I tried Nextcloud a while back and was not impressed - I had issues withe the speed of the Windows sync that were determined to be “normal” with no roadmap to getting fixed. I’m now planning to move off Windows desktop so that won’t be an issue - so I thought I’d try again.
I went to nextcloud.com, clicked on Download-> Nextcloud server -> All-in-one -> Docker image - Setup AIO. This took me to the github README at Docker section. I’m already running docker for other things so I read the instructions, setup a new filesystem for my data directory and ran the suggested docker command with an appropriate “–env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR=”. I’m then left with a terminal running docker in the foreground - not a great way to run a background server but ok, I’ve been around for a while and can figure out how to make it autostart in the background ongoing. So I move on to the next step - open my browser at the appropriate URL and I’m presented with a simple page asking me to “Log in using your Nextcloud AIO passphrase:”. I don’t have a Nextcloud AIO passphrase and nothing I’ve read so far has mentioned it. When I search for it I get some results on how to reset it, but not much help. I could probably figure that out too, but after reading some more I found that Nextcloud requires a public hostname and can’t work with a local name or IP address. I’m already running my home LAN with OpenVPN and access it from anywhere as “local” - I don’t really want to create a new path into my home network just for Nextcloud.
I’m sorry - I know this sounds like a disgruntled rant and I guess it is. I just want to check that I’m not missing obvious things before I give up again. All I want is a simple file sync setup like onedrive but without the microsoft.
Agreed, Nextcloud has gone from a lean little personal cloud to a hulking enterprise hub.
If you’re after something that’ll just sync your files between devices, try Syncthing. If you need files available online, maybe something like filestash or, like somebody else suggested, SFTPgo.
There are also tiny, lean calendar and contact server apps out there if you decide you need those. After self hosting NC for years I’m really happy spreading out the tasks over dedicated services rather than having all my eggs in one basket.
the base install is still pretty lean, its only hulking if you enable all their new junk, but if you don’t enable all that, the default, at least when installed it was quite lean.
I replaced Nextcloud with syncthing (files) & radicale (calendar, contacts & todos)
No-one used the calendar on NC, they just used their phones, Outlook, etc
No-one used the photo gallery on NC - that’s now Immich … again, with syncthing.
During the early days, just doing an update would break things.
For a small home setup, NC is too big, too clunky and just not the right tool.
Nextcloud file sync is a convenient centralized solution but it’s not designed for performance. Nothing about Nextcloud is designed for performance. It’s an “everything and the kitchen sink” multi-user cloud solution. That is nice for a lot of reasons. Nextcloud Sync is essentially a drop-in replacement for Google Drive or OneDrive or Dropbox that multiple people can use and that’s awesome. It works the same way as those tools, which is a blessing and a curse.
Nextcloud is for the same role you SAY you want, “All I want is a simple file sync setup like onedrive but without the microsoft.” That’s what it is. But I don’t think it’s what you’re actually asking for, and it’s not supposed to be. It has its role, and it’s good at that role. But I don’t think you actually want what you say you want, because in the details you’re describing something totally different.
If you want performance sync for just files, SyncThing is made for this. It has better conflict resolution. It has better decentralized connectivity, it doesn’t need the public IP server. It uses a very different approach to configuration. Its configuration is front-loaded, it takes a fair bit of work to get things talking to each other. It’s not suitable for the same things Nextcloud Sync is. But once you have it set up it’s rock solid reliable and blazing fast.
Personally I use both SyncThing and NextCloud Sync. I use them for different purposes, in different situations. NextCloud Sync takes care of my Windows documents and pictures, I use it to share photos with my family. I use it to sync one of the factors for my password vault. It works fine for this.
I also use SyncThing for large data sets that require higher performance. I have almost 400 GB of shared program data, (and game data/saved games), some of which I sync with SyncThing to multiple workstations in different parts of the country. It can deal with complex simultaneous usage that sometimes causes conflicts. It supports fine tuning sync strategies and files to ignore using configuration dotfiles. It’s a great tool. I couldn’t live without it. But I use both. They both have their place.
And here I am having used it for a decade and perfectly happy. I try other ones like Owncloud every once in a while and find them lacking. It was slow once upon a time but if you changed to postgres and used redis, it improved immensely. Today it’s quite fast and the sync has been working great for a long time.
Use docker-compose with the AIO and it’ll be a lot easier to manage. There’s example compose files in the github repo.
Yeah, I can see how someone that has “grown up with it” could be happy. But as and experienced sysadmin coming at it for the first time - the documentation is a bit lacking.
Nextclouds docker setup is an absolute disaster, I don’t blame you for giving up. It’s also slow as molasses to sync anything.
A couple things to look at, I would probably say look at KaraDAV first.
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KaraDAV, this is a simple webdav server that’s compatible with the Nextcloud sync clients. Uses SQLite for a DB so setup is super simple. Has a basic web based file browser too.
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Owncloud Infinite Scale, still a bit of a setup, but it’s better than what Nextcloud offers.
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Syncthing, this is my current setup, just a robust and solid file sync program. You can pair it up on your server with something like SFTPGo or KaraDAV to provide a web file manager and WebDAV server if you need that. Downside is there’s no selective sync or virtual folder support.
simple webdav server that’s compatible with the Nextcloud sync clients
Now THAT is interesting - when I was last experimenting with Nextcloud I learned that the files part is just a webdav server. Unfortunately I also learned that they have a bit of a handshake before the webdav so the client wouldn’t work with my apache2 webdav server. Thanks!
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Use docker or podman compose https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/
Nextcloud does not need a domain. Ip is fine.
Use docker or podman compose https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/
I could do that - I guess I was just pointing out that someone coming to Nextcloud and following the install instructions does not have a great experience.
Nextcloud does not need a domain. Ip is fine.
So, their documentation is wrong?
Again - not a great experience for a first time user.
Nextcloud wants you to buy their stuff.
If you want to selfhost you have to read “everything” and know what you do.
I have no idea about that all in one setup. But yes, the sentence “nextcloud can not be reached via IP” is wrong
Does it need to be an external IP? I was going to look into setting it up soon but if that’s the case I think I’ll just stick with SMB shares or maybe try syncthing
No
No internal domain could connect to anything if it wasn’t resolved for an ip.
Local IPv4 work. Global ipv4 work. Ipv6 works. Mesh vpn ips work. Any ip works.
You may have to adjust the config.php (iirc) to add the ip/domain to trusted domains
There’s a lot of stuff going on here, so let me break down your post for each issue:
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You need to understand the difference between a
docker runcommand, and detaching to run a container in the background. Just running it with ‘run’ keeps it in the foreground. -
For the passphrase issue: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/1786
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Lastly, if you’re not familiar with containers, and this is a single purpose machine, you’d be better off just running the bare project on the host. If there’s no need for containerization, just skip it.
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I haven’t used nextcloud in years, but last I read about it was to avoid AIO at all cost. There is another version and for some reason AIO was shit and not AIO was OK. Can’t remember why though.
That seems to be the case. Really sucks that the documentation at nextcloud.com directs people to the AIO. I guess they hope that if you have a bad time trying to install your own server you might buy their cloud service.
