Parachute is your backup companion for iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive. It backs up your memories — photos, videos, and documents — to storage you control, whether that’s an external drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, S3 Buckets, network drives/NAS, external hard drives and more. With Parachute, you get peace of mind and full ownership of your data, free from lock-in.
Your Data, Your Way
• Back up your entire iCloud Photos library (including Shared Albums) and folders from iCloud Drive.
• Preserve originals in full resolution, all adjustment data, and the current edited versions.
• Works with USB drives, NAS/SMB/SFTP mounts, Google Drive, S3 Buckets, OneDrive, external hard drives and more
Key Features
• Backups can be triggered from the main screen to any of your backup destinations
• Automate backups with Shortcuts integration and Schedules
• Privacy-first: transfers handled via Apple’s Files extensions — your credentials never touch our app.
• Supports full-quality media: Live Photos + videos, RAW images, bursts, edits, and slow motion.
Why It Matters
• iCloud sync ≠ backup — deletions, expired storage, or sync errors can mean permanent loss.
• Parachute safeguards your digital life from accidents and disasters.
• Your files are stored in normal folders you can browse and restore from directly — no special tools needed.
One time purchase. No Lock-In.
• One-time purchase unlocks all backup functionality — no recurring fees.
• Your data stays in your storage, not ours.
• No accounts, no telemetry, no background bloat.
FAQ Highlights
Q: Does Parachute ever delete files from iCloud?
A: Never. It’s strictly read-only.
Q: Can I restore without Parachute?
A: Yes. Backups are just normal folders — copy them back with Finder anytime.
Q: What if a file is corrupted in iCloud?
A: Parachute flags any unexportable items so you know exactly what couldn’t be saved.
Q: Can it back up non-iCloud folders?
A: Yes. Add any folder via the iOS/iPadOS file picker
By downloading Parachute Backup, you agree to Apple's Terms of Use (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/) and our Privacy Policy (https://parachuteapps.com/privacy).
App is great, straight forward and easy to use. However, there are a couple of bugs I noticed. 1. The progress bar does not progress when locked or in the dynamic view, the % just stays the same unless you open the app. 2. If i close the app completely, it does not keep the last backup results.
Developer Response
Hey there! Thanks for taking the time to write a review, you’re welcome to reach out and we can see why your backups aren’t resuming as expected :-)
This won’t work if you have more than 20k photos
Lstranded
The upload to a hard drive really moves at a glacial pace. I spent three days trying to back up my library and then on one of the days my phone died while I was backing up and I lost all of my progress. I tried to restart backing up, but it has to index from the beginning, and I felt so discouraged. If you feel like watching your phone, pausing before it dies, and then resuming, for like a week and a half this might work.EDIT: Thank you for the response! I did buy 2 TB of Google Drive space and tried to get the library onto Google Photos-it worked for about two days with no issues, but then failed suddenly at about 40% progress — when it was restarted, I’m not sure if it was scanning, but it was just as slow as the actual uploads, so I gave up. This time the phone was on and connected to power the whole time. I really wanted to love this app!
Developer Response
Hi there, this is Florian, Co-Founder of Leitmotif. Thanks for your feedback. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with Parachute Backup. Feel free to reach out to us directly from within the app at any time. We are humans and provide support for our users.Re your review title, I beg to differ. I agree that it is more challenging to back up a large library on a mobile device, but Parachute Backup will crunch through your library without any issue.The problems are mainly related to keeping your device powered for a long time and to the fact that iOS takes a lot of liberty to slow down or even stop apps in order to save battery and memory.When Parachute Backup is forced to stop by the system, it will restart backing up next time it is run. It will not start again from the beginning, but it will need to re-scan your library and check already backed up files. This is because we want to ensure that you end up with a complete and consistent backup.
Custom S3 Endpoint
Ashy Taters
This app WILL ALLOW you to define a custom endpoint for an S3 bucket to backup to. I didn’t see that mentioned in the description, and it was the most important feature for me.Apple family purchase sharing also works with this app so you only need to buy it once for the whole family. And beyond that it backups up real conveniently just like the description states. It’s not automatic like Google Photos or similar apps, but you can automate it with the shortcuts app which this app walks you through how to do. Really happy I found this and can use the S3 I already pay for instead of having to pay a monthly fee for a bloated cloud tool.
Conceptually great, but needs some work.
黃越
When backing up files there seems to be issues with a few files. When these issues appear the app stops backing up files until the user interacts with the popup asking to skip or retry the file back up. No notification is given when this happens so you don’t know the back up has stalled until you open the all. One big quality of life improvement is to have the option to auto skip these issues and continue with the back up. An accueing list of issues should be accessible so we are able to reconcile the issues on our own time.
* New Quiet Mode, similar to Parachute Backup for Mac. Errors during a backup are now collected and reported once at the end.
* Improved error messages and options when not using Quiet Mode.
* Filenames containing a percent sign are now correctly backed up to S3-compatible storage.
* Fixed a crash when entering a custom S3 URL containing whitespace.
* Various improvements to the Parachute Backup Live Activity.
Enjoying Parachute Backup? A quick review on the App Store helps a lot.
Version 1.6
The developer, Leitmotif GmbH, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Contact Info
Usage Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
