Syncthing.
App on the phone and host on the server.
But syncthing deletes images when they are deleted on the phone right? I just tried it, and this is what seems to happen. Is there a way to set it up such that I can delete things on my phone, but they won’t be deleted on the server?
https://docs.syncthing.net/users/config.html
Adjust the config settings:
sendreceive The folder is in default mode. Sending local and accepting remote changes. Note that this type was previously called “readwrite” which is deprecated but still accepted in incoming configs.
sendonly The folder is in “send only” mode – it will not be modified by Syncthing on this device. Note that this type was previously called “readonly” which is deprecated but still accepted in incoming configs.
receiveonly The folder is in “receive only” mode – it will not propagate changes to other devices.
receiveencrypted Must be used on untrusted devices, where the data cannot be decrypted because no folder password was entered. See Untrusted (Encrypted) Devices.
Yeah, I have the folder on the phone on sendonly. But this sends also deletions to the server, apparently.
Nextcloud app. It works alright.
On iOS it’s a different story though… (my wife has an iPhone)
Can I ask what doesn’t work with Nextcloud to your expectations? Just sounded like “works alright” implies something is off from what you’d like. I am asking because I have recently set this up for myself and haven’t noticed any issues yet. Well apart from a recent issue with one of the latest app updates crashing those auto uploads.
The sync on Android itself is pretty stable. Every now and then it throws errors about not being able to sync but those could be because of bad reception.
The Nextcloud app on Android has another weird error for me. It doesn’t show the content of a notification (like “Update for app xyz available”) but “NEXTCLOUD_NOTIFICATION”. I tried to resolve it using different approaches from the internet but it followed me even to a new phone. I just gave up for the time being.
The sync with iOS is somewhat bad. To get all the images from my wife’s phone to the cloud I have to plug it in, deactivate screen timeout, and open the app. Sync will stop once I close the app.
Last but not least compared to iCloud/Google Photos watching and browsing the photos on a device is just way slower. I understand why that is but in the end it’s just an annoyance making the switch harder for people in my family. They understand why I am passionate about selfhosting and privacy but they still have a reasonable expectation that things just work.
All in all nothing really severe. Little annoyances along the way. I am still quite happy with the solution all in all.
Android ftp apps never work. It’s also a huge pain and borderline impossible on some distros to get mtp over usb cable to work and even when it does work it barely works. Most phones don’t have an sdcard slot so you can’t go that route either. And I’m definitely not using Google drive because they’ve on purpose tried to make it impossible to go any route other than that and fuck Google.
My solution? I made a php page with a file upload so I have to upload my files via php. It’s the only way. It’s still easier than using the USB cable if it actually worked though. Luckily there’s no way Google will ever find a way to patch this out.
Transferring files to the phone involves using the same upload button just from a pc and then I download them from the “view uploaded files” button which is a page that autogenerates download links to a page.
