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Backup ​

Ente provides automatic, continuous backup of your photos and videos with end-to-end encryption. Once configured, your precious memories are safely synced to Ente's cloud without any manual effort.

How backup works ​

Mobile backup (iOS and Android) ​

Ente will automatically backup any albums in your native photos app that you select for backup. The app runs in the background, and any new photos added to these albums (or any photos in these albums that were modified) will be automatically synced to Ente.

Key features:

  • Background sync: New photos are uploaded automatically without needing to open the app
  • Original quality: Photos and videos are backed up in their original quality with no compression
  • Smart resumption: If backup is interrupted, it automatically resumes from where it left off
  • Battery and data aware: By default, uploads happen over WiFi to save mobile data and battery

Desktop backup (Mac, Windows, Linux) ​

On desktop, you can use watch folders to automatically backup photos from specific directories on your computer. This creates a one-way sync from your computer to Ente.

Selecting albums to backup ​

You can choose which albums should be backed up when you first sign up for Ente. If you change your mind later, or if you create a new album in your native photos app that you also want to backup, you can modify your choices:

On mobile:

Open Settings > Backup > Backed up folders and select or deselect albums as needed.

On desktop: Use the watch folders feature to select directories to sync.

Background sync ​

Ente Photos supports seamless background sync so that you don't need to open the app to backup your photos. It will sync in the background and automatically backup the albums that you have selected for syncing.

Day to day sync will work automatically. However, there are some platform specific considerations that apply:

iOS ​

On iOS, if you have a very large number of photos and videos, then you might need to keep Ente running in the foreground for the first backup to happen (since we get only a limited amount of background execution time). To help with this, under Settings > Backup there is an option to disable the automatic device screen lock. But once your initial backup has completed, subsequent backups will work fine in the background and don't need disabling the screen lock.

On iOS, Ente will not backup videos in the background (since videos are usually much larger and need more time to upload than what we get). However, they will get backed up the next time the Ente app is opened.

Note that the Ente app will not be able to backup in the background if you force kill the app.

If you're curious, the way this works is, our servers "tickle" your device every once in a while by sending a silent push notification, which wakes up our app and gives it 30 seconds to execute a background sync. However, if you have killed the app from recents, iOS will not deliver the push to the app, breaking the background sync.

Android ​

On some Android versions, newly downloaded apps activate a mode called "Optimize battery usage" which prevents them from running in the background. So you will need to disable this "Optimize battery usage" mode in the system settings for Ente if you wish for Ente to automatically back up your photos in the background.

On Android versions 15 and later, if an app is in private space and the private space is locked, Android doesn't allow the app to run any background processes. As a result, background sync will not work.

Desktop ​

In addition to our mobile apps, the background sync also works on our desktop app through the watch folders feature.

Troubleshooting background sync ​

  • On iOS, make sure that you're not killing the Ente app.
  • On Android, make sure that "Optimize battery usage" is not turned on in system settings for the Ente app.

Understanding backup behavior ​

What gets backed up ​

  • All photos and videos in selected albums
  • Original quality files (no compression)
  • Photo metadata (EXIF, location, date/time)
  • Live Photos (both photo and video components)

What happens when files are deleted ​

If a file is deleted from your native photos app, it will still remain in Ente. This is by design - on both iOS and Android, apps are not allowed to automatically delete users' photos without manual confirmation for security reasons.

If you want to delete a photo from Ente, you need to do it manually within the Ente app.

Duplicate handling ​

Ente automatically detects duplicates during upload. If you try to upload the same photo multiple times, Ente will recognize it and skip the duplicate, saving your storage space.

Learn more about how Duplicate detection works.

Backup frequency ​

  • Mobile: Background sync happens automatically. The exact timing depends on your device's operating system.
  • Desktop: Watch folders continuously monitor for changes and upload new files as they appear.