I’m looking for something to replace cloud storage for myself and family. I’ve tried to use/like NextCloud but honestly I despise it. The UI/UX really bothers me, and administering it is a pain. It also just does way more that I want or need.
What I’m looking for:
- Supports a virtual/sync folder on Mac. Like iCloud does, it needs to create a local folder on a Mac. I personally just use SMB, but for family members that’s not as easy (see next point).
- Accessible from the internet. I don’t want to put my family members on the VPN, but I do have a central OAuth for other stuff so I want it to be secured with behind that.
- Doesn’t need to have a web interface or phone app. If it integrates into the computer, it doesn’t really need this. I can just use (FileBrowser)[https://filebrowser.org/]. It’s mostly used for documents and the like, so desktop/laptop use is the most important.
Anyone use anything that fits this? Or anyone in general dislike NextCloud and use something else?
Edit: Maybe I can just setup webdav and use something like https://mountainduck.io/? Would be better to find something FOSS though, if possible.
I use NC (and am happy with it) but I get the „too complicated“ and „too many features“ argument. Imo its only for people who really want to degoogle or get away from iCloud completely as it has so many features and plugins that you could run a company with it. Its absolutely overkill for just syncing photos.
Edit: What I will say though is that I had a similar problem with a mod suite for a minecraft server which was wayyy too much for what I needed - at first. So I ended up with a basic solution, later splicing on feature after feature until I ended up with the same setup, just more complicated and buggier. Maybe what I‘m trying to say „NC maybe just isnt for you, yet.“
My gripe with NC has always been that keeping it up to date is a pain, I love the actual functionality. I’m in the process of migrating my install from a normal install in a TrueNAS Core jail to the containerized version in the Linux version of TrueNAS and that too is a struggle. I’m hoping that the containerized version will be easier to keep up to date, as that seemed to go wrong constantly.
I wrote a custom script to update it so I can very much understand that sentiment. I‘m also not the largest fan of the service just randomly breaking every couple of weeks and then having to run my update script. I‘m running the linuxserver docker compose version iirc.
I have a Nextcloud running in docker for years, the update has always been just docker pull. After years of suffering with the native installation, and upgrade processes that never worked, I migrated to docker and it couldn’t be simpler.
This is one of the reasons every time someone says “you don’t need docker to run your server” I’m like “yes, but that’s like saying you don’t need a vehicle to travel 100km”.
The issue for me is that the docker update alone doesnt do it. I have no idea why and at this point I‘m to tired to care.
If the docker update doesn’t update things you might not be using docker at all. Docker is like having a VM that you destroy after every run, so it’s not that it updates the version, it is as if you were spinning up a new machine with the new version, a machine running the new version can’t be running the old version by definition, unless you did something like telling that machine to overwrite the installation folder with a local one, e.g. by having something like
- /var/www/nextcloud:/var/www/nextcloud
(or whatever the path is where you have next cloud installed locally) in your volumes for the docker, which would be akin to buying a new PC because your GPU is old, immediately swapping out the new GPU for the old one, and wondering why the new GPU is so slow.Thanks for explaining. I know how docker works but I have the suspicion that l I might in fact have one persistent volume too many. I‘ll check that again if I have time. Thanks again.
Yeah, if you have a volume mounted on the folder where next cloud is installed it would be the same as what I mentioned. Look for anything mounting on
/app
that should be used from the image.That being said be careful, if you haven’t upgraded in a long time it’s possible the automatic upgrade won’t work or might break stuff.
I am updating regularly. Its just not automatic, which kinda sucks. Thanks for explaining. I’ll check it out.