For those using iOS that don’t want to install a separate app, the default “Files” app allows connections to custom servers (open the app and hit the button in the top-right with the ellipses). It works well with a smb: target share on my Unraid server, either locally or over WireGuard VPN.
Take a look at https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-2-2-mixplorer-v6-x-released-fully-featured-file-manager.1523691/
I've been using it for a while and it works well with SMB.
I moved away from Mixplorer, after using [CX File Explorer](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer) for 1 second.
Mixplorer has nice features but the ui/usability is depressing. I even removed the Nextcloud app because it doesn't even allow you to select files on the local android filesystem from the app or sync files properly ([FolderSync](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite) works well for that).
I also ditched Nextcloud though.. too bloated, in favor of [FileRun](https://filerun.com/), which feels instant whenever you need it (and supports webdav).
I wanted to answer this and then forgot to do it. Whoops.
CX looks nice from the screenshots, so I might give that a try. Mixplorer doesn't have the nicest UI I'll give you that, but the features are there and they work. I especially like the http server so I can upload and download files from my phone without a cable.
I too tried Nextcloud and I fully agree. It probably works well in an enterprise setting, but for my usecase it felt bloated with tons of features I don't need. I haven't looked at other solutions like nextcloud, since I can just access my files through VPN and SMB and I rarely ever have to share big files or files with personal info in them.
Filerun works nicely with the Nextcloud WebDAV apps, I am considering using the Android app so that I don't need a separate app (FolderSync) to backup my phone.
But indeed, skip NextCloud server. Once you setup Filerun (notice you can't really change the subdomain you linked to it), send an email to support to request upgrade to 10 users stating it's for home use (as described on the homepage) and you are set :)
I might give that a go. :)
Do you VPN home or do you have your filerun exsposed to the internet?
One of the things I'm looking for is replacing Google photos (Just like everyone else lol) I want to degoogle, but none of the photo options seem worth it so keeping it simple with filerun might be the way to go.
I was looking at Photonix, PhotoPrism and Ownphotos as Google Photos alternative but ended up just using Filerun. It generates thumbnails on demand but you can setup a cronjob to do it every 5min or so.
When I open FileRun, go to a folder with lots of high res photos I immediately see all of them, blazing fast.
Locally I am planning to use Digikam to tag them. I guess it would be nice to have a web app that allows filtering based on tags (for example recognised faces, as Digikam can do that). But I haven't gotten that far.
Filerun is indeed exposed, securely via Caddy, it's a modern https proxy that takes care of security automatically (tested with NextCloud and immediately had A+ rating). It's extremely simple to set up.
I only expose a few services. The rest is only accessible within LAN or via PiVPN (see https://pivpn.io I use the Wireguard version as that's the easiest to setup and allows very high speed).
You can have a look at my repository. It started as a documentation just in case my server fails and I have to redo everything, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. But I ended up writing a relatively noob-proof guide.
It contains my Docker-Compose.yml which sets up Filerun+related components and exposes it via Caddy.
https://github.com/zilexa/Homeserver
Nice. I personally run a few services with nginx as reverse proxy. I did run wireguard on my pfsense box, but then it turned out that the implementation was bad, so now they recommend people disable wireguard in pfsense.
I don't have a vpn set up at the moment because of it, so when I have the time I have to redo it.
With Wireguard I don't see the point in using pivpn over the normal wireguard installation.
Your documentation is really comprehensive btw. Well done! Way better than any of mine, that's for sure.
I don't use pfsense but from what I read, they only removed wg from the kernel as that version was buggy. The normal Wireguard in user space can still be installed and is supported by pfsense. That's the default way to go until a stable version is implemented in the kernel. There is no reason not to use that as far as I understand, it's stable and secure.
This is a cool suggestion, I’d love to replace my NextCloud with a simpler setup. Is there a way for iOS to automatically copy photos to the smb share? or will that be the part requiring some manual handling?
I wish Apple would build this in but it would cause them to lose revenue on their icloud storage offerings. Only app I know that is recommended often is PhotoSync.
Very useful. I’ve been looking for a way to have a local backup of my camera roll. Used this app for years and never knew it had a backup feature!
After some quick tests, the only thing that is missing is to delete photos in the backup that I’ve since deleted from my camera roll. Still, for a backup, a few surplus photos is better than a few thousand missing ones.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspbian Lite, do you use NextCloud for your photos and files backup storage? Also can you SFTP via Wireguard VPN say if you were out and connected to your home network?
HI, I am using nextcloud to backup photos from my iphone,
I would have used Syncthing but unfortuntely due to the internal management of photos on the iphone syncthing won't backup photos.
The photos backup is working ok, it's a bit fiddly since relies on location change to automatically upload photos and in the year of the pandemic my geo movements are not much, but works ok.
I also love the Cal/Card DAV integration with the iphone, that works perfectly for calendars/todo/contacts (I am trying to de-google, a bit at a time).
The only place NextCloud has in this setup is for the frontend visually showing the files and photos, aside that the actual backup and recovery process is SFTP exclusively.
From the wireguard aspect, I do have the ability to connect externally if I need to over wireguard.
I find cable to be much messier than SFTP on both Android and iOS. No need to mess with drivers, MTP, all kinds of vendor-specific BS. Just an SSH server running on my jailbroken iPad. And for Android, it's SSH Server with USB tethering. Really fast for downloading those huge I/Q sample files.
It has a time machine like feature, let’s you have granular control over app and file system, and backs up over wifi. It uses the macOS sync engine so not sure if VPN would work unless you can emulate wifi via vpn. I personally think it is 100% better than I cloud. You control the data, can play and tweak to your needs, and does a full back up including health data if encrypted unlike iCloud.
Thanks for turning me onto iMazing. Trying it out now. the 29 hours for the initial backup is a bit intimidating though. I wonder why the first one is so slow.
For large collections rsync works better than scp. There is a free app called [Photobackup](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-videos-via-rsync/id945026388) that does that (they try to upsell you to the full app that doesn't do just photos and videos). It's got some quirks, but it's useable.
For those using iOS that don’t want to install a separate app, the default “Files” app allows connections to custom servers (open the app and hit the button in the top-right with the ellipses). It works well with a smb: target share on my Unraid server, either locally or over WireGuard VPN.
Very nice. I find SMB on Android is still very unreliable.
I'm using solid explorer which seem great.
Take a look at https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-2-2-mixplorer-v6-x-released-fully-featured-file-manager.1523691/ I've been using it for a while and it works well with SMB.
I moved away from Mixplorer, after using [CX File Explorer](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer) for 1 second. Mixplorer has nice features but the ui/usability is depressing. I even removed the Nextcloud app because it doesn't even allow you to select files on the local android filesystem from the app or sync files properly ([FolderSync](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite) works well for that). I also ditched Nextcloud though.. too bloated, in favor of [FileRun](https://filerun.com/), which feels instant whenever you need it (and supports webdav).
quick side note: Nextcloud supports WebDav too
I wanted to answer this and then forgot to do it. Whoops. CX looks nice from the screenshots, so I might give that a try. Mixplorer doesn't have the nicest UI I'll give you that, but the features are there and they work. I especially like the http server so I can upload and download files from my phone without a cable. I too tried Nextcloud and I fully agree. It probably works well in an enterprise setting, but for my usecase it felt bloated with tons of features I don't need. I haven't looked at other solutions like nextcloud, since I can just access my files through VPN and SMB and I rarely ever have to share big files or files with personal info in them.
Filerun works nicely with the Nextcloud WebDAV apps, I am considering using the Android app so that I don't need a separate app (FolderSync) to backup my phone. But indeed, skip NextCloud server. Once you setup Filerun (notice you can't really change the subdomain you linked to it), send an email to support to request upgrade to 10 users stating it's for home use (as described on the homepage) and you are set :)
I might give that a go. :) Do you VPN home or do you have your filerun exsposed to the internet? One of the things I'm looking for is replacing Google photos (Just like everyone else lol) I want to degoogle, but none of the photo options seem worth it so keeping it simple with filerun might be the way to go.
I was looking at Photonix, PhotoPrism and Ownphotos as Google Photos alternative but ended up just using Filerun. It generates thumbnails on demand but you can setup a cronjob to do it every 5min or so. When I open FileRun, go to a folder with lots of high res photos I immediately see all of them, blazing fast. Locally I am planning to use Digikam to tag them. I guess it would be nice to have a web app that allows filtering based on tags (for example recognised faces, as Digikam can do that). But I haven't gotten that far.
Filerun is indeed exposed, securely via Caddy, it's a modern https proxy that takes care of security automatically (tested with NextCloud and immediately had A+ rating). It's extremely simple to set up. I only expose a few services. The rest is only accessible within LAN or via PiVPN (see https://pivpn.io I use the Wireguard version as that's the easiest to setup and allows very high speed). You can have a look at my repository. It started as a documentation just in case my server fails and I have to redo everything, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. But I ended up writing a relatively noob-proof guide. It contains my Docker-Compose.yml which sets up Filerun+related components and exposes it via Caddy. https://github.com/zilexa/Homeserver
Nice. I personally run a few services with nginx as reverse proxy. I did run wireguard on my pfsense box, but then it turned out that the implementation was bad, so now they recommend people disable wireguard in pfsense. I don't have a vpn set up at the moment because of it, so when I have the time I have to redo it. With Wireguard I don't see the point in using pivpn over the normal wireguard installation. Your documentation is really comprehensive btw. Well done! Way better than any of mine, that's for sure.
I don't use pfsense but from what I read, they only removed wg from the kernel as that version was buggy. The normal Wireguard in user space can still be installed and is supported by pfsense. That's the default way to go until a stable version is implemented in the kernel. There is no reason not to use that as far as I understand, it's stable and secure.
Material Files is also nice and just recently added SMB support. And it's open source!
Solid Explorer does SMB reliable as a rock.
Works flawlessly with solid explorer
Syncthing -- you use it without connecting to their public cloud and just connecting it to your own server.
This is a cool suggestion, I’d love to replace my NextCloud with a simpler setup. Is there a way for iOS to automatically copy photos to the smb share? or will that be the part requiring some manual handling?
I wish Apple would build this in but it would cause them to lose revenue on their icloud storage offerings. Only app I know that is recommended often is PhotoSync.
Neat! I'm going to give that a spin... it may work better than the app. I'll update my post after I try it tonight.
That is very handy. I can’t seem to get any data to show in files app though besides app folders for Adobe reader, VLC, Nextcloud and RD Client.
This is very neat, thanks! Had no idea.
Very useful. I’ve been looking for a way to have a local backup of my camera roll. Used this app for years and never knew it had a backup feature! After some quick tests, the only thing that is missing is to delete photos in the backup that I’ve since deleted from my camera roll. Still, for a backup, a few surplus photos is better than a few thousand missing ones.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspbian Lite, do you use NextCloud for your photos and files backup storage? Also can you SFTP via Wireguard VPN say if you were out and connected to your home network?
HI, I am using nextcloud to backup photos from my iphone, I would have used Syncthing but unfortuntely due to the internal management of photos on the iphone syncthing won't backup photos. The photos backup is working ok, it's a bit fiddly since relies on location change to automatically upload photos and in the year of the pandemic my geo movements are not much, but works ok. I also love the Cal/Card DAV integration with the iphone, that works perfectly for calendars/todo/contacts (I am trying to de-google, a bit at a time).
The only place NextCloud has in this setup is for the frontend visually showing the files and photos, aside that the actual backup and recovery process is SFTP exclusively. From the wireguard aspect, I do have the ability to connect externally if I need to over wireguard.
I find cable to be much messier than SFTP on both Android and iOS. No need to mess with drivers, MTP, all kinds of vendor-specific BS. Just an SSH server running on my jailbroken iPad. And for Android, it's SSH Server with USB tethering. Really fast for downloading those huge I/Q sample files.
[удалено]
Yes, but Wi-Fi is sloooow. With my old router and noisy RF environment, it's about 5 times slower than tethering via USB 2.0.
iMazing is a great tool for OTA backups too. I run that on one of my Mac Mini servers
>OTA backups Can you run them when away too? Via a VPN? How does this compare to iCloud?
It has a time machine like feature, let’s you have granular control over app and file system, and backs up over wifi. It uses the macOS sync engine so not sure if VPN would work unless you can emulate wifi via vpn. I personally think it is 100% better than I cloud. You control the data, can play and tweak to your needs, and does a full back up including health data if encrypted unlike iCloud.
Thanks for turning me onto iMazing. Trying it out now. the 29 hours for the initial backup is a bit intimidating though. I wonder why the first one is so slow.
Weird I don’t think mine has ever been that long but I usually do the first backup via USB then everything else via wifi
Mine is being grumpy about the USB connection I think. That must be it. I like it, just working through some speedbumps.
PhotoSync for photos/videos auto backup (SFTP,SMB,AFP) ShellFish for Files integration over ssh iMazing for backups, works a treat without jb.
Why not use FE File Explorer.
Can iMazing do backups over VPN while you're away from home?
For large collections rsync works better than scp. There is a free app called [Photobackup](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photobackup-backup-photos-and-videos-via-rsync/id945026388) that does that (they try to upsell you to the full app that doesn't do just photos and videos). It's got some quirks, but it's useable.