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.

Use docker or podman compose https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/

Nextcloud does not need a domain. Ip is fine.

Nextcloud it just too heavy I totally agree, and everything feels slow and sluggish.

For just files I use Syncthing and couldn't be happier, it just works in the background without a central server just syncs the files between phones, PCs and laptops by itself. I set it up like 5 years ago when I had enough of Nextcloud and to be honest most of the time I forget that I have it, but I use it every day to sync my password database for KeePassXC, my music, my private and work documents between all my devices.

There's a lot of stuff going on here, so let me break down your post for each issue:

1. You need to understand the difference between a docker run command, and detaching to run a container in the background. Just running it with 'run' keeps it in the foreground.

2. For the passphrase issue: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/1786

3. 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.

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.

My biased opinion is that most people run Nextcloud on an underpowered platform, and/or they install and enable every possible addon. Many also skip some important configurations.

If you run NC on a bit more powerful machine, like a used USFF PC, with a good link to it, the experience is better than e.g. OneDrive.

Another thing is, people say "Nextcloud does too much", but a default installation really doesn't do much more than files. If you add every imaginable app, sure it slows down and gets buggy. Disable everything you don't need, and the experience gets much better. You can disable even the built-in Photos app if you don't need it.

Not saying NC is a speed daemon, but it really is OK. The desktop and mobile clients don't get enough love, that's true.

I'm talking about the "bare metal" installation or the community Apache/FPM container images. AIO seems to be a hot mess, and does just about everything a container shouldn't be doing, but that's just my opinion.

I've never used the AIO image. I've heard it's weird. This is my compose file for the community image:

:::spoiler compose.yaml

volumes:
  db:

services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:10.6
    restart: always
    command: --transaction-isolation=READ-COMMITTED --log-bin=binlog --binlog-format=ROW
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql
    secrets:
      - mysql_root_password
      - mysql_nextcloud_password
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/mysql_root_password
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/mysql_nextcloud_password
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud

  nextcloud:
    image: nextcloud
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    depends_on:
      - db
    links:
      - db
    volumes:
      - /var/www/html:/var/www/html
      - /srv/data:/srv/data
    secrets:
      - mysql_nextcloud_password
    environment:
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/mysql_nextcloud_password
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_HOST=db

secrets:
  mysql_root_password:
    file: ./secrets/mysql_root_password.txt
  mysql_nextcloud_password:
    file: ./secrets/mysql_nextcloud_password.txt

:::

You can access it on port 8080 and perform the initial setup manually. For the database server address, use the db hostname. You'll have to use a reverse proxy for HTTPS.

You could also try OpenCloud, which is a Go rewrite of ownCloud.

AIO

Yeah, that one is basically a take-it-or-leave-it approach. It's a lot easier to customize when running your own Docker stack. It grew over the years and the team tries to sell it as an all-in-one SharePoint replacement (which it can be), but that also means it turned into an even more convoluted system.

I was looking into alternatives earlier this year, maybe one of them could be a solution for you:

• Owncloud infinite scale
• opencloud.eu (fork of ocis)
• syncthing (very good, depending on what exactly you're looking for)
• Pydio Cells

There are others, or servers like WebDAV itself.

Seafile. It's super fast and lightweight. There are some caveats though:

• Data is stored in git-like chunks on the server side. There is Seafuse and Sea drive functions that you can leverage to "assemble" the data on server side for backups. I personally use rclone mount, then backup.

• Paywall hiding some features. The community edition is free but is missing some features that pro has. Pro edition is free for 3 or less users.

• Documentation isn't great. The forum is active so that's helpful, but some of the docs take some time to understand

• Chinese owned. As far as I can tell, there is no call home for a self hosted server, so I don't think it's a worry in that case.

All that said, I like it much better than Syncthing for it's selective sync. All files on each client are synced to the server. But unlike Syncthing, it doesn't sync all data with each client. This is vital for me with some devices with small storage drives, so I would t want all files to sync. Yet I can still reach to the server from any client and pull data from any other client. Syncthing has an ignore flag, but that seemed way more trouble to setup than just sticking with Seafile.

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.

Alternatives? https://filebrowser.org/

I went from Seafile to Nextcloud with family file sharing as the primary usage. I'm using the AIO docker installation without issues.

This might not help, but I never experienced the issues you had.

(I moved away from Seafile due to - in my opinion - it dying a slow death with less and less support)

i am hoping for opencloud / ocis, a go rewrite of owncloud

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.

• 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.

• Owncloud Infinite Scale, still a bit of a setup, but it's better than what Nextcloud offers.

• 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.

Honestly I hate all these file sharing self hosting things. Looking at you nextcloud owncloud syncthing seafile etc. They all suck. All I want is NFS support in android, that's my only pain point accessing my files from anywhere from my home network. I can already VPN/wireguard into my network from anywhere, but I can't grab an ebook or mp3s off my NFS server from my phone or tablet, I have to have some other dumb infrastructure for it. Just (#@$^* put NFS in android already!!!

/endrant

So, use something else, like Seafile.

There are a number of ways to install nextcloud, and docker is only one of those.

Yes, NC isn't ideal in many ways, but it shouldn't be as painful as you're describing to run it.

it is like complaining about wordpress. it is there. it has many devs. it does a lot quite ok. take or leave it.

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.

I haven't used nextcloud but it seems frustrating that there isn't any really good selfhosted file cloud. Nextcloud is really chunky and inefficient but it seems to be the best option despite that.

Here I am just glad I'm not the only one. lol.

I also had bad luck with nextcloud, so recently I've set up SFTPgo and it works rather well and it's only for files. You can either download and upload the files through the WebUI or you can mount them over the network to your OS.

https://github.com/drakkan/sftpgo

I think you Just need nginx with one module: https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_dav_module.html That is filestorage only. WebDAV client exists for all platforms.

UPD: if you need web client you can use something like https://github.com/mgoltzsche/file-service/

I just use SMB shares on my NAS. Why over think it?

Yeah setting it up the way you want is a pain, but I like it mainly for backing up photos from my phone automatically, as well as, syncing podcasts and music between devices since I moved away from Spotify and start using things like AntennaPod and Gramophone

I got 20TB in my server, might as well use it.

If you want to self host your contacts and calendars and have multiple users, I still don't think there is anything better. I hope Open Cloud gets there eventually, but right now its only the beginning.

For files I just use WebDAV that's built in to Apache. It's really not fancy, but does all I need.

Nextcloud AIO has an option to skip domain check. the github README hasinstructions. And i love nextcloud because it integrates many features in one, file sharing, office collaboration, chat, rss reader, mailbox, photos, calendar, address-book, etc.

I have two instances running, one public and one completely local. And having a domain is just convenient but not necessary.

I agree. Nextcloud is not so great. It does too many things. It's still OK to use it, because it replaces file sharing in the cloud and you can have your own addressbook or contacts without sacrificing privacy in the Google cloud.

Nothing special. It just runs and updates well. It also tells you what you forgot to do.

I thought about using a dedicated addressbook, calendar and file sharing, but I'd need to have some time and at the moment it's just running without headaches.

by now i use nextcloud for everything except files. i do use it a lot for e.g. contacts, calendar, etc.

sshfs is simply a godsend for true instant easy multidevice file access

I didn't know anything about docker when I set up my NC years ago, so I ran it as a snap on bare metal. Man, it's gotten so much better! It used to really suck. Like, simple file transfers just didn't work half the time, so I'd be retrying the same thing over and over... A few years ago, I literally migrated it from bare metal to a VM, but kept the exact same install. I have so much crap on it now, I think I'll never bother switching it out to docker, just because of the inconvenience. I know the snap version can just run using a local hostname, you just have to set it in trusted domains setting. Might be the same in the docker image?

Nextcloud is not just a file storage/sharing solution. Nextcloud Talk has no free fully fledged alternatives for instance.

Agreed, nextcloud is a beast with lots of whistles, if you don't need them you can have simpler solutions

This my approach here https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=selfhost%3Afileserver

And I stated using AList which is a funny piece of software that has great potential. See here https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=services%3Aalist

I'm in the process of (very slowly) migrating my household from Windows to Linux and am currently testing Nextcloud as a replacement for OneDrive. In my case, I set it up using pikapods.com because I want offsite storage. The server part of the setup was incredibly easy because the host did all the work.

Getting my Linux client setup was kind of a pain (especially compared to the Android and Windows clients), but everything seems to work ok so far. Of course, I'm only backing up a small amount of data so far, so I can't comment on the efficiency or speed for a major backup.

Try Synching. Its More of a file sync than file share/Cloud but it's very lightweight and works without issue. I use it to sync many of my important files to have them always accessible offline on all devices.

Does this help, OP?

https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=File+Management

I wanted something that has OnlyOffice integration and basically an selfhosted Google Drive, so tried Nexcloud as the most popular solution... but.. it was a pain to set up, its internal workings make handling reverse proxying a pain and it feels extremely slow.

I will try out Seafile, they seem to have just the 2 things I need and nothing more.

I would suggest looking at Syncthing. It's not perfect by any stretch, but it works peer to peer, without any kind of central host, ip or domain name requirements. You simply install it on the client machines, and they work out how to talk to each other over any available networks.

Beware changing the casing on your files or directories though, Syncthing was made entirely case sensitive, which does not play nice with Windows.

One very nice feature is that it does have an android client (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid/), and it supports full background syncing to your local storage on the phone. Great for syncing your photos, but also music. You add some mp3's on your desktop computer, and by the time you've put on your jacket they're on your phone ready to listen to without any 'service' getting in your way.

A more advanced tip; Get a VPS somewhere in the cloud with cheap storage, and have Syncthing on it listening on port 443. That will allow syncing in more restrictive corporate settings, which often don't allow connections to port 22000. And it gives you a 'cloud backup' of your important files in one go.

For just files I'd use Syncthing or Resilio (I keep hundreds of gigs synced with ST). Resilio has a feature that's very useful - Selective Sync. This allows you to setup a sync job that syncs the index of files, but doesn't sync the actual files until you select a file(s) to sync on the remote device. I use this to access my media files from anywhere (3TB) which I obviously don't want to try to sync the entire folder to my phone, etc.

But since you effectively are on the same LAN, you can use any file copy tool the respective OS's support.

Though for WAN connections, I prefer tools with some redundancy/resilience, since those connections can be slow or experience drops, and regular copy tools aren't designed to contend with that (in Windows the only tool I can think of off hand is Robocopy, but I think Teracopy will at least show you if a file copy fails).

It really depends on your use-case, what you're trying to solve for.