Srarna Photos supports seamless background sync so you don't need to open the app to back up your photos. It will sync in the background and automatically back up the albums you've selected for syncing.
Day-to-day sync will work automatically. However, there are some platform-specific considerations to be aware of:
iOS
On iOS, if you have a very large number of photos and videos, you might need to keep Srarna running in the foreground for the first backup to complete (due to limited background execution time). To assist with this, under "Settings > Backup" there is an option to disable the automatic device screen lock. Once your initial backup is completed, subsequent backups will work fine in the background without needing to disable the screen lock.
On iOS, Srarna will not back up videos in the background (since videos are usually much larger and need more time to upload than what we get). However, they will get backed up the next time the Srarna app is opened.
Note that the Srarna app will not be able to back up in the background if you force kill the app.
If you're curious, the way this works is our servers "tickle" your device occasionally by sending a silent push notification, which wakes up our app and gives it 30 seconds to execute a background sync. However, if you have killed the app from recents, iOS will not deliver the push to the app, breaking the background sync.
Android
On some Android versions, newly downloaded apps activate a mode called "Optimize battery usage," which prevents them from running in the background. So you will need to disable this "Optimize battery usage" mode in the system settings for Srarna if you want Srarna to automatically back up your photos in the background.
Desktop
In addition to our mobile apps, background sync also works on our desktop app, though the way it works is a bit different.
Troubleshooting
- On iOS, make sure that you're not killing the Srarna app.
- On Android, make sure that "Optimize battery usage" is not turned on in system settings for the Srarna app.