How does autotransfer work on Android?

In PhotoSync for Android, you can perform automatic transfers with the appropriate license. PhotoSync will then transfer files marked as New to your autotransfer destination. You can choose between specific triggers for autotransfer that should be sufficient for most use cases. Below you will find an overview of the triggers, how they work, and possible limitations imposed by the respective Android system.

In PhotoSync for Android, you can choose between the following triggers for autotransfer:

Camera icon Autotransfer is executed when you take new photos/videos
Wi-Fi icon Autotransfer is executed when you connect to a specific Wi-Fi network
Battery icon Autotransfer is executed when your device is charging
Location icon Autotransfer is executed when you arrive at a specific location
Schedule icon Autotransfer is executed according to a schedule you define

The first three triggers work according to the following principle starting with PhotoSync 4.3.0 for Android: PhotoSync starts a periodic background job that checks every 15 minutes whether an autotransfer can be performed. The app does not need to be open for this, and the 15-minute check will continue even after a device restart. So if you take new photos or videos, connect to a (specific) Wi-Fi network, or your device is charging, it should generally take no longer than 15 minutes until PhotoSync checks whether an autotransfer can be executed. The choice of trigger differs in terms of battery consumption. To determine whether there are new photos or videos, PhotoSync must scan the media on the device. If you selected the first trigger, your media will therefore be scanned again every 15 minutes. If you require a (specific) Wi-Fi connection or a charging device, these conditions are checked first and no media scan is performed if they are not met. In general, these triggers are therefore more battery-efficient than always checking directly for new files.

Starting with PhotoSync 4.3.0, you can additionally enable the option Instant Triggering for the first three triggers, which performs a media scan immediately when you take a photo or video, connect to a Wi-Fi network, or connect your device to a charger or place it on a wireless charger. However, we do not recommend this method (used in older PhotoSync versions) unless you absolutely depend on it, for example because you need photos to be transferred immediately after capture. The reason is the massive restrictions introduced with newer Android versions. In the following, the method of instant triggering is referred to as a foreground service, which is the technical Android term for this form of automation. A foreground service works as follows: PhotoSync starts a system service (in the background) that monitors the desired triggers using Android system events. For the trigger for new photos/videos, PhotoSync monitors all changes to the Android media storage, meaning it runs whenever a new media file is added, modified, or deleted. Initially, this is independent of whether these are actually media files that PhotoSync should transfer. For the trigger when you connect to a specific Wi-Fi network, PhotoSync monitors all changes to your device’s network status. For the trigger when your device is charging, PhotoSync monitors the charging connection status of your device.

  • Starting with Android 12, foreground services may only be started while the app is in the foreground. In addition, the app must display a visible notification to the user indicating that a foreground service has been started. The only exception that allows a foreground service to be started in the background is during system startup, which PhotoSync naturally uses so monitoring can restart after a device reboot. To ensure that a foreground service actually runs, you should additionally exclude the app that starts the foreground service from battery optimization. Depending on the manufacturer, there may even be additional manufacturer-specific restrictions for foreground services.
  • Starting with Android 14, foreground services must additionally declare a specified service type (e.g. dataSync), which PhotoSync also defines.
  • Starting with Android 15, foreground services may no longer be started in the background during system startup. This restriction already means that after a device restart, autotransfer in older PhotoSync versions can no longer be started unless you manually start PhotoSync so that it runs in the foreground and can start the foreground service. Even more significant is the restriction introduced with Android 15: dataSync foreground services now have a 6-hour limit per 24 hours. Once a service has run for 6 hours, Android sends the app a brief warning that the service may no longer be used, giving the app a chance to stop the service immediately. If the app does not stop the service, an error follows that can cause the app to crash or freeze. Users who still want to use the foreground service on Android 15 or higher because, for example, they want autotransfer immediately after taking photos, must be aware that they must manually start PhotoSync beforehand and that this functionality will only be available for a maximum of 6 hours. The restrictions can be bypassed by force stopping the app, e.g. via Android Settings → Apps → PhotoSync → Force Stop, and then starting the app again. This effectively buys another 6-hour window for instant triggering.

With the trigger where you define a schedule (which can also be a recurring schedule), you define yourself when PhotoSync scans your media. This could, for example, be hourly or only once a day, depending on what is suitable for your autotransfer scenario.

With the trigger when you arrive at a specific location, PhotoSync uses your device’s geofencing services and only performs a scan when you reach a location you previously defined. Contrary to popular belief, geofencing does not use GPS (which is very battery intensive), but only a coarse location determination using Wi-Fi and/or cellular triangulation.

All autotransfers have in common that you must define a destination for the autotransfer. This can be a computer or a photo/file service on the local network or on the Internet. Since PhotoSync only displays the New status of media based on a successful transfer to any destination for visual reasons, you can only select exactly one destination for autotransfer and not multiple destinations.

The following settings are available for executing the autotransfer and selecting which photos and videos should be transferred:

  • Connection (connection types can be combined, so the logic is or)
    • Wi-Fi
      • Selected Wi-Fi networks can be chosen1
    • Mobile
    • Ethernet
    • VPN connection required (Yes/No)
    1. 1 Starting with Android 10, PhotoSync must request location permissions from the user in order to determine Wi-Fi SSIDs. Starting with Android 13, the app can only determine Wi-Fi SSIDs in the background if the location permission is additionally granted as Always. In none of these cases does PhotoSync actively access the current location. The permission is only requested because Android requires it in order to determine Wi-Fi SSIDs.
  • Start Date
    Here you can define a start date from which new photos and videos should be considered at all. All new photos and videos older than the start date will not be considered for autotransfer.
  • Autotransfer from
    Here you can define whether all new photos and videos should be considered for autotransfer or only new photos and videos from specific albums, such as Camera.

With the trigger when you arrive at a location, you can add one or more locations using your device’s GPS functionality.

With the schedule trigger, you can define the alarm precision (exact or approximate) and create any number of one-time or recurring schedules.

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