iPhone and Android apps

Frameleaf has native apps for iPhone and iPad and for Android. Both back up your phone to your server, check every upload against the server’s copy, and browse your whole library at home, away or offline.

	iPhone and iPad	Android
Needs	iOS or iPadOS 26 or later	Android 11 or later
Guide	iPhone and iPad	Android

What both apps do

Connect with your Frameleaf account, by finding a server on your Wi-Fi, or by typing a server address. You can even set up a brand-new server from your phone with its setup code.
Back up your camera roll. A photo only counts as backed up when the server’s SHA-256 fingerprint matches the phone’s.
Free up space by removing photos from the phone once the server holds an identical copy.
Edit photos with Adjust, Looks, Crop, Clean Up and Masks, without ever changing the original.
Share with partners, shared links and shared spaces.
Lock the app with your face, fingerprint or passcode, and keep Locked items behind your PIN.
Widgets, backup progress on the Lock Screen, and quick backup controls.

How backup works

Backup is the same idea on both phones. The details of each screen are in the iPhone and Android guides.

Choose what to back up. Everything, only camera photos and videos, or albums and folders you pick. You can skip any album or folder, and choose photos, videos or both.
Each original is fingerprinted with SHA-256 on the phone and compared with what your server already has, whether it arrived from this phone, another device, the web app or an import. Anything already there is skipped, so nothing is uploaded twice and you save data.
Uploads are resumable. An interrupted upload, a crash, a reboot or a change of network picks up where it stopped.
The server checks the result. A photo only counts as backed up when the server’s fingerprint matches the phone’s. Anything that didn’t make it is listed under Not on Server, with the reason and Retry.

Edited versions, such as edits from Apple Photos or files like IMG_1-edited.jpg from a gallery app, are uploaded and stacked with their original.

Mobile data, battery and charging

You decide when backup may run. Both apps can keep videos waiting for Wi-Fi while photos use mobile data, never use mobile data at all, or only run while the phone is charging. On iPhone, backup also pauses in Low Power Mode and Low Data Mode by default. On Android, backup always waits while the battery is low.

In the background

iPhone. iOS decides when apps may work in the background, so the app can’t promise a continuous upload. It runs an overnight backup when iOS allows it, keeps Back Up Now going after you leave the app and, on iOS 26.1 or later, hands remaining photos and videos to iOS’s own background upload. The more often you open the app, the more chances it gets.
Android. The app catches up every hour, and starts a backup about 30 seconds after you take a photo. Some phones are very strict about battery optimisation and stop background work; if backup tells you battery optimisation is in the way, allow the app to run in the background.

Photos stored in iCloud

If you use Optimize iPhone Storage in iCloud, the full originals have to be downloaded from iCloud before they can be backed up. The app does this on Wi-Fi, and Backup shows how many iCloud originals are waiting. It can use extra data and space on the phone while it works.

Free up space

Once your server holds an identical copy of a photo, checked by SHA-256, Free Up Space can remove it from the phone. You always see a summary first, and removed items go to the phone’s own trash or Recently Deleted, not straight to permanent deletion.

Away from home

At home the apps talk to your server directly. To reach it from anywhere, without opening ports on your router, link your server to Frameleaf Cloud and turn on remote access. Push notifications also need the server to be linked.

Coming from the Immich app

The Frameleaf apps are separate from the Immich app, and both can be installed at once. See Moving to the Frameleaf app.