Back up photos from your phone

Drive runs in your phone's browser. You choose the photos, Drive encrypts them on the phone, and only the encrypted copies are uploaded. Each file is stored on three providers that are checked every four hours.

Android (Chrome)

  1. Open obsideo.io/drive in Chrome and sign in with your email and the six-digit code we send you. On a new phone, Drive then asks for your 12 words, or you can scan a code from a device that is already signed in.
  2. Install Drive: open Chrome's menu (the three dots) and tap Install and create shortcut, then choose Install. Do not choose Create shortcut: a shortcut opens Drive in a Chrome tab, and Drive will not appear in the share menu. On older versions of Chrome the menu item is Install app, or Add to Home screen then Install.
  3. In Google Photos or your gallery, select the photos and videos, tap Share, and choose Drive.
  4. Drive shows how many files you are saving and where they go: by default a Photos folder sorted by year and month (for example Photos/2026/2026-11), or one folder you pick. Drive remembers your choice for next time. Tap Save, sorted by month (or Save to the folder you picked).
  5. Keep Drive open until the upload finishes.

Photos you have already saved to Drive this way are skipped if you share them again, from this phone or another one signed in to the same account.

Tip: in Google Photos, press and hold one photo, then drag across the others to select many at once.

iPhone (Safari)

  1. Open obsideo.io/drive in Safari and sign in with your email and the six-digit code we send you. On a new phone, Drive then asks for your 12 words, or you can scan a code from a device that is already signed in.
  2. Optional: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, to open Drive like an app.
  3. Open the folder you want, tap Upload, choose Photo Library, select the photos, and tap Add.
  4. Keep Drive open until the upload finishes; iPhone pauses uploads when you switch to another app.

Web apps cannot appear in the iPhone share menu, so uploads on iPhone go through Upload.

What it does not do yet

Drive does not back up new photos automatically in the background. You choose what to back up and keep Drive open while it uploads.

Open Drive