How I Back Up Photos Abroad Without iCloud

Five countries into last summer's trip, my iCloud storage filled up at the worst possible moment: sunrise over Cappadocia, hot-air balloons framing the sky. My phone froze mid-video, complaining about storage. No amount of frantic deleting or in-flight Wi-Fi purchases could free space fast enough. That panic pushed me to design a photo backup workflow that lives outside Apple's walled garden and survives spotty hostel networks.

Here's the system I now run every time I leave home for more than a week.

Photo: Unsplash / ShareGrid

The Philosophy: Triple Redundancy

I follow the 3-2-1 rule with a traveler’s twist:

• 3 copies of every file (camera card, rugged SSD, cloud)
• 2 different media types (solid-state drive + encrypted SD card)
• 1 copy off-site (cloud or home server once I reach decent bandwidth)

When I’m moving fast—think overnight trains in Vietnam—I relax to a 2-1 rule for 24 hours, but the goal is always triple redundancy within a day of shooting.

Gear in My Photo Kit

• Sony A7C II with dual SD card slots configured to write RAW to slot A, JPEG to slot B.
• iPhone 15 Pro capturing ProRAW stills and 4K60 video.
• Angelbird Match Pack SD cards (V90) labeled by day.
• SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (2 TB) for primary backups.
• Samsung T7 Shield (1 TB) as the secondary cloner.
• iPad Air (M2) running Photomator and Lightroom for quick edits.
• RAVPower 65W charger plus cables for phone, camera, SSDs.

Nightly Backup Ritual

I block a 30-minute “digital housekeeping” window right before bed. No exceptions. The steps look like this:

1. Offload From Camera Cards

I plug the primary SD card into the iPad using Apple’s USB-C camera adapter. Files import into Photomator, which I configured to store originals on the external SanDisk SSD connected through a small hub. That keeps the iPad’s internal storage free.

2. Clone SSD to Second Drive

Using the Files app, I copy the day’s folder from the SanDisk to the Samsung T7. File names follow the pattern 2024-09-14-lake-bled. The T7 lives in a separate sling bag so a single theft doesn’t wipe both copies.

3. Encrypt and Label

On the SanDisk I run a Shortcuts automation that invokes zip -e via a shell script for especially sensitive folders (photos containing passports, apartment keys, etc.). I also append _locked to the folder name so I remember which ones need decrypting later.

4. Push to Cloud When Bandwidth Cooperates

When I hit reliable Wi-Fi (coworking spaces, airport lounges, occasionally a friendly café owner in Kraków), I upload JPEG selects to Dropbox using the camera uploads feature. RAW files sync to a backblaze B2 bucket via the Arc Browser, which supports background uploads even if my laptop lid closes.

5. Log the Backup

Yes, I keep a backup log. It’s a simple Notion database with columns for date, location, footage type, and whether each destination (SSD1, SSD2, Cloud) is completed. That log saved me in Mexico City when I realized I had skipped copying drone footage on two consecutive nights.

When Internet Is Garbage

In rural Albania I once clocked upload speeds at 0.6 Mbps. Cloud sync was a fantasy. My workaround is a twice-weekly courier of encrypted SD cards to my home base.

1. Copy the week’s best shots to a 128 GB microSD.
2. Encrypt the contents with Veracrypt (create a 30 GB container, mount, copy).
3. Mail it to a trusted friend using DHL Express with tracking.
4. Notify them via Signal with the passphrase.

It feels dramatic, but losing client footage felt worse. Those cards rejoin my archive three months later when a visitor returns home.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

• Never rely on hotel safes. In Quito, a safe malfunctioned and I had to wait six hours for maintenance. My SSDs now travel with me in a cross-body bag anytime I leave the room.
• Color-code cables. I carry both USB-C and micro-USB. At 1 a.m., on poor sleep, it all looks the same. I wrap SSD cables with green heat shrink so they stand out.
• Beware humidity. The Amazon rainforest taught me silica gel packets are essential. I stash them inside my camera organizer to keep SD cards and drives dry.
• Schedule deep clean-ups. Once a week, I cull blurry shots and duplicates. Storage lasts longer when you’re ruthless about keepsakes.

Example: Patagonia Trek Workflow

Base camp: El Chaltén hostel with mediocre Wi-Fi.

• Morning: shoot on A7C, switch to slot B midday to avoid swapping cards in the wind.
• Afternoon break: quick backup to SanDisk using my Anker power bank to keep the iPad alive.
• Evening: clone to Samsung T7, mark both copies in Notion.
• Upload window: 2 a.m. when the hostel asleep. JPEG selects to Dropbox while I sleep; RAW footage waits until I reach Buenos Aires with faster fiber.
• Bonus redundancy: I AirDrop 20 highlight shots to my travel partner’s iPhone. Their iCloud handles that subset if everything else implodes.

Tools That Make This Less Painful

• Photo Mechanic Plus: When I have access to my MacBook, this is still the fastest way to ingest and tag photos.
• ChronoSync Express: Automates folder mirroring between SSDs with verification logs.
• Peak Design Field Pouch: Holds SD cards upright so I can track used vs. fresh without thinking.
• CleanShot X: For capturing screen recordings of backup steps; handy when I forget how I scripted something.

Safely Reintegrating at Home

Once I return, the workflow doesn’t stop.

1. Archive to NAS: I copy everything to a Synology DS923+ with 30 TB of redundant storage.
2. Create yearly Lightroom catalogs and consolidate metadata.
3. Upload final selects to PhotoPrism for AI-assisted search.
4. Rotate drives: The Samsung T7 becomes next season’s primary; I buy a new SSD to replace the oldest in rotation.

What About Video?

Video eats storage twice as fast. I transcode 4K footage to ProRes Proxy on the iPad using LumaFusion and store proxies in the cloud. Original 4K clips stay on the SSDs until I return to a desktop machine capable of editing without melting.

The Bottom Line

Travel photography is too risky to entrust entirely to iCloud’s background magic. With a nightly ritual, two rugged SSDs, and deliberate cloud syncing, I can roam for months without fearing a stolen backpack or a corrupted memory card. More importantly, I get to enjoy the sunrise knowing the moment is already duplicated in three places. No spinning wheel, no “storage full” banner killing the vibe—just a system that keeps pace with the miles I log.