Back Up iPhone Photos to an S3-Compatible Bucket

Prepare the bucket

• Create or choose a bucket and a prefix/folder for Watermelon Backup.
• Prepare the endpoint, region, bucket name, base path, Access Key ID, and Secret Access Key.
• If the endpoint has no scheme, Watermelon Backup treats it as HTTPS.
• Make sure the credentials can list, upload, read, delete, and copy objects under the backup path.
• HTTP endpoints are supported only on a local network. Use HTTPS for cloud providers or non-local endpoints.

Add the S3-Compatible Node

• In Watermelon Backup, choose Add S3 Storage.
• Enter the endpoint, region, bucket, base path, credentials, and addressing style required by your provider.
• Use Test Connection to verify that the bucket can be listed. It is not a write test.
• Save the Node and select it on Home.
• Wait for connection and remote index sync to finish.

Run the backup

• Grant Photos access if needed.
• Check the local-side months you want to back up.
• Tap Execute and confirm the task.
• Watermelon Backup uses ListObjectsV2, single-part and multipart upload, server-side copy, and multipart copy where appropriate.

Compatibility

S3-compatible services differ in details. If a provider has unusual API behavior, compatibility depends on how closely it follows the S3 API expected by the app.