Are you opening it manually? Unfortunately I need to get it working set and forget if possible. And I’m trying to avoid icloud

That is very much the problem here, I would like to set up a set-and-forget system for family members so we can collect photos together easily. But that goes against how apple systems work

Have you tried using it yourself? One of the troubles I’ve found is apps saying they will do something but it doesn’t happen because the OS has obscure ways of controlling background tasks. And it prioritises apps that get opened manually, which doesn’t work for a backup that is meant to be set and forget

Yes I’ve tried following the FAQ, I’m trying to help family members to use it so we can collect photos together, and these hands-on tricks are a bit harder to convince people to do. An automatic background backup would be much easier