Camera Backup on iOS

Automatic photo & video sync from your iPhone — turn it on, watch live progress, and pause when you need to.

4 min readUpdated May 20, 2026

Turning it on

  1. Open the VirtualDrive iOS app and go to the Photos tab.
  2. Toggle Camera Backup on the banner at the top.
  3. Grant photo-library access when prompted.
  4. That's it — the next photo you take starts syncing in the background.

What does it back up?

Everything in your iCloud Photos library — photos, videos, Live Photos, RAW shots. We use Apple's PhotoKit to read your library safely; we never copy metadata you didn't take.

Pausing

Sometimes you don't want sync running — low battery, capped data, sensitive moment. Go to Settings → Sync → Pause sync and pick a duration. The Photos banner reflects the paused state and an orange pause icon appears. Resume by toggling it off, or it expires automatically at the time you picked.

Cellular vs Wi-Fi

By default Camera Backup only runs on Wi-Fi. You can enable cellular in Settings → Sync, but watch your data plan — full-resolution videos add up fast.

What if the same photo is in two places?

We dedupe by content. The same image taken on two devices, or backed up to two workspaces, ends up referencing a single underlying file. No double storage, no double charges.

Didn't solve it?

The team replies to support@virtualdrive.us within 24 hours on weekdays.

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