Family photo backup · Android and iPhone · Windows, Mac and Linux
PhotoAlbumsMesh brings the photos from everyone's phone onto one computer at home. It leaves out the screenshots and receipts, and turns every trip into an album with photos from the whole family. No cloud is needed. Later, an optional cloud copy will keep a backup away from home and let you share albums with friends.
Have the phone app already? The computer app comes first. Get early access and we will write when it is ready.
Free for the whole family whenever phones connect directly, at home or away. Our relay, for when they cannot, is $2.99 a month, one price for everyone.
In the app
Here is Maya's phone backing up to the family computer. Ordinary photos go across; the receipt, the screenshot and the price tag stay on the phone. Then both screens turn green.
How it works
No account, no password, no router settings. You set it up once on the family computer, and every phone joins with its camera.
1
Windows, Mac or Linux. Name your family, pick the drive for the photos, and save your recovery key.
2
Android or iPhone. Check that both screens show the same 4 numbers, and say whose phone it is.
3
When a phone is on the same Wi-Fi as the computer, new photos go across by themselves. Nothing is ever deleted from the phone.
Junk filter
Before a photo leaves the phone, PhotoAlbumsMesh looks at it right there on the phone. Screenshots, receipts, price tags and the ten almost identical shots of the same moment stay behind. From a series, only the sharpest one is sent.
Most cloud services upload everything first and tidy up later. PhotoAlbumsMesh sorts first, so the clutter never fills your computer.
This week on Maya's phone
1,050 to back up of 1,240 new
Example numbers. Switch a category off to see those photos backed up too.
Trip albums
PhotoAlbumsMesh knows where and when each photo was taken. Days more than 45 miles (70 km) from home become a trip, and each place you visited gets its own album, like 2026-07 Yellowstone. The album holds the photos from every phone that was there, not only yours.
2026-08 Maui
212 photos · 4 people
2026-07 Yellowstone
486 photos · 3 people
2026-05 Paris
158 photos · 2 people
2026-03 Sedona
142 photos · 2 people
2025-12 Vermont
97 photos · 4 people
2025-10 Lisbon
164 photos · 2 people
Globe replay
PhotoAlbumsMesh also works out where you live, so every trip starts from home. The globe flies from trip to trip in the order you took them. In the app, tap a place to open its photos. Here, try showing only one person's trips.
Plain folders
Originals are saved in full quality, sorted by person and phone, then by year and month, on the drive you choose. Open them in File Explorer or Finder, copy them, or back them up with any other tool.
IMG_2841.HEIC
IMG_2842.HEIC
IMG_2847.MOV
IMG_2850.HEIC
IMG_2853.HEIC
IMG_2861.HEIC
Made for real families
Every screen starts with one sentence and a real number. Green means backed up, and nothing else. When something needs you, PhotoAlbumsMesh says what to do in one step.
Mixed families are the normal case. Each phone gets its own folder, inside its owner's folder.
Plug in a USB drive and click "Make it a mirror". It keeps a second full copy, and holds deleted photos for 30 days.
Made for 100,000 photos and a first backup of 500 GB. If it is interrupted, it continues where it stopped.
An iPhone backs up when iOS gives the app time, and every time you open it. So iPhones back up less often in the background, and the app says so.
Add a second computer in another home. It keeps a full copy, in case of fire, flood or theft at yours.
Sync Anywhere
At home, phones back up for free. From a hotel, a beach or Grandma's house they back up for free too, whenever the phone can connect straight to your home computer, with no router settings. When there is no direct way, Sync Anywhere sends the photos through our relay.
$2.99 a month or $24.99 a year, for the whole family. See plans
Your home computer needs to be on to receive the photos. If it is off, the phone waits and tries again later.
Maya's phone
Maui · hotel Wi-Fi, no direct way
PhotoAlbumsMesh relay
Passes on sealed data. Cannot open it.
Family-PC
Chicago · photos unlocked here
No direct way from here: through our relay, sealed end to end. Part of Sync Anywhere.
Privacy
Most photo services ask you to trust them with everything. PhotoAlbumsMesh is built so there is very little to trust us with.
Designed by Volodymyr Usov, a cloud and security architect with more than 20 years of experience building secure systems.
Your family is known only by its own devices. A phone joins by scanning a code on your computer. There is nothing to sign up for.
Phone and computer talk directly on your Wi-Fi. Away from home, our service may introduce your phone to your computer so they can connect directly, but it never sees a photo.
With Sync Anywhere, photos are encrypted on the phone and unlocked only on your computer. Our relay cannot open them.
The app sends us no usage statistics and no crash reports. This website has no cookies, no ads and no analytics.
Pricing
One plan covers the whole family, however many phones you have.
Free
Direct backup, at home or away, for the whole family
$0
No trial, no time limit, no card.
Sync Anywhere
For families who travel, or have two computers
$2.99
a month, for the whole family
$24.99
a year, for the whole family. About $2.08 a month; you save $10.89 (30%).
CloudComing later
A copy away from home, when it is ready
$9.99
a month, planned. 1 TB included.
$99.99
a year, planned. 1 TB included; you save $19.89 (17%).
Stop paying at any time: every photo stays on your computer, and backup over a direct connection keeps working for free, at home or away.
Compare
Cloud services charge for space every month. Home storage boxes cost hundreds up front. PhotoAlbumsMesh uses the computer you already have.
| Question | PhotoAlbumsMesh | Google Photos | iCloud Photos | Mylio Photos | Synology BeeStation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost for a family | Free when direct, $24.99 a year through our relay | $9.99 a month for 2 TB | $9.99 a month for 2 TB | $480 a year (5 people) | $399.99 box, then optional $59.99 a year |
| Account for everyone | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Photos stored in a company cloud | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Hardware to buy | No | No | Apple devices | No | Yes |
| Junk left out before backup | Yes, on the phone | After upload | No | No | No |
Prices in US dollars as published on 25 September 2026. Names are trademarks of their owners; PhotoAlbumsMesh is not affiliated with them. Full comparisons
From the maker
"I design secure cloud platforms for a living. For our own family photos I wanted the opposite of a cloud: every phone backed up to our computer at home, in folders I can open, with nobody in between. PhotoAlbumsMesh is that app, made simple enough for the whole family."
Questions
Nothing is lost. New photos wait on each phone and go across the next time the phone can reach the computer. With the planned Cloud tier, photos will arrive in the cloud while the computer is off, and the computer collects them later.
Yes, when iOS gives the app time, and every time you open PhotoAlbumsMesh. Apple limits background work, so iPhones back up less often than Android phones, and the app tells you so. Opening the app for a moment starts a backup right away.
No. PhotoAlbumsMesh never deletes anything from a phone. Deleting a photo on a phone also does not delete it from the computer.
It leaves out screenshots, receipts and documents, price tags and shop shelves, several photos of a parked car, and near copies taken within seconds, where it keeps the sharpest. Nothing is deleted: left-out photos stay on the phone on a review screen. Keep any of them with one tap, or switch a category off.
Yes. That is the normal case. Every phone backs up to the same family computer, into a folder with its owner's name.
Yes. The computer app runs on Windows, Mac and Linux with the same features. Planned minimums: Windows 10 (22H2) or 11, macOS 12, Ubuntu 22.04 or current Fedora, Android 9 and iOS 16.
In the free version, no photos and nothing about you. Away from home, our service may introduce a phone to your computer so they can connect directly; for that it sees the two devices' public keys and internet addresses, for a moment. With Sync Anywhere, our relay passes on sealed data it cannot open. It sees which of your family's devices connect and when, never the photos or their names. The app sends no usage statistics and no crash reports.
Every photo stays on your computer, and backup over a direct connection keeps working for free, at home or away. Backup through our relay stops. A second computer keeps everything it already has and receives nothing new.
PhotoAlbumsMesh is not released yet. Join early access and we will email you when the first version is ready to try.
PhotoAlbumsMesh is not released yet. Leave your email and we will tell you when the first version is ready to try.
Coming to Android and iPhone, and to Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
