PhotoDump Support

PhotoDump copies your photos and videos, in full quality including Live Photos, from your iPhone to a destination you control: a USB or SSD drive, your own S3-compatible storage, or a REST server you run.

USB/SSD drives, S3-compatible object storage (AWS S3, MinIO, and compatible services), and REST servers you control. USB/SSD is the most mature option today; S3 and REST are labeled Beta.

No. There is no sign-up, login, or PhotoDump account of any kind. You only configure the destination you want to use.

No recurring subscription. PhotoDump is a single one-time purchase that unlocks all destinations, including the Beta ones.

iOS 16 or later. Some features, such as Live Activities on the Lock Screen, take advantage of newer iOS versions when available.

English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Kazakh. The app follows your device's language automatically, or you can pick one manually in Settings.

Connect the drive to your iPhone (directly or via an adapter), open PhotoDump, and choose "USB Drive" as your destination. Grant folder access when prompted.

Yes. Files stream directly from your Photos library to the drive. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and no internet connection is needed for the transfer itself (only for downloading originals that are still stored in iCloud rather than on your device).

Yes. Give each device a different destination folder name during setup so their records stay separate and files from different phones don't get mixed together.

Migration pauses automatically. Reconnect the drive and it resumes exactly where it left off — nothing is re-copied or lost.

The folder name determines where on the drive your files (and PhotoDump's internal record database) are stored. This is what keeps multiple devices sharing one drive from mixing their files together.

No. PhotoDump only writes into the destination folder you choose. It never reformats, erases, or touches anything else on the drive.

Choose "S3 Storage" as your destination and enter your bucket name, region, access key, and secret key. Any S3-compatible provider works, not just AWS.

No. Any storage service that speaks the S3 API — including self-hosted options like MinIO — works the same way.

Choose "REST API" as your destination and provide your server's upload URL and any required authentication headers. See the in-app setup guide for the exact request format PhotoDump sends.

They are newer than USB/SSD support and are still being hardened against edge cases like network interruptions and provider-specific quirks. They are safe to use, but USB/SSD is currently the most battle-tested path.

Yes. Credentials are stored in your device's Keychain, the same secure storage iOS uses for passwords, and are never sent anywhere except directly to the destination you configured.

A file is only marked safe to delete from your phone after PhotoDump confirms it exists on the destination. Nothing is ever suggested for deletion before that check passes.

Yes, at any point. Close the app, come back later, and migration continues exactly where it stopped instead of starting over.

If a photo or video is still stored in iCloud rather than on your device, downloading it runs at the speed Apple's iCloud service allows for your account. This is controlled by Apple, not by PhotoDump. Once a file is downloaded, it no longer depends on iCloud.

PhotoDump keeps the screen from locking on its own while the migration screen is open, so you can dim the brightness safely. If you lock the phone manually, migration pauses and resumes once you unlock it again.

iOS limits background photo uploads for all apps, so PhotoDump works best with the app open. It uses Live Activities to show progress on your Lock Screen, and will prompt you to reopen the app if background time runs out.

PhotoDump automatically retries failed files a few times before marking them as failed. Failed items are listed in the migration log and can be retried manually at any time.

No. PhotoDump only marks files as safe to delete — it never deletes anything from your Photos library on its own. Deleting is always a manual action you take.

Yes. You can migrate your entire library or pick specific presets and albums from the migration setup screen.

Yes. Albums, full-screen viewing, and search all work the same way whether a file is still on your phone or already migrated to your destination.

PhotoDump indexes what's in each photo (people, places, objects) and where it was taken, entirely on-device, so you can search by content or location without typing exact filenames or dates.

Search tags are hidden when the source drive isn't currently reachable, so you never get results pointing at content that can't actually be opened right now.

No meaningful amount. PhotoDump does not keep a second copy of a migrated file in your phone's storage. Small temporary files used during transfer are cleaned up automatically.

It clears thumbnails and any temporary files left behind by an interrupted migration or video preview, reclaiming the space immediately rather than waiting for automatic cleanup.

USB/SSD never copies files into your phone's local storage at all — it streams directly to the drive. S3/REST briefly hold a file locally while uploading it, then remove it automatically.

No. There is no analytics, crash reporting, or advertising SDK in the app. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Only you. Files go directly from your device to the destination you configure. PhotoDump's developer never receives a copy of anything you migrate.