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I'm looking for something to automatically upload/sync photos from my phone to my PC or server.

Anybody knows of something that could fit my use case? ​

My requirements:

  • upload only files older than some date - I just want new photos, not all the old stuff that I already have
  • don't reupload files I've deleted on the server/PC - I put the photos in different folders after putting them on the PC
  • private / open source / FOSS - I don't want for them to get in Google's (or some other company's) hands. ​

What I've tried:

  • syncthing - can't choose to upload stuff starting from a date, reuploads things I delete from the sync folder
  • NextCloud - doesn't have one-way upload feature ​

I've been thinking about writing something that runs periodically on my phone and just pushes the photos to some S3-compatible storage, and a PC component that pulls them. The problem is that without rooting you can't have reliable cron. Even if I would make it work with Termux somehow, Android could deny network access.

I know that paid Dropbox can do exactly what I want, but l'm hesitant to give them access to all my photos.

butla
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  • Have you checked the sync apps at F-Droid such as https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid/? – Robert Feb 09 '20 at 12:43
  • @Robert after applying some formatting to the question (actually, just inserting a line break so the list comes out as list): Yes, OP has. See second-to-last bullet point. – Izzy Feb 09 '20 at 14:05
  • I actually have a python program that does this. I just run an ssh server from my Android (SSHelper) and my script connects to that server and downloads photos from folders I specify. I'd post a git link but I don't have one and it's a bit kludgy. But it works, I put the script on a raspberry pi which I connect to an SSD and it runs every hour. – BruceWayne Feb 09 '20 at 15:13
  • Oh, all the SSH servers I used couldn't interact properly with the external SD card after some Android update (in Android 6 or 7) – butla Feb 10 '20 at 10:53
  • rclone is a very flexible solution if you don't mind CLI. I use it with crond but that requires root. Without root you can consider Termux Tasker or some similar solution. Related: Offline safe sync directory on sd card on non-rooted Android with Ubuntu PC – Irfan Latif Feb 10 '20 at 11:39
  • @IrfanLatif I haven't heard of Termux Tasker - it might be just the thing I need. – butla Feb 11 '20 at 12:17
  • Ever have any luck finding this? – JeopardyTempest Jul 28 '21 at 09:19
  • Well, what I have right now is a script (https://github.com/butla/configs_and_scripts/blob/master/home/bin/phone_media_transfer.py) that I run every now and then that goes over to my main computer (I have to be in the same WiFi network), checks what's the latest photo there and uploads (with rsync) everything that's newer on the phone.

    I can't run that with Termux and Tasker just now, because my SSH key requires a password. But I am planning on configuring SFTP (with a proper chroot jail) on my computer to enable automated upload from the phone with a passwordless key.

     – butla Jul 28 '21 at 13:33

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