6mo ago

Suggestions for file sync / android backup / sharing software (nextcloud alternative)

Hello everyone,

Since my daughter was born I am searching for a solution to share pictures of our child with my wife and create a copy of each smartphones photos and other files (documents). At first I tried nextcloud, but there is a lot of overhead and the administration feels kind of complex for what I need.

Anyone else having some input on which software to use?

So my main goal is:

Software running on raspberry pi (preferable docker). Has abilities like shared folder where pictures and documents get uploaded from multiple users and can be viewed (collaboration editing is not needed). Automatically copy files from smartphone (android) to raspberry from selected folder for a simple redundancy.

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39 comments

I'll be the contrary one: I tried a lot of things and ended up, eventually, going back to Nextclolud, simply because it's extendable and can add more shit to do things as you need it.
File sync and images may be all you need now, but let's say in the future you want to dump Google Docs, or add calendar and contact syncing, or notes, or to do lists, or hosting your own bookmark sync app, or integrating webmail, or....
It's got a lot of flaws, to be sure, but the ability to make it essentially do every task you might want cloud syncing with to at least a level of 'good enough', has pretty much kept me on it.
- You are probably right... I did spend two hours today trying to get it running in my current docker environment and couldn't get it running... That's when I decided to look for somethinfg else...
  
  Happy to share the docker-compose.yml I'm using for my setup. It includes OnlyOffice so that I can edit files internally, Google Dcos style. You can skip that section and remove the oonet network definition if you don't need/want it. You'll want to change the volume mount paths (or define volumes if you'd rather not use bind mounts) and change the 'supersecretpasswordhere' to something actually uh, secure.
  Anyway, file is at https://thecloud.home.uncomfortable.business/s/32HoxHajW33PRbf
  
  Thank you very much! But seems like the file is not accessable
  
  Ugh, not the best marketing for Nextcloud to have a public share not work, lol. It seems like 25% of people just can't see them but they work for everyone else so who knows.
  Anyway, have a pastebin instead: https://pastebin.com/zPyvgxYX
  
  Thank you very much!
  
  What part were you getting hung up on?
  
  First i tried nextcloudpi image but couldn't get it to run with beneath pihole (same raspi).
  Then I tried the AIO Image, this one seems to not even start at all. I found I have to open ports on the router. Will try again later this day.
  
  To avoid opening ports, have a look at Cloudflare tunnel.
- I use nextcloud to sync our photos, with the memory's add-on and mobile app you can even have collections.
- Nextcloud can't do two-way sync on Android. At all. That's like core functionality for the product IMHO and there's a feature request open I think. When I found that out, I basically spit out my coffee. It's fine if you just want to upload photos you take, that kinda works (but my god is it fragile).
  Nextcloud is pretty good at quite a few things, including extensibility, but having some omissions in functionality that boggle the mind.
  
  Not saying you're wrong, but what doesn't work right? I haven't noticed any behavior that seems wrong to me. Usually interact with nextcloud via the nextcloud section that gets added by the client in the file picker/file manager on the OnePlus Nord I'm using.
  
  The native Android client just can't do two way sync. Just put a text file or something into any folder (from the web or desktop). Now sync that folder to Android. Now edit it on the web/desktop, and look for the changes on Android (without actively telling it to "sync"). Then change the file on Android, these 2nd changes are never sent back to the server unless you explicitly tell it to "sync" again, manually. That's what I mean with 2 way sync.
  There are quite a few files where you just need that to work to use them properly, like the database of a password manager as a prime example. Mine can talk to Nextcloud natively, so I don't need the client for that, but I was incredibly close to just switching to syncthing, if I didn't have active users that use the web office integration of Nextcloud.
  
  Just tested that and uh, yeah, what the hell? Not something my workflows need, but that's a shocking oversight considering damn near everything else 100% does that.
  
  Yeah I was just so confused when I found out that this isn't possible. Like, it's a file hosting and sync-ing application. That's like absolute basics. It isn't even "just" an open source project any more, there's a company behind this product now. I am the last person to be angry about an open source project, run by a volunteer or three, not being feature complete.
  For what it's worth I think it works in the iOS version of the app (possibly always has?). But that's doesn't exactly help me either.
  
  Honestly it feels like they're trying to get away from being just a file sync platform, and are pushing for more corpo feature sets to compete with gsuite or O365.
  Which I mean is great: that's exactly what I needed and why I use it - it let me ditch almost all of my Google services and move it all to selfhosted.
  But I bet it also causes incentives to prioritize fixes and features that are focused on that, and pushes stuff like 'make the android sync app work like every other file sync app in history' to the bottom of the list.

39 comments