How to Back Up Photos to iDrive

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction

Through mobile apps for iOS and Android, you upload the photos from your mobile device to your iDrive storage space, either automatically or manually. From there, you can organize them into albums, restore them to a different device, and share them with other people.

2. How to Create and Edit

Back-Up Photos to iDrive

Browse to the iDrive Photos website(Opens in a new window) and click Sign Up Now. You can choose to sign up for a free, 7-day trial account that includes 1TB of space. This requires your name, email address, and a password for your account but no payment details. Alternatively, go for the Unlimited Photo Backup Plan, which asks for your contact details and your credit card payment information.

Your next step is to download and install the iDrive Photo Backup app on your iOS(Opens in a new window) or Android(Opens in a new window) device. At the initial screen, sign in to your iDrive account and grant iDrive Photos access to your photos and videos, if you want to upload photos from your library.

Choose All Photos to give unlimited access, or Select Photos to choose only certain photos. You can then opt to allow or not allow notifications from the app.

The app will automatically start uploading photos from your library. To check on the progress of the upload, tap the Settings gear icon in the upper-left corner. The Settings screen shows how many items are left to upload. On an iPhone, tap the option for Start Supercharged Backup to see more details on the progress.

At this point, the app recommends that you plug in your iPhone or iPad to make sure it won’t power off due to a weak battery charge. Tap Exit Supercharged Backup to return to the Settings screen. After the upload has finished, the status indicates that the backup is complete.

On an Android phone, there is no option for Supercharged Backup. Instead, the section for Upload in progress displays the status of the upload. After the upload is done, the status indicates that the backup has completed.

After the initial upload, you may want to tweak some of the settings in the app, which you can do at the Settings screen. If you’d rather not have new photos and videos automatically backed up to iDrive, turn off the switch for Auto Upload. You can always turn it back on, and any photos or videos not yet uploaded will then be sent to iDrive.

Under the More section, you can opt to use cellular data to upload your photos and videos. Just keep in mind that any large or long videos will chew up some of your cellular data. On an Android device, you can switch the visual theme of the app between light and dark. You can also change your password and set up a passcode to further secure your photos.