, and preferably be open source.

Eventually, I realized I probably needed to build the app myself. That’s how Watermelon Backup started.

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Compared with other similar apps, Watermelon Backup tries to offer all of these things together:

1. The code is open source, which I hope can reduce some concerns about the privacy of your photos and videos.
2. It supports multiple storage nodes. A node can be an external drive, SMB share, WebDAV server, S3-compatible bucket, or SFTP server.
3. Carefully design and implement in code, not a toy project.
4. No Subscriptions.

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Version 1.5.0 is a big update for Watermelon Backup, and it also has a new website:

https://watermelonbackup.com/

I spent about six full weeks working on the update and the website. The “design → code → test” loop went on and on, and honestly, I’m a little exhausted now. I would really like to get more feedback from users.

So the in-app purchase free for a limited time.

I am waiting for your all feedback, no matter good or not good.

App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6762260596

Hi, I am the developer of Watermelon Backup App, which can help you backup your photos/videos from iPhone/iPad to External Disks/SMB/WebDAV.

App Info:

Watermelon Backup

The app itself is free, with in-app purchases.

App Store Link: itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id6762260596 or https://apps.apple.com/app/id6762260596

Pros than other backup apps:

1. Backup files are not compressed and their EXIF data is not modified. Original filenames are preserved as much as possible, unless there are duplicate filenames in the same month.
2. You can export and re-import your files, and Live Photos will remain intact.
3. You can back up to an external drive, or to an SMB/WebDAV service on your local network. Support for cloud drives like Google Drive is on the way.
4. The code is open source, to avoid privacy concerns. ( https://github.com/zizicici/Watermelon )

About In-App Purchase

There is only an in-app purchase: Pro membership. It is not a subscription.

Currently, the price is $3.99, it will increase by future functions adding. (S3 and SFTP Support is on the way)
Pro User can add multiple remote targets/background backup task/PIP indicator.

Free User can add only add one remote targets, like External Disk/SMB in local network.