# PhotoSync

12 Hacker News commenters recommended PhotoSync and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for syncing photos from a phone to remote services or local servers, with reliable background sync and support for original files. Caveat: it does not track what has already been exported.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable background sync (2 comments): "It works reliably, and supports exporting unmodified originals as well as edited versions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580495)) "PhotoSync which is notable for working properly with background sync" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171151))
- Encryption at rest of photos (2 comments): "It has a killer feature Immich is still missing: encryption at rest of the photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544030)) "It has one killer feature that Immich does not: encryption at rest." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257722))
- Pushes to remote services and servers (2 comments): "It's nice, you can pull from photos and push to basically any remote service or local server." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580921)) "You can set up a simple SFTP connection so you don't even need anything on the server." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46591616))
- Widely recommended by Hacker News users (2 comments): "I used to use Image Capture but heard of PhotoSync and have never looked back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582498)) "All the time I hear that "PhotoSync" is good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48907266))

## What people warn about

- Doesn't track what was already exported (1 comments): "PhotoSync does everything right, with the exception of trying to keep state of what has been exported" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580522))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [iCloud Photos Downloader](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloud-photos-downloader.md): 18 recommend
- [immich-go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/immich-go.md): 12 recommend
- [icloudpd](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloudpd.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.photosync-app.com/home)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "PhotoSync", https://hackerapproved.com/p/photosync/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).