Comment on Searching advice for selfhosting critical data
gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve done this.
For contacts, calendar, and files, I use OwnCloud, although NextCloud is as good/better. I couldn’t figure out Self-Signing certificates, which is supposed to be pretty easy, but I am kind of a dummy. NextCloud requires it. On my phone, I use DAVx5, and I replaced the GrapheneOS stock apps with Fossify apps as needed - although that is up to personal preference.
For photos, I use Immich, which is hands-down the best option.
NextCloud also has options for document editing, photo backup, and notes, but I can’t testify to those.
Syncthing is an ideal way to seamlessly sync files and folders between devices, but you will end up with the files on both devices. I use it sparingly, and they are phasing out android support. It’s still very useful to migrate large file libraries and act as a stopgap for other services.
There are tons of notes apps, and it largely comes down to preference. I settled on NotallyX, which can import your Keep notes directly (using Google Takeout iirc). It also has the option to store files externally, which means they can be synced for backup. There are also self-hosted web-apps, like Memos, or the slightly more adventurous Blinko.
I got a lot of great input from this community not too long ago.
The one Google feature I am not able to reproduce is Google Messages. If you use texting to any degree, there are some FOSS apps with pretty nice basic features (I’m using Fossify which is nice). However, there are none that have solid group-messaging features, reactions, and other RCS capabilities. It seems to be a technical/logistical/legal hurdle that is presently insurmountable. Lots of people don’t use texting anyway, so it may not be a concern for you.
hamsda@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Thank you for sharing your experience of the process!
I’m a little confused after looking at the website. What exactly does DAVx5 do? The regular re-sync of contacts, calendar and files itself? Shouldn’t that be done by the contacts app / calendar app on regular intervalls?
I just downloaded fossify calendar on my android a few days ago to test it and got to see the other fossify apps :)
Oh man, I already use syncthing for ~5 GB of files and I use it on my android too. Seems I’ll be trying syncthing-android-fdroid in the future then.
There really are a lot! NotallyX looks nice and simple, but memos also looks very interesting. And thank you for the link, I’ll go dive into that tomorrow.
I do not need RCS-compatible messengers. What I send via SMS is nothing more than pure text, also no group chats. I use signal and element for my “fancy” messaging needs :)
I’ll look into it some more over the next days, but on a quick glance, this seems like it is an online service where you need an account? If that’s the case, I’d prefer using my already running OpenVPN server to do the job.
gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
DAVx5 basically acts as the connector between your server and your calendar/contacts/files apps. I would imagine that this could be built into an app, but there are a lot of ways that such apps can sync or operate locally. I’m guessing that it is just a little more specialized than most developers want to get.
Thanks for the Syncthing-Fork tip! For now the official version is working for me, but I’ll have to migrate myself soon.
From my understanding, OpenVPN provides the same secure remote access as Tailscale, by a slightly different method. You should be fine to use what you’ve already set up.
hamsda@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Thank you for the explanation. I’ll probably be testing a lot of FOSS apps on my current android before I make the switch, so it’s good to know that I have to look out not just for usability, but also connectivity!