How to backup SD cards using an iPhone

Backing up photos and videos while traveling helps protect against accidental data loss, but it typically requires packing a laptop or buying expensive hardware. In this video, I demonstrate how to copy an SD card to an SSD drive using a few inexpensive accessories.

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📦 PRODUCTS FEATURED
Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter

USB-C to USB-A Adapter

Anker USB-C 7-in-1 Hub

Anker 325 Power Bank USB-C
(Substituting this because the RavPower charger in this video is no longer sold on Amazon)

SanDisk 2TB SSD V2 Drive

OWC 256GB UHS-II SD card

📕 CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - Adapters and cables
2:27 - Connecting everything
4:34 - Using iOS Files app
5:37 - Speed
6:20 - Copy only, no merge
6:58 - CFExpress cards
8:01 - Cloud backup?
10:59 - Wrapping it up
11:34 - Outro

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[jimthomson]

Thanks Todd. Great solution to a common issue to backup SD cards - I will do most anything to avoid carrying my computer (security, weight, and safety) on travel - need to be as light as possible [ I do not check bags - 100% carryon with my mirrorless camera ].  
Another great video - gets to the point, clean, professional, well organized pitch, no wasted time with BS comments. Been a subscriber for some time now. Comments: 
1). next time use shorter cables so it looks less messy :)
2) to reduce backup times, back up more frequently to pre-created folders already setup on the SDD drive.  
3) carry multiple SD cards so the SDD provides true backups (ie do not erase/overwrite any SDs while on travel). 
4).surprised how much the price of the 2T SDDs have come down!

[gavinburnett]

There is an update to this for anyone with the newer usbc iPhones instead of the lightning iphones. You can simply do away with the apple iphone connector element ie. not purchase one. Instead, the powered hub goes directly into iPhone giving you access to the sd card and the external drive connected to the hub. This does not charge your phone however at the same time but I used my MagSafe charger to power the phone while copying, or charge your phone fully beforehand. 👍🏻

[MikeNovakPhoto]

I am not posting the Wikipedia page since many YouTube creators turn off the ability to post links. But you can confirm by googling keywords like lightning port wikipedia. But basically the lightning port is only equivalent to USB 2.0. Which is why this backup process is slow. When Apple added the USB port first to the iPad Pro then later to almost all iPads at this point is so that you can connect via usb cable to an external monitor or TV. Some people say it was to help in speeding up SSD file transfers but that was just and added bonus when they added the port. It’s primary function was to check connect monitors and TVs

[windycity]

Yesss when space is super limited - being able to use what you always carry, a phone, for data transfer this is a great option!

[SahilGoesHARD]

This sounds like a good solution to sports/action videographers/photographers who do content creation and need to post to social media in a timely manner

[jasonm]

Moral of the story - bring your laptop.

[ToastedSynapseGaming]

With Android phones I think you can skip like 1/2 the cables and dongles. Because it has USB-C already, you would need 1 dongle (also called a hub) and an external drive with a cable. It's also possibly FASTER to copy, because you're not converting so many USB types, it should just be USB 3.0 speed (note to check your dongle if it's inputs are at this standard).
That's it, two things needed. Power bank optional, but a good idea to have.
You can even skip the external drive if your phone has lots of storage and you trust it. Just copy photos on it and take them out when you get home.

Note: The USB-C on the phone is enough to power a dongle btw - so for fast transfers no need for power bank, although it's good to have one with you while traveling. It plugs into the PD of the dongle/hub and that's it. 1 cable for power.
In total: Phone, dongle(with own cable), SSD + cable, PowerBank + Cable. 4 devices, 2 cables.

[Felix-vmdf]

My preferred solution when traveling is to transfer my data directly from my camera to my NAS.
As a second option, I prefer to use my iPad mini with a USB-C adapter or MacBook when things need to go fast.

[demiloca]

Wish I'd had this a year ago when I was stuck inside in the south of France trying to migrate with max laptop/cloud issues as well.

[MorZaiderman]

I like to just make a copy to another SD or SSD if I'm carrying one. To copy only new files, i used the Shortcuts app in iOS to handle that for me. I compare the DCIM folder against a destination folder I select and copy only the files that don't exist. I just connect the 2 SD cards and click the shortcut. Done.

[SinaFarhat]

Interesting!
Hopefully the upcoming IPhones with usb-c and at least usb 5gbit per second transfer speeds is a big improvement with this backup method.

[btrjobm]

Hi, great content. Question, can i transfer the data from the SD card to my Icloud folder of Files? Does that mean its on the cloud? I don't have enough space on my Ipad/Iphone so I need to do the back up straight to the cloud.

[mittysmalls]

Man I wish I knew this when I travelled Singapore and Japan in 2020. Didn’t own a laptop at the time but had everything but the usb iPhone adapter 😂

Cheers for another good video sir

[aussiegti]

Is there a specific format the hard drive has to be re-formatted to for write access with iPhone? When I plug in my Samsung T7 SSD, the drive and folders are read only.

[PD-toww]

Way to complex setup !
I would either use a flsh drive with lightning connector (which are also cheaop now a days) or if not then just use a lightning male to USB 3 female conenctor which are approx $3 or $4 everywhere plus this way you are not stuck to a sopecific flashdrive, you can keep swapping flashdrives as and when it fills up.

[lithangw]

I did similar backup process during my last vacation. I brought along my iPad Pro 12.9 M1 with a Hyper Drive iPad Pro USB-C dongle, an Anglebird CF Express Type B reader, and a USB-C M.2 SSD enclosure with a 2TB M.2 drive in it. The experience was pretty awful because bugs in Files app, mainly not able to view Canon compressed RAW in the Files app continuously. There is a bug where the Files kicks you out of the picture you are viewing back to the file list randomly as to go through your pictures one by one. Because of the clunky Files UX, I ended up using a Windows laptop to do the backup instead, which was much more logical and easier to use. Hopefully Apple will make the Files app better, or there are better 3rd party apps to do this in the future.

[dretwav]

Thanks for the video. I have used this method before and it works fine but is a bit clunky. A laptop is a lot faster. Uploading to the cloud, in my experience, is problematic at best. I believe the file app will first transfer them to your phone as temp files before sending to cloud which means you need quite a bit of space on the phone. Also when I travel it is usually to Africa and I can't depend on having wi-fi. I wish Apple would go to usb-c but they got to be a trillion dollar company using propietary connectors so probably little motivation to change.

[TedNemeth]

Todd thank you for this. Very helpful actually. Love your channel.

[johnwinter]

This may work. But is it practical? My iPad would not recognize a 1T SSD drive. It recognized a 128G usb. My iPad struggled to cope with my file size 18MP+ RAW. I had to transfer one by one and not as a group.

[TheXandercage]

It’s still a lot of things to carry. Isn’t there another way to transfer photos. I need to copy photos from my iPad to a sd card or some other storage device