Backup iPhone Photos to Your Storage

Watermelon Backup is open source, and you can compile the app directly in Xcode. The in-app purchase supports ongoing development, maintenance, and updates so the app can keep serving users well.

It does not renew. Pro is a one-time purchase and stays available for life. On a new device, use Restore Purchase to restore your entitlement.

A Node is a storage connection you add in the app. It can be External Storage, SMB, WebDAV, an S3-Compatible Bucket, or SFTP.

Credentials required by Nodes are stored in iOS Keychain and are not uploaded to Watermelon Backup servers.

Backup writes original photos and videos from this device to the current Node; Download restores backed-up items from the Node into Photos; Complement backs up first, then downloads: it sends local items missing on the Node, then brings remote-only items back into Photos.

Yes. Watermelon Backup saves each Live Photo as a still image and a paired video. When you import it back with Watermelon Backup, it is merged back into a Live Photo.

No. Photos and videos are not recompressed. Watermelon Backup keeps the original files as much as possible, so capture time and embedded metadata such as EXIF stay with the originals.

This is expected and does not mean photos or videos are missing. Watermelon Backup backs up by month and uses content hashes to detect duplicates. If the same original content appears more than once in a month, the remote storage keeps one actual file and the backup manifest records the related items. Remote file counts and storage usage can therefore be lower than local totals; small manifest/index files and each storage provider's accounting can also make the size display differ.

Yes. Turn on Allow iCloud Photo Access in the app settings so Watermelon Backup can fetch iCloud originals when needed.

Check the External Storage format and the access state in Files. See Apple Support for details.

Please email us. See Contact for contact details. If possible, include exported logs.