Howto: Backup

By default, ImageMeter saves your images only locally on the device. This means that if you lose your device or it gets broken, you might also lose your photos. This page describes best practices to set up backups.

If you use a dedicated backup software on your device, make sure that it really backs up all the app data. Many backup apps only save which apps were installed and reinstall them, but they do not store the actual data. The Google Drive backup only restores the app settings, but not the data.

Because of increased Android security policies, most backup apps may not access the data of other apps anymore. This means that many backup apps only work if they have full root access to your device. Please check your backup app's documentation what it actually saves and test it before you rely on it.

Here we describe how you can backup your data with ImageMeter's own tools.

Archive folders as IMF files

You probably have a workflow where you are working on a project for some time and want to archive it afterwards. In that case, it is easiest to export the whole project as an IMF file and store it at a safe place. At a later time, you can re-import the IMF file into ImageMeter if needed.

Steps

  • Long-press on the folder you want to archive, then press the "share" icon in the top toolbar. You also find the 'share' function in the folder's menu at the right side.
  • A dialog will ask you for the export file format. Choose 'IMF'.
  • Android will now ask you where to put this IMF file. We recommend saving it into some cloud storage, like your Google Drive or your OneDrive account. The IMF file should be named according to the folder title.

Automatic cloud-sync backup

With the cloud-sync function built into ImageMeter (part of the Business subscription plan), you can automatically mirror all your data to a cloud server. Even if you lose your device, you can simply reconnect to the same cloud server account with another device and the data stored there will be synced back. As a bonus, you can also sync several devices to one cloud account and work on the same photos concurrently on all devices.

Setup

  • Decide which cloud storage account you want to use. As you are using Android, you will probably have a Google Drive account and most people using Windows will have a OneDrive account. However, you can also use a Dropbox account or store the images in a self-hosted Nextcloud server. If you do not want to maintain your own Nextcloud server, there are companies that offer hosted Nextcloud instances at a very low price.
  • In the ImageMeter settings, section Storage, you'll find the item Set server and account. Select your cloud server from the list.
  • Enable two-way sync and choose a directory on your cloud account where ImageMeter may store the backup data. Choose an empty directory (ImageMeter will create this directory if it does not exist).
  • You don't need to enable Do image upload. This function is not related to the backup. If you keep it enabled, make sure that it uses a different directory than the two-way sync. If in doubt, switch it off.
  • Press Sign In to connect to your cloud account.
  • If you want, you can set the Auto-sync interval in the parent preferences screen. This will enable automatic upload of the backup at regular times. If this function is disabled, you have to start the backup each time manually by pressing the cloud icon in the bottom right corner on the main screen.

Testing your Setup

When you have set up your backup, you may want to test whether it is functioning properly. You may do so like this:

Initiate a sync with the cloud icon in the bottom right corner of the main screen. It should now upload all your images to the server. You can see the upload progress in your notification message area (pull down from top of screen).

Once the upload has finished, have a look into the cloud server directory using the respective app or the web interface of your service, e.g. on the Google Drive or OneDrive web pages. You should see the folder structure of your photos in your cloud backup-directory. There will also be a separate folder for each of your images. You should find your original images in there, without any annotation, and there should be a file annotation.imm for each image.

If you have a second Android device, you can test data recovery from the backup by connecting the second device to the same cloud account. When you start a cloud sync on the second device, it should download all images in the backup (note that it will also upload the images from the second device into the backup).

If you don't have a second Android device, you can test data recovery like this:

  • Create a testing folder in ImageMeter and put an image into it.
  • Initiate a sync to store this new folder into the backup. Wait for the upload to finish.
  • Temporarily disable the Auto-sync interval in the Storage settings if you have this enabled.
  • Delete the testing folder again in ImageMeter.
  • Open the ImageMeter settings, section Storage, item Advanced maintenance. Click on Reset sync state. This will make the app "forget" that you intentionally deleted the folder.
  • Press the cloud-sync icon again to start another sync.
  • ImageMeter should now download and restore the folder that you just deleted.

Notes

The backup directory on the cloud server should solely be used by ImageMeter for the backup. Please do not use this directory for other purposes. The directory will contain data in its own, internal format. Please do not modify or delete any files in this directory manually.

If you connect several devices to the same cloud account and the same backup directory, the data will sync between all devices.

For more information on the cloud sync function, see here.