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little-backup-box

Turns a Raspberry Pi into a mobile backup and media management hub. Backs up files from cameras and/or storage devices to local drives and/or the cloud, aggregates multiple sources, and can forward them for processing. View, rate, and selectively share your media on the go, including to social networks.

favicon Little Backup Box

Little Backup Box

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About

Little Backup Box turns a Raspberry Pi into a powerful, mobile backup and media management hub - ideal for photographers, travelers, and professionals working on the go.

It can automatically back up files from cameras, smartphones, and storage devices to local drives, or a wide range of cloud services - including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV, and many others. Acting as a central hub, Little Backup Box aggregates media from multiple sources and can automatically forward them for further processing, archiving, or publishing.

For remote and secure workflows, Little Backup Box supports VPN integration, allowing cloud synchronization and management through encrypted connections - ideal when operating over public or mobile networks.

Through its responsive web interface, users can view, rate, and filter backed-up photos and videos directly on the device. Selected media can then be automatically uploaded to the cloud or shared on social networks, enabling efficient and flexible media handling anywhere.

Little Backup Box is designed to operate autonomously and efficiently - no external computer required - making it a versatile solution for travel, field work, and event photography workflows.

Depending on your needs and options, little-backup-box can be operated in a simple housing, with a display (possibly with buttons for the display menu) or even with a touchscreen.
Thanks to the web interface, functionality is fully guaranteed in any case.


Little Backup Box in its 3D printed case


Little Backup Box in a touchscreen housing - watch Dave’s video on YouTube


Little Backup Box in a tiny protected housing for Raspberry Pi zero 2W


Little Backup Box with integrated SSD and improved power supply.

These languages are already available. Do you want to maintain or create a translation?


Changelog
Have a look at the gallery
Web resources

Features

Some of the features of the box and the web user interface are

It’s your swiss army knife for reliably performing, checking and managing backups on the go.

Development status

Little Backup Box has reached a largely stable and functional stage. While new features are still being added from time to time - which may initially require some fine-tuning - the established core functions are now highly reliable.

Nevertheless, thorough testing after installation is still recommended, especially on new hardware configurations. Please continue to report any issues, translation errors, or suggestions for improvement - but also share your positive experiences, ideally including details of your setup.

Regular updates are strongly recommended to benefit from ongoing refinements and fixes.

Please mind the wiki!

As there is no manual available anymore, the github-wiki should replace it one day: https://github.com/outdoorbits/little-backup-box/wiki. It’s not particularly detailed yet, but it can certainly help with the most common questions.

Installation

  1. Create a bootable SD card with Raspberry Pi OS (Trixie) for use with Little Backup Box. If you don't plan to use a graphic environment on a regular monitor, you are recommended to use the lite version.'
    An easy way is to use Raspberry Pi Imager. Please select "Raspberry Pi OS (other)" > "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit)" or "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)".
    In Raspberry Pi Imager you can define options for your image. Shift+Ctrl+x opens the options-dialog. Here you can ...
    • enable ssh (obligatory!)
    • set a password for user pi (obligatory!)
    • define wifi settings (optional)
  2. Keep user pi!!!
  3. Do not change any more settings (language!).
  4. Make sure that your Raspberry Pi is connected to the internet.
  5. Login to your Raspberry Pi. If you are using ssh, there is a report about problems using WINSCP. While WINSCP itself uses putty, it's reported to work with native putty.
  6. Run the following command on the Raspberry Pi:
    branch='main'; curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/outdoorbits/little-backup-box/${branch}/install-little-backup-box.sh | bash -s -- ${branch} 2> install-error.log

    Errors are reported into ./install-error.log.
  7. You will be asked for the default backup mode.
    This is the action started automatically after boot.
  8. You will be asked if you want to install comitup.
    The comitup service establishes wifi connectivity for a headless Linux system, using wifi as the only access mechanism to the system. Access the box by its own wifi hotspot or connect it to a local wifi access point.
  9. Optional Display Driver Setup
    If you have opted for the desktop version of Raspberry Pi OS, please note the following:

    To support graphical displays for desktop environment, the installer can optionally download and run a third-party script collection from https://github.com/goodtft/LCD-show.

    • These scripts are maintained by a third party and are not part of this project.
    • They are not redistributed but downloaded directly from the GitHub source repository during installation.
    • Because no license is attached to the script collection, it must be treated as proprietary. Use at your own discretion.

    After downloading, the installer will prompt you to select your display model.
    A temporary modification is applied to prevent automatic reboot, but the original scripts remain unchanged.
  10. Don't worry: Please note this in case you installed via wifi/ssh and decided to install comitup. If your installation-screen scrolls down and seems to freeze at something like Setting up python3-networkmanager (2.2-1) ..., this doesn't mean anything went wrong. Comitup is installed at the end of the process and when it's coming up, it changes your wifi-network. Your ssh-session is broken and you will not get any more information. In the background the installation finishes and a few seconds later the pi reboots. What you can't see anymore is a short information, how to access Little Backup Box. In your setting, this would be the information you need:

    ******************************************************************************************
    *** How to proceed:
    ***
    *** Your raspberrys wifi-configuration has been removed by comitup now. Because comitup has no
    *** access-data for your wifi yet, it can't connect to it and will start as a wifi-hotspot:
    *** ssid=little-backup-box-nnnn (nnnn is a random number).
    ***
    *** Please connect your mobile or notebook to this wifi.
    ***
    *** There are two options now:
    ***
    *** 1. If you want to configure comitup now, navigate to http://10.41.0.1 (http, not https!)
    *** and connect your lbb to your wifi.
    *** Connect your mobile or notbook to the same wifi. If you use a display on your lbb, it will
    *** tell you its new IP. Connect to lbb:
    *** https://IP.IN.YOUR.WIFI (secure, certificate can't be verified automatically, please confirm it)
    *** http://IP.IN.YOUR.WIFI:8080 (insecure)
    ***
    *** 2. Alternatively can reach the web UI of Little Backup Box when you are connected to its
    *** hotspot as follows:
    ***
    *** https://10.41.0.1 (secure, certificate can't be verified automatically, please confirm it)
    *** http://10.41.0.1:8080 (insecure)
    ***
    *** Please use the settings of the web UI to optimally adapt the Little Backup Box for you.
    ***
    *** If you have further questions, please check the wiki first:
    *** https://github.com/outdoorbits/little-backup-box/wiki
    ***
    *** We are always happy to receive your feedback!
    ******************************************************************************************

Start

If everything went well, it’s done! Open a browser and enter https://IP.OF.YOUR.BOX or http://IP.OF.YOUR.BOX:8080
Have fun!

Update

Contribute

  1. Open an issue to discuss your idea.
  2. Fork the project's repository.
  3. Create a feature branch using the git checkout -b new-feature command.
  4. Add your new feature or fix bugs and run the git commit -am 'Add a new feature' command to commit changes.
  5. Push changes using the git push origin new-feature command.
  6. Submit a pull request (in your fork at github.com).

Authors

The project now is maintained by Stefan Saam. Founder is Dmitri Popov.

Contributors

License

The GNU General Public License version 3