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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I also had a lot of difficulty setting up NextCloud. Based on the various reviews and comments, it seems like I may have actually dodged a bullet.

    In general, as I’ve tried different self-hosting solutions, I’ve found that using a dedicated solution for each purpose has given me better results. I use Radicale for contacts and Calendar, Immich for photos, Jellyfin for media (Navidrome for music is great, but I ended up keeping my music library in Jellyfin because I liked the client apps better).

    I’m using OwnCloud for filesync, although I’m also testing CopyParty, which is pretty phenomenal and stupid simple.

    Tailscale is GOAT. Some people have speculated that it could be subject to enshitification some day. It’s managed by a for-profit company, but everything they do is open source. There are already well-tested forks like HeadScale if you ever have the need to self-host it in the future.

    NextCloud seems great if you can get it working and provides a lot of services in one. Some people have said that causes bloat and slowdown, so there are two sides to the coin.

    Syncthing is likely not a good option for a file server. It’s great if you want to have a shared file or folder on multiple devices, especially if you just want to transfer files quickly and seamlessly. It’s fantastic at what it does, but it’s not a file server. There are a lot of opportunities for error when using Syncthing.



  • Yeah, it operates like a VPN. On my wife’s phone, I installed tailscale and set it as the “always on” VPN so that she never has to touch it. The same goes for computers. You can have it set as a startup app, and it should automatically connect every time.

    On some devices, if you want to use another VPN, it can get complicated.

    Tailscale only responds to the range of connections that it’s in charge of, so it doesn’t interfere with connecting to normal internet, etc.












  • Not OP, but having files and folder structures accessible in the OS helps with a lot of tasks and interoperability.

    If I want to add media files to Jellyfin, etc, I can’t just drop them into the video folder remotely because I have it mapped to a particular folder on the drive. If I want to make a copy of a large folder, I first have to mount the cloud as a “remote” drive, then do the operation from there.

    It’s much easier to access files and folders outside of a database if they are needed for anything outside of the cloud service. I know that there may also be some security and efficiency factors that make a database favorable, but in terms of ease of use, it is just more effort to use a fileserver that operates through a database.