Filamama Backup for Android sends a phone's photos and videos to your Filamama server. It pairs once, then backs up on its own. The download is coming soon.
Filamama Backup or Piktures?
They are two different apps.
- Filamama Backup for Android does one thing: it backs up the phone's photos and videos to your Filamama server. To back up a phone to Filamama, use this one.
- Piktures is our Android photo app, a separate app. Support for Filamama in Piktures is planned, on the same protocol; until it ships, use Filamama Backup for Android.
What you need
- An Android phone with Android 11 or later. There is no iPhone app yet.
- A Filamama server, and an account on it.
Set it up
- In Filamama, open Settings › Devices › Pair a phone. A QR code appears.
- In the app, tap Scan the code. No camera? Type the server's address and the pairing code, then check that the safety code the app shows is the one Filamama shows.
- Allow the app to see all photos and videos, and to send notifications so you can follow a long backup.
The first backup starts at once. See Pair a phone for what pairing checks.
When it backs up
- About a minute after you take a photo or video. A burst of shots makes one run.
- When you tap Back up now.
- Every hour while a run has left something behind, then once a day when everything is sent.
- In Settings, you can limit backups to when the phone is charging, or to when it is at home.
An upload that is cut off, because the phone left the Wi-Fi or the app was stopped, goes on from the exact byte where it stopped. Before sending, the app asks the server what it already has, so nothing is sent twice. See How a backup works.
The app
Three tabs: Backup shows where the backup stands, with Back up now; Activity lists the runs by day; Settings holds the options and Unpair.
The app sends the original files, so the location the camera wrote stays in them. It talks to your server and nothing else.
Not yet
- Favourites, moves and deletions made on the phone after a backup are not sent yet. The server accepts them, but this app doesn't send them, so deleting a photo on the phone never deletes it on the server. See Deletions and mirroring.
- Browsing the library from the phone. Use the web library in the phone's browser.
- Freeing space on the phone after a backup.