Syncoloco

iOS app that syncs your photos and videos from the Photos library to your own NAS or home server — no cloud, no subscription, no third parties.

Your media stays on your local network. Originals only, with EXIF and embedded tags preserved.

Designed for trusted home networks only. Not recommended on public Wi‑Fi, and never over the open internet.

Syncoloco Support

For help, questions, or to report a bug, please email us

You can also report issues on GitHub.

Features

• Sync to a NAS over NFS, SMB, or HTTP (companion server)
• Background sync via iOS BackgroundTasks
• Live Activity shows progress on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
• Duplicate detection (skips already-uploaded photos by hash / size)
• Supports photos (HEIC, JPEG, PNG) and videos (MOV, MP4)
• Per-device folders — files organized as {device}/{YYYY}/{MM}/{filename}
• Optional "keep screen on while syncing" for long runs
• Credentials stored in the iOS Keychain

Requirements

• iOS 26 or later
• A NAS or any machine on your LAN reachable over NFS, SMB, or HTTP

Sync protocols

NFS

Point Syncoloco at your NFS server and export path (e.g. /srv/nfs/photos). Anonymous mounts are supported.

SMB

Works with guest shares and authenticated shares. Enter the server address, share name, and credentials (stored in Keychain).

HTTP (companion server)

A small Python server is provided for users who prefer not to run NFS/SMB. It's a single-file HTTP server that receives uploads and writes them to disk with the same folder layout as the other protocols.

Companion server: photo-upload-server

Quick setup on a Linux box:

python3 photo_server.py --upload-dir /mnt/photos --token your-secret-token

Then in Syncoloco, set HTTP protocol, server http://<host>:8443, and paste the token.

The server's README covers systemd installation and the full API.

Privacy

• Syncoloco talks only to the server you configure. No analytics, no cloud, no third-party services.
• HTTP and SMB credentials are stored in the iOS Keychain.
• The NSAllowsLocalNetworking entitlement restricts networking to your LAN.