Hey all! I’m still in the somewhat early stages of setting up my home server. I have Nextcloud installed for file storage/management. However, realizing that it would be nice to have access to the entire storage drive for the server, I installed File Browser.
Now I’m having a hard time justifying having both. I have a handful of services that could be run as individual services (calDav, notes, news, etc… although, phonetrack seems to be hard to replace).
I’ve noticed lists that people have posted of the “must-have” services on their home servers have included both. My question is “why?” It seems like, at a basic level, they serve similar roles. If you remove the app-platform role from Nextcloud by separately hosting the individual apps, what benefit do you get from having both Nextcloud and File Browser?
I really like NextCloud, but i’m having a hard time justifying the resource usage if its functionality can be replaced by a handful of containers. Or, is that the reason to have it, so you don’t have to do that?
Any opinions on the subject would be appreciated.
Nextcloud can sync between devices,so you can even use files while offline. There is recycle bin and many more features and apps available. I mostly use filebrowser just to manage files on the server. Both apps are amazing
Nextcloud can sync between devices,so you can even use files while offline
Until it fails. If you want reliable sync just pair FileBrowser with Syncthing and have something that actually works fine.
Syncthing is not a good solution at all. It requires a persistent connection. That means you will have crazy battery drain and you will have issues when your mobile devices roam between networks. Syncthing is not a replacement for Google Drive/Nextcloud, it solves a different problem.
Personally, for mobile, I access my files with SFTP pointed to the same folders I sync my desktops with Syncthing.
Also, what stops you from having syncthing without a persistent connection? You can set it to just sync whenever the phone is plugged in and/or you manually open the thing.
SFTP is not the same as Drive functionality, that’s the thing. Again, Syncthing solves a different problem, it’s not applicable here.
SFTP is not the same as Drive functionality
If you’re a good client it is.
Ok, show me a good SFTP client which auto-uploads the photos I take on Android an iOS devices, let’s me share them with anyone I wish and creates a photo library with tags, date grouping, etc.
After tinkering with several software packages like NextCloud I decided to buy a Synology NAS instead. Their mobile apps are much better than anything open source today and they do a great job of de-Googling your life. The apps are so good that your non-techy members of the family won’t even notice the change.
I’m thinking that, when I decide to upgrade from my homelab-ish setup, I’ll be going with one of these. I haven’t looked into the software so much but just something a bit more purpose-built than a pi4 with a USB drive 😋
I thought about setting up a mini PC, which can work beautifully, but the apps are crap, so I decided against that idea. I mean I personally can deal with hacky solutions, but not my family members. Synology software turned out to be a transparent replacement for the services my family is using.
