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.

  • @AuxEnglish
    0•10 months ago

    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.

    • @TCB13English
      1•10 months ago

      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.

      • @AuxEnglish
        0•10 months ago

        SFTP is not the same as Drive functionality, that’s the thing. Again, Syncthing solves a different problem, it’s not applicable here.

        • @TCB13English
          0•10 months ago

          SFTP is not the same as Drive functionality

          If you’re a good client it is.

          • @AuxEnglish
            0•10 months ago

            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.

              • @AuxEnglish
                0•10 months ago

                $18 per year? No thanks. But a good find.

                • @TCB13English
                  1•10 months ago

                  You can buy it a single time. Owlfiles Pro Lifetime $49.99. It is a good deal for how good it works.