Cloud sync for home use

Insight & Feedback
1

Hi I’m really new to ZimaOS, not an expert.

I’v been trying to make install a cloud sync app, for 3 users at home, for the past 2 weeks and so far I haven’t been able:

  1. OpenCloud: it just wont install by following Gemini’s suggestions and from the github page it’s just gibberish to me
  2. Nextcloud: I’m stuck at choosing the type of database: SQLite is not recommended in the long run fom what I read and setting up MariaDB/MySQL is more gibberish to me
  3. I’ve tryed with OwnCloud from the ZimaOS app store it wont even install.

I’m really let down so far. Is there anything that would just work for file sync on this OS? I think I’m only left with Syncthing but I don’t like the fact that there isn’t a central server.

2

you don’t say what the issue is with opencloud installing. For Nextcloud, try the install guide here Streamline Nextcloud Installation on CasaOS with BigBearCasaOS

Owncloud is a bigbear version and you should chose to do a custom install, so you can set some of the settings change mount point, set ip address, and a few other things like passwords and so forth.

3

Yeah I get where you’re coming from, it’s a bit rough when you just want something simple and everything turns into a setup rabbit hole.

Honestly, for what you’re trying to do, you don’t need to go down the whole MariaDB/MySQL path. That’s what’s making Nextcloud feel like gibberish. For a small home setup like yours, SQLite is completely fine, even though it throws that warning. You can just pick it, get Nextcloud running, and it’ll do exactly what you need for a few users.

OpenCloud and OwnCloud on ZimaOS can be hit and miss, especially through the App Store, so it’s not you doing something wrong there.

Syncthing will work straight away, but like you said, it doesn’t give you that central “cloud” feel, it’s more device-to-device.

If you want something that actually feels like a proper home cloud with users, web access, and phone sync, Nextcloud is still your best option, just keep it simple and don’t overthink the database part.

For the setup:

So first thing, just install Nextcloud from the App Store like you normally would. Don’t worry about any advanced options at this stage, just let it install.

Once it’s done, open it in your browser. You’ll land on that first setup screen where it asks for a username and password. That’s just your main admin account, so create that.

Then you’ll hit the part that’s been tripping you up, the database. You’ll see SQLite and then the MySQL/MariaDB options. Just pick SQLite and ignore the warning. For what you’re doing, it’s completely fine and saves you all the extra setup.

Hit install and give it a minute. Once it finishes, you’ll be inside Nextcloud.

From there, go into settings and add your other users so everyone has their own login.

One thing I would say though, and this is important on ZimaOS, is to make sure your data isn’t stuck inside the container. You want it mapped to something like /DATA/AppData/nextcloud so it actually persists properly. If you installed through the App Store, just double check the volume mapping in the container settings.

After that, you’re basically done. You can jump on your phone, install the Nextcloud app, log in, and turn on auto upload if you want photos syncing.

That’s the simplest way to get a proper home cloud running without getting dragged into database setup. If you want, next step we can quickly check your storage mapping so you know it’s set up right.

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4

About owncloud it just wont complete the installation from the app store.

Thanks for the link btw.

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5

Thank you. I have already tried with Nextcloud SQLite and it does work as intended but than reading I found the common reccomendation that it’s not stable in the long run.

So do I have to expect there’s a possibility of loosing data, data corruption or something like that using SQLite? I plan on using file sync for 3 people and try exploring a couple of Nextcloud apps for curiosity, I’m mostly interested in file sync.

6

Yeah, that recommendation trips a lot of people up, it sounds a lot scarier than it actually is.

You’re not going to suddenly lose data or have corruption just because you’re using SQLite. That warning is really about scaling and performance, not stability. Once you get into lots of users, heavy usage, tons of apps running in the background, that’s when SQLite starts to struggle, which is why they push MariaDB.

But for what you’re doing, 3 users and mainly file sync, you’re well within what SQLite handles comfortably. It’s a solid setup for home use.

I actually run Nextcloud myself and love it, and for setups like this it just works without needing to overcomplicate things.

If anything, the bigger thing to get right on ZimaOS is making sure your data is stored properly on persistent storage, not the database choice.

So I’d just stick with SQLite, use it, enjoy it, and if you ever outgrow it down the track, you can always move to MariaDB later without starting again.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NextCloud/comments/1j2jkcd/finally_leaving_google_workspace_is_nextcloud_a/

7

So I’ve just reset my nas and going slowly.

I’m on a fresh installation of Nextcloud and first of all I’m trying to follow your tip about moving my nextcloud data out of the container. How do I do that?

On the first welcome page I was given che choice where to store the databade, right under the user and password creation. Well it did not allow me to do that even if I already created a dedicated folder for it.

So before going further I found some really complicated guide on the nextcloud forum to set this after the initial setup with the risk of breaking stuff. Instead of the masochistic way how can I choose this location right from the welcome page? This would be the perfect time for me since I want all the data (file sync) in nexcloud to be stored in my raid and not the boot ssd.

For this I created the /DATA/AppData/nexclouddatabase folder where “DATA” is my raid now.

Some fields are still showing in Italian, my language, I don’t know why since the OS is in english, sorry about that. As you see in field “Storage & Database” I could be pointing to somewhere else but it wont allow me.

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8

Yeah you’ve actually done everything right, you’ve just hit the one part that isn’t obvious at all with Docker/ZimaOS.

That error you’re seeing simply means Nextcloud can’t write to that folder. Not because the folder is wrong, but because the container doesn’t have access to /DATA/... directly.

That field on the welcome page looks like it should let you choose your storage location, but it only works inside the container, not on your actual disks. So when you point it to /DATA/AppData/nextclouddatabase, it fails because Docker hasn’t been told about that path.

So the fix isn’t on that screen.

What you want to do is set this at the container level first, then let Nextcloud use its default path.

Go into:
ZimaOS > Apps > Nextcloud > Settings > Volumes

You’ll see something like:
/var/www/html/data

That’s the real Nextcloud data directory inside the container.

Map that to your RAID, for example:
/DATA/.media/your-raid/nextcloud/data
or
/DATA/AppData/nextcloud/data

Once that mapping is in place, restart the container.

Now go back to the welcome screen and just leave the data folder as default (/var/www/html/data) and continue with SQLite.

Behind the scenes:

  • Nextcloud writes to /var/www/html/data
  • Docker redirects it to your RAID
  • no permission issues, no errors

That’s why it wouldn’t let you set it directly before, it’s not the right place to do it.

You’re actually doing this the right way by stopping now. Most people only realise this after they’ve already filled it with data on the wrong disk

9

Also just to add, if you haven’t tried it yet, the Nextcloud desktop app on Windows is honestly really good.

I use it myself and it’s super user friendly. Once you install it, it just creates a normal folder on your PC and everything you drop in there syncs automatically to your server.

You can:

  • keep files synced across devices
  • choose which folders to sync
  • have it run quietly in the background

It basically feels like using Google Drive or OneDrive, just running on your own NAS.

For home use like yours, it makes a huge difference because everyone can just use it like a normal folder without thinking about “the cloud” at all.

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10

I wasn’t even aware of that desktop app, I installed it and tried to connect it to my install. I got this error

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I use cloudflare to make sure all of my sites I access have https with valid security. Apparently nextcloud won’t let me use that. Are you aware of any way to get past that.

11

Yeah that error is actually expected with Cloudflare in front of Nextcloud, nothing broken on your side.
What’s happening is:
You’re connecting over HTTPS (Cloudflare)
But Nextcloud internally still thinks it’s running on HTTP
So the desktop app sees a mismatch and blocks the login for security
That’s why you get: “server URL does not start with HTTPS…”
The fix is to tell Nextcloud it’s behind a reverse proxy (Cloudflare).
You need to add a few lines to your config.php.
Inside your Nextcloud config (usually under /DATA/AppData/nextcloud/…/config/config.php), add:

‘trusted_proxies’ => [‘127.0.0.1’],
‘overwriteprotocol’ => ‘https’,
‘overwritehost’ => ‘your-domain.com’,

Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain.
What this does:
Forces Nextcloud to use HTTPS
Makes it trust the proxy (Cloudflare)
Fixes the desktop app login issue
After saving, restart the container and try again, it should connect straight away.

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12

Thank you for this, I even found a way to have it sync everything and have it work with the onedrive folder on a workstation, now everything from onedrive is in nextcloud (still syncing into it)

edit:

It seriously broke onedrive, had to uninstall it on that pc so I could get onedrive going again. On the plus side, everything from onedrive is in Nextcloud. So rethinking how to achieve that.

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