The problem is each photo is 5MB. It’s insane. We should have different levels of compression depending on the album it’s in; My meme folder should only contain 200KB images, my parents souvenirs should be 5MB each indeed.

iCloud backups of photos is possible without using iCloud. I use a photo syncing app on my phone that is paired with a SMB server in my home. It just dumps new photos whenever I’m on my home network. But I don’t get iCloud syncing photos to my Mac instantly.

iCloud backups of device backups requires a Mac, then setting to sync via Wi-Fi.

does this work in the background or do you need to run the backup task? I'm setting up a home server atm and curious about this for iCloud

Mine runs in the background when I get home. It uses an iBeacon device to determine when it is home. It starts the photo sync in the background. If I take photos and want to sync immediately I do that by starting the sync in the app. Remotely is a two part process —- enable vpn, then sync.

Google Photos will also backup your iPhone photos.

And the back ups regularly lose data, a good percentage of the images are simply not to be found. Must me my fault, certainly.

No more macs and iphones for me, that and the app "numbers" have been the very last straws.

I think it's definitely a you problem. I don't know of anyone who has had this issue with missing photos.

Yeah, I can’t say that I’ve run into your issue.

I have the same problem. When I contacted support I didn't get anywhere and nothing seemed wrong on their side.