Scrigno
Android app that backs up your phone's photos and videos to your own server, with no account and no Google.
What it is
An alternative to Google Photos and iCloud Photos that works like them — automatic backup, “free up space”, one gallery with every photo — except the files end up on a server that’s yours: a NAS, a home computer, a Raspberry Pi or a rented server. Scrigno is Italian for a treasure chest.
What it does
- Connects over SFTP, FTPS, FTP, SMB or WebDAV, using an IP address, a domain name or a full URL.
- New photos go up on their own shortly after you take them, even with the app closed. On top of that there’s a scheduled full backup, optionally on Wi-Fi only or while charging.
- Free up space removes photos older than N days from the phone only after checking that the file on the server is complete. A light preview stays in the gallery, and the photo downloads again when you open it.
- An interrupted backup resumes where it stopped, and a file with the same name is never overwritten.
Privacy
No account, no ads, no analytics, no Google services: the app only connects to the server you set up. The password is encrypted with the Android Keystore. The server’s SSH key or certificate is remembered on first connection, and if it changes later the connection is blocked.
Technical choices
It’s written in Kotlin and split in two: core/, plain Kotlin, with the
protocols, verified uploads and the logic; app/, the Android app in Jetpack
Compose. The FTP, SFTP and WebDAV clients are tested against real servers
started during the tests, and GitHub CI builds and publishes the APK on every
push.
Status
In progress. It needs Android 8 or later; the APK is on the Releases page. The interface is in Italian and English and follows the phone’s language.