CHEAP Gnarbox Alternative: Backup Photos Without a Computer

Before buying a Gnarbox try this Cheap Gnarbox Alternative for backing up your photos without a computer. The Gnarbox is a neat piece of hardware, but it's a bit beyond my budget. This alternative is less than half the price of the Gnarbox and uses hardware I already had around the house and a nifty USB Hub for Android phones. Take a look and let me know what you think of this solution!

OTG USB Hub

Camera Gear:

Lighting Gear:

Audio Gear:

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[AdilConstantineMusic]

Nice affordable setup and those B-Rolls were smooth man. Good work!

[rrafaelpaz]

Mate, for a second I thought you were Keanu Reeves LOL. Great video by the way, cheers

[gileselliott]

I have a Gnarbox so watched this with interest. When I first bought the Gnarbox I saw it as a back up device pure and simple. The video edit function at outset was too limited to appeal to me, and their own photo software was again missing essential features. Now the eco system has developed to a point where the links to LumaFusion and Lightroom have transformed my use of the Gnarbox and iPad from back up, to an on the road studio. What they plan next in the V2 will move it on again. I suspect like me all photographers have a never ending wish list for kit, but I’d put the Gnarbox high on that list for anyone who hasn’t got one yet.

[rafacq]

A much simpler solution for about $139 is the 2Tb WD My Passport Wireless Pro. The 4Tb version is $198. These are current Amazon prices. Also these can be used with both android and Apple devices. The drive also allow video editing with LumaFusion.

[ThomasParis]

I've got a Gnarbox and it is definitely more convenient than what you're showing but I still think yours is a very good option indeed. I'll probably tell people who ask me about my Gnarbox they should watch your video before making a decision. Thanks for sharing!

[Hector]

Dope.. exactly what i was looking for.!

[PatrickChapmanuk]

Yes, I kind of discovered this technique by trial and error myself. I even managed to work out a way to connect the drive continuously to my camera, so it would save to the SD card whilst sending RAW files to the hard drive shortly thereafter. Albeit this can become rather cumbersome with all the necessary cables, attachments and continuous power required for the process. So not always very convenient.

The only issue I had was since I was using a 5TB USB drive it wouldn't format fully (with 2TB+) as FAT32. So I had to pay £5 so that my file manager on my Android phone could read the EXIF/NTFS file format which solved the problem. I'd still love a Gnarlbox with all its extra features, but this is a great work around for those with limited resources.

In fact my cheap (amateur) solution for home backup is just having 2 portable mirrored 5TB drives (£110 each), that I replace as one drive fails. Spending a fortune on unreliable NAS RAID storage has been my downfall for too many years.

[uhveetothe]

You just changed my life with this! I thank you and my pockets thank you 🙏 Just got mine in the mail and I can’t wait to bring this along on my upcoming trip. Thanks for sharing!

[svpsvp]

that was excellent and saved me a bundle of money. thanks for your time in producing this video.

[adurmarques]

Exactly what i was looking for,
I do not have money to buy a powerful notebook and my camera generates very heavy files, very good solution, thanks

[dustybootraveler]

I went out and bought every thing (not the Pelican) and it works 100%, Thx 4 the Brilliant video!!

[davephantom]

Great video, just been looking at the 'Seagate DJI Drive' which just seems to be a normal hard drive and Western Digital Passport SSD, very expensive! This solution is brilliant and very easy. Just ordered the Inateck Micro USB Card Reader Hub, only £10 in UK. Thanks again for the video and information.

[MateusRapini]

Fantastic! Can it be done with an iPhone?

[memathews]

Turn about on availability this time: Amazon does not carry the AGPtEK in the US, only available in CA, UK, etc.! That's rare. Great video on a solid idea, I was thinking on this after losing some un-backed up photos. Thanks for the solution.

[frostvisto]

Thanks for the tip! And I love the nice concise and straightforward shots and editing. I subbed

[chris]

Going to set this system up right after holidays. Thanks for the information

[poiisondn]

Hey Scott and everyone. I've come back to report on how my experience went with this. I use a Oneplus 3 and a Cheero 12000mAh battery bank; I bought a small OTG to micro USB adapter and I did initially run into a few problems... Hence all the testing. My phone didn't like getting external power from the wall and if I plugged in my battery back while the hub was connected, everything would short and disconnect.
I also experienced an issue where the SD card adapter for the micro SD card didn't work well with my phone (same micro card as yours in the video, same SD card adapter). Fortunately I had a micro SD to USB thumb drive lying around and that worked well. I'll be testing more thoroughly tonight but so far it seems like it's working. My phone is powering the entire hub, micro SD and the external HDD.
If I plug everything to the hub beforehand, including the battery bank (it being off), the phone will take all the connections and it will also turn on my battery bank automatically.
Oddly enough, I have 2 external drives. My phone initially could power my 1TB drive no problem and couldn't read my 2TB drive cause it kept turning off. I tried this one at a time. I formatted my 2TB drive to exFat and then my phone could power and read the drive. What's even more weird is, I did nothing with my 1TB drive and my phone can't read it anymore after that haha. It can't seem to power my 1TB drive but it can power my 2TB drive. Funny haha.
I'm sure these problems most likely pertain to me. I'll try a 128gb SanDisk drive tonight.

[TechnicallyaNomad]

Interesting solution... not quite a Gnarbox, but I'm sure that like a $25 Raspberry Pi or something can be added to automate the whole process!

[jochenschrey]

Thank you! - Questions: Can you write the entire HDD with one battery charge? How fast or slow is a transfer? Is there any device also handling CF cards? - I heard Canon isn't good for doing 4K on SDs. Are there apps to convert motion-JPEG footage overnight?

[chriskay]

Brilliant! I put together this exact setup and used a small Samsung tablet so I could edit with LightRoom Mobile.