So…yeah. As I’m moving away from google, I’d like to store my contacts elsewhere. I have proton (I know, I know), but this is also not great, since their system isn’t too android-friendly. Which system (maybe self-hosted) would you suggest to easily sync/backup your contacts?
Thanks!
You might still have to use a gmail account for this though, depending on if your email works with it.
There’s also Nextcloud which would be self hosted.
And the extremely low tech solution of just having them offline in a foss contacts app and exporting backups from that app to your storage in case you lose them.
If you are feeling ambitious and want to go “serverless”, try out DecSync and a compatible android app for contact sync. This represents all your contacts as files on disk in a way that avoids conflicts, and you can use SyncThing to keep your devices in sync 100% peer to peer. Unfortunately on your desktop you’ll probably have to use something like radicale on localhost and the plugin to convert it into CardDAV for your regular email client to understand.
Thanks! For databases, I’d prefer not to have to rely on Syncthing. I know it’s reliable, but I’d prefer something hooking directly to the android contacts/calendars providers. I’ll try something CalDAV/CardDav-based. Still trying to find one that includes a web client as well, to edit the contacts/calendars on the web if I choose to (otherwise I’ll be needing to create two URLs, one for the client and another for the server).
I’ve been using EteSync to sync my contacts and calendars for many years now. It’s end-to-end encrypted and works well.
It’s not too hard to self-host too.
How…do you self-host both the server AND the web client? Do you need two different addresses? Can it be done on the same server/container?
I understand I can just run the the server, which has this tiny little add-user and permissions page, but I’d like to also be able to handle the contacts and calendar from the Web UI from a computer whenever needed. Of course I know I can plug any app to the server directly, but I’d like the web UI, too…Do you know how to do this? I’ve spent a couple of hours searching without much luck.
If you’d like a web UI too, Radicale may be a better fit and easier to set up. I tried it out briefly using docker compose.
Thanks! I mean, etesync also has a super basic web UI. I meant some sort of calendar/contacts web editing tool, like calendar.google.com or similar. I’ve just installed a docker image of Radicale, but all I can see is the webUI for adding/removing collections, nothing else…Etesync also has this. They also provide a webUI editor, but it’s a separate tool to install elsewhere, that requires another URL to be running. I’d like to have both server and a webUI to handle users, collections, and the individual items/calendars/contacts of the collections as well.
I hadn’t looked too much into Radicale, so thanks for the info. What is their second webUI you mentioned called? If you’re looking for an all in one server, Nextcloud may be your best option. Its a bit heavier though for just contacts and calendar. If you do go down this path, I’ve heard the docker AIO container is easier to maintain.
I use the same etesync clients but link them to your own server, called etebase. There are a couple setup examples in the code, but if you’d like, I can share my docker/podman compose stack.
I haven’t set up the web UI to directly access items since I’m fine just using clients to sync and access items, so I haven’t looked into the web UI.
I briefly looked into the web client, and I don’t think it’s worth trying to self-host. There isn’t a docker image and the latest release on github is from 2020. If you need a web UI, I’d recommend using something else.
Thanks…I agree. Also, I’d be needing a second dedicated URL for this. One for the caldav access from the apps, and another for the webUI. I’d like to find something encompassing both of these onto a single server app.
Nextcloud.
Many mail providers give you access to CalDAV + CardDAV which have a wide array of mature technology to sync contacts, calendars, todo lists on basically all platforms. If you move away from Protonmail as primary, you would get access to this normal service as well as being able to use IMAP without paying & using some middleman application just to use email. I do not pay for a lot of services, but I get a lot of value out of keeping email + CalDAV + CardDAV off-premise with the cost of €1 per month.
I would suggest a baikal server: https://sabre.io/baikal/docker-install/ it’s made from.the ones making radicle and sabre, one of the kost used open source caldav/carddav servers. Yes it can sync calendars too
I use Radicale.
How did you set it up? The pip install method no longer works. I guess it still was a valid way until some point last year.
With podman/docker container, behind caddy reverse proxy.
Thanks…I have it running now. I guess my nit-pickyness of this is, it’s just the server. I’d like to have also something replicating a calendar and contacts managing web UI, ala google calendar/contacts. Sure this works neatly already (no complains there!), but I’m trying to also provide functionality for the rest of the family. Sometimes a web app might be the easiest approach to check something first.
Sync to a CalDAV/CardDAV server instead of to Google. If you’re up for self-hosting, Radicale is a good and simple one.
I use DAVx⁵ on Android and Thunderbird on the desktop. Other sync clients are listed here: https://radicale.org/v3.html#supported-clients
Thanks! I was trying a first run attempt, but I got stuck setting up python. Seems these setup instructions don’t quite work anymore due to python’s virtual environment, pipx is suggested now. Alternatively I saw the option to just install a dated version, but it was quite a bunch of releases behind. I gave up and had a bit more success with Etesync server. Although I’m trying now to figure how the hell am I to setup both the server and the web client on the same running environment…I’d like to host the web client too, so I can edit calendar entries from the web UI.
Try Docker, or if you want to invest a bit more learning time for a huge convenience pay off: NixOS
I use this and rsync the folder. https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.tmo1.sms_ie/
I use posteo for email and use davx5 to sync contacts and calendars to their carddav and caldav servers.
I got Nextcloud on Hetzner. Technically, Hetzner can see the contacts stored on their servers, but I trust them enough, and everything is open source.
You can also self-host Nextcloud.
Same. Hetzner has a solid business in hosting, they don’t make their money from mining my data. They’d hand it over for a lawful request, but the data is not -that- secret and thus possible false accusations aren’t really an issue.
I’ve barely hosted anything and those must have leaked like a sieve. Trusting Hetzner way more.
I have a little python script that (among other things) will maintain an address list in a *.csv file on a Windows or Linux PC. It’s a Qt app. The documentation does some handwaving about importing/exporting to Android. See: https://lacusveris.com/Tonto2/Docs/en/index.shtml
Thanks…I think I prefer something a bit les…manual in a way.
fossify contacts lets you import and export your contacts at anytime to and from a simple file
As another solution, you could try Tuta Calendar. It’s not self hosted, but is free for one calendar. You will be able to access their WebUI and they have clients you can download too.
I export my contacts as a file and copy it to my pc, an external HDD and several cloud providers. Anything I store in the cloud is encrypted with Rclone first. There is a nice client available for Android. I don’t pay for cloud storage so I only use the free tiers.
I guess this is only practical if you rarely make changes to your contacts.
