Where are my photos and data actually stored?

The honest one-line version: photos live on your phone; records live in our cloud; sent reports live in both places.

On your device

• The in-app photo store. Every evidence photograph you capture is kept by Buildsnapper on the device itself, organised by project, plot and Appendix B section.
• Gallery copies. Since version 2.0, a full-size copy of every photo you take, with its location and time, also goes to the phone's own gallery (Photos on iPhone, DCIM on Android) whenever the phone lets Buildsnapper save there, and from there to iCloud Photos or Google Photos if you use them. These copies are a genuine safety net — leave them alone.

In our cloud

• Your account details.
• Project and plot records: names, structure, section progress, and records of your photos — references and details, not the image files themselves.
• Report records for everything you have sent.

Uploaded when you send a report

When you generate and send a plot's report, the report PDF and an archive of that plot's photographs are uploaded so your assessor can actually receive them. From that point, the sent report exists beyond your device.

What this means in practice

Until a plot's report is sent, the only copies of its photographs are on your phone (and in its gallery). That is by design — see why photos do not sync between devices — but it makes the device itself precious. Before changing or resetting a phone, follow the migration guide for your platform first — new iPhone or new Android — and see what is actually backed up. If anything ever looks lost, change nothing and ask us through the support page.