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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Backing up iPhone photos to iCloud without using iCloud?

Backing up iPhone photos to iCloud without using iCloud?
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ShortcutToMoncton
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Dec 5, 2016, 04:51 PM
 
Hah. So my work company has chosen to block the possibility of "getting hacked" via iCloud - it's disabled on all iOS devices.

I'm looking for an exception to that for pictures/video - I'd like to be able to back them up to my iCloud (since I do use my phone for pics and they only have 16gb models of course).

Are there any third-party apps that can access and do this upload? I know there are for Dropbox, but iCloud seems a bit more locked down upon my initial search.
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OAW
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Dec 5, 2016, 07:45 PM
 
If they have simply blocked iCloud Photo Library then you could still use iCloud Backup for your pictures. But if they have blocked iCloud altogether then I'm not aware of any 3rd party apps that could get around that.

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ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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Dec 5, 2016, 09:05 PM
 
iCloud Backup isn't available - that Settings tab is greyed out and I can't turn it "On".
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OAW
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Dec 5, 2016, 10:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
iCloud Backup isn't available - that Settings tab is greyed out and I can't turn it "On".
Yeah I was afraid that's what you were going to say. Your best bet would be to see if you can use Google Photos or MS OneDrive to automatically backup all photos/videos that are in your camera roll. Assuming they haven't blocked that too.

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ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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Dec 6, 2016, 12:05 AM
 
Yeah, I know some of them are blocked - but for example Dropbox has third party apps that allow you to upload and those are not blocked.

On that note, just thinking about it, I might be able to try uploading on the phone via one of the third-party Dropbox upload apps to the free-level DP account, and then a desktop script program like Hazel to automatically move all photos over to the iCloud desktop folder. Kind of awkward but it might work. Just not sure why this couldn't be done via a third-party iCloud iPhone app but given that it's Apple....
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Laminar
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Dec 6, 2016, 11:10 AM
 
Is the first-party Dropbox app blocked? I use Dropbox to automatically upload my photos from my phone. I use an Automator script to monitor the Camera Upload folder on my computer which then moves and resizes the images for web hosting. You could do the same to move the images to your computer's iCloud folder.
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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Dec 6, 2016, 03:28 PM
 
Lol did you just restate my last post?
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subego
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Dec 6, 2016, 04:08 PM
 
A third-party Dropbox app was mentioned.

This was considered to mean some app other than "DropBox for iOS".
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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Dec 6, 2016, 04:39 PM
 
Well yes it's blocked, but the premise of uploading to DB and using a desktop automator to move files to iCloud sounded echo-ish.

On that note, upon quick look it seems that iCloud Drive is the only viewable desktop folder - is that right? I'm not home at the moment but I suppose there is likely a read folder for Photos and I should move it there instead?

It's a pretty manual and awkward process - too bad.
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Laminar
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Dec 6, 2016, 04:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Lol did you just restate my last post?
Basically confirming your theoretical model as one that I actually use, with the additional question regarding the first party Dropbox app.
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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Dec 6, 2016, 05:26 PM
 
Is there a reason you use DB instead of iCloud?
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Laminar
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Dec 6, 2016, 05:39 PM
 
I've been using it since before iCloud was a thing and never saw a compelling reason to change. I also use Dropbox to host images so it's useful to have them already ready for hosting.
     
   
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