With Pro, photon keeps your setup the same on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. It uses your own iCloud. There is no photon account, and nothing of ours is in the middle.
Turning it on and off
- Open Settings ▸ General.
- Under iCloud, turn Sync This Device on or off.
Turning it off leaves this device exactly as it is and changes nothing on your others. Turning it back on merges this device’s setup with what is already there.
What syncs
| Your servers | The list, already signed in, so a new device is not a fresh round of typing addresses and passwords. |
| Your settings | Languages, subtitle mode, quality ceiling, skipping, spoilers — the things that describe how you watch. |
| Your arrangement | The order of your tabs, your Home rows and your libraries, and which of them are hidden. |
What does not sync
Anything that describes one machine rather than you:
- Wi-Fi-only downloads.
- Preventing display sleep, and blacking out other displays.
- Downloads themselves. A download is a file on a device, and each device downloads what it wants.
Plex is also set up per device, whatever this setting says, because Plex issues each device its own link. Signing in to Plex on the phone does not sign the television in.
Your server addresses
A private server’s address is personal information, so it is not stored in the clear. Photon uses two iCloud stores for this reason:
| Key-value store | Preferences and arrangement. Apple documents this as unencrypted on disk, so nothing identifying goes in it. |
| CloudKit records | The server list, with the address fields encrypted. |
Passwords and tokens are not synced at all. They live in the keychain on each device, which is Apple’s own store and has its own syncing.
Setting up a new device
- Sign in to the same Apple Account.
- Install photon and open it.
- Your servers, settings and arrangement arrive on their own.
- Sign in to Plex again, if you use it, and download anything you want on that device.
If a device is missing settings, check that it is signed in to the same Apple Account, that Pro is active on it, and that Sync This Device is on there as well as here.