📷 Scheduled Camera Backup to PC

Level: Beginner • Time: ~15 minutes setup • Flavor: Standard only

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Automatically copy new photos from your phone’s camera to your home computer every night, over Wi-Fi. Set it up once - it runs forever without any manual action.

What this gives you: every morning you wake up and your last night’s photos are already on your PC. No cables. No cloud subscriptions. No forgetting. Fully automatic.

What You Will Need

Not sure which flavor you have? Open the app → tap the menu icon (☰) in the top-left corner. The flavor name (Standard / Lite / etc.) is shown at the bottom of the side menu.

Step 1 - Create a Backup Folder on Your PC

First, make a folder on your PC. Then share it so the phone can reach it.

On Windows:

  1. Create a new folder anywhere - for example C:\PhoneBackup
  2. Right-click the folder → Properties → Sharing tab → click Share..
  3. In the dropdown, select your username or type Everyone → click Add → click Share
  4. Windows shows the network path - write it down. It looks like: \\MYPC\PhoneBackup

Also note your PC’s IP address - you’ll need it in Step 2. The fastest way: press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter. In the black window type ipconfig and press Enter. Find the line IPv4 Address under your Wi-Fi adapter. Example: 192.168.1.100. Write that number down.

Step 2 - Connect the App to Your PC Folder

Now tell FastMediaSorter where to send the photos.

What is SMB? It’s simply how Windows shares folders over home Wi-Fi. You don’t need to understand the details - just follow the steps.

  1. Open the app → tap Add (⊕) in the top toolbar → select “Network folder SMB”
  2. In the Server / Path field enter: \\192.168.1.100\PhoneBackup
    • Replace 192.168.1.100 with your actual PC IP from Step 1
    • Replace PhoneBackup with your actual folder name
  3. Enter your Windows username and password (same ones you use to log into your PC)
  4. Tap Test Connection - wait a few seconds - you should see a green success message
  5. Tap Save

Can’t connect? Check the SMB Setup Guide - it covers every common connection problem with step-by-step solutions.

Step 3 - Open Scheduled Operations Settings

  1. Tap Settings (the gear icon ⚙ in the toolbar)
  2. Go to the Operations tab
  3. Tap “Schedule” to expand the scheduled operations section

Settings → Operations - Scheduled section with ADD button

Step 4 - Create a New Schedule

Tap “Add scheduled operation” (or the + button in the Schedule section).

A new schedule configuration screen opens.

Add Schedule dialog - Conditions section: interval and overwrite options

Step 5 - Fill In the Backup Schedule

Fill in each field:

Field What to set Example
Name Any label to recognize this schedule Nightly Camera Backup
Source Where your camera photos are Select “Camera Photos” - it finds all camera shots automatically
Destination Your PC backup folder Select the SMB resource you just added (PhoneBackup (SMB))
Operation What to do with files “Copy (skip existing)” - copies new photos only, never duplicates
Schedule When to run Daily at 02:00 - runs while you sleep
Run on Wi-Fi only Turn this ON Prevents the backup from using your mobile data by accident

What is “Camera Photos”? It’s a special virtual folder that FastMediaSorter creates automatically. It always shows all photos taken by your camera - even if they’re stored in different folders on your phone. Always prefer this over picking a manual path.

Add Schedule - Source: Camera Photos, Operation: Copy, Destination: SMB

Step 6 - Save and Allow Background Access

Tap Save.

The schedule appears in the list - it is now active.

You may see a permission dialog. The app asks to be excluded from battery saving. Tap “Disable Optimization” (or “Allow”).

Why is this step important? Android tries to save battery by automatically stopping apps that run in the background. Without this permission, Android might stop the backup mid-night. Granting this just lets the app wake up at the scheduled time - it doesn’t drain your battery in any noticeable way.

Saved schedule entry: Camera Photos → SMB at scheduled time

Step 7 - Test It Right Now

Don’t wait until 2 AM - test the backup immediately to make sure everything works:

  1. Go to Settings → Operations → Schedule
  2. Find your schedule → tap “Run now”
  3. A notification appears at the top of your screen showing transfer progress
  4. When it finishes: tap on the SMB resource (PhoneBackup) → your camera photos should be visible there

Nothing was copied? If all your photos are already in the backup folder (or the phone camera folder is empty), the app correctly copies zero files. Try taking a new test photo and run again.

Done! Here Is What Happens Every Night

  1. At 02:00 the app silently wakes up
  2. It looks at your camera folder and compares it with the PC backup folder
  3. Copies only the photos that aren’t on the PC yet - takes from a few seconds to a few minutes
  4. Shows a notification: “Backed up 12 files” (or however many are new)
  5. Goes back to sleep

Your PC receives new photos every morning. You never have to think about it.

Tips

Want to free up phone storage after backup? Change the Operation to “Move” instead of “Copy”. Photos get deleted from the phone right after they’re safely copied to the PC. Use this carefully - once moved, the photos are no longer on the phone.

Have multiple phones in the family? Create one schedule per phone. Use different subfolders as destinations - for example PhoneBackup\Mom and PhoneBackup\Dad - so all devices back up to the same PC without mixing files.

Rather back up to Google Drive? Add a Google Drive resource as the destination instead of SMB - the rest of the steps are identical.

Troubleshooting

Problem What to try
Schedule doesn’t run at night Go to Android Settings → Apps → FastMediaSorter → Battery → set to Unrestricted
“Destination not reachable” error Your phone must be on Wi-Fi at backup time. If Wi-Fi was off at 2 AM, the backup is skipped and retried the next night automatically
Some photos were not backed up Use “Camera Photos” virtual resource as the source - it catches photos from all camera folders on your phone
Duplicate files appearing on PC Make sure the Operation is set to “Copy (skip existing)”, not “Copy (overwrite)”