this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2025
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Backup/Server Options - is Syncthing / Nextcloud really the go? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 3 days ago by oneser@lemmy.zip to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Unfortunately, as Lemmy doesn't appear to have an indexed search function I am not sure if this is a common question or not. Please point me to the necessary thread/s if this is answered elsewhere.

I'm looking to continue the ball rolling on my home server. Jellyfin setup was a nice dive back into networking, which I haven't done for quite some time and the logical next step is to get all the data we want to retain into a single hub.

Most searches seem to point to syncthing with nextcloud, but before I get started, I want to check I am really going in the right direction.

I would like to primarily remove the space burden from my devices and dump them all onto a few drives and a cloud backup (in case of physical loss of drives). I believe syncthing can do this, but some appear to say that it is not an effective archive tool.

I would like to be able to retrieve this data without much hassle for e.g. photo editing, and place the finished file back on the server. Preferably the local copy would be removed again, to reduce the need for extra space on each device. I would like to run this over nextcloud, but might be misunderstanding the software a bit.

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[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

Adding to what everyone else has already said, you want sync and backup.

Sync to a central location and backup from there.

For sync, you want syncthing or nextcloud. I would lean towards syncthing for media. If you had a million files in a complex folder structure and a dozen users with different access requirements and instant sync and collision protection is important then nextcloud might be the go. Otherwise syncthing is much more manageable.

My recommendation with syncthing, which is not obvious, is to set up a single hub which each client syncs with. By default you end up with a mesh where everything is connected to everything. It's very difficult to manage with a lot of folders and devices. Turn off discovery and input the server / hub details manually.

For backup, if you have a lot of media you want deduplication. If yesterday's backup included ABC and today's is ABCD you only want to transfer D. This is similar to an incremental backup, but the subtle difference is that with deduplication the most recent backup is the "full backup" with the "diffs" going backwards in time, allowing you to purge old backups. I like borgmatic but there are others.

I would also consider carefully exactly what is worth backing up on what service. I don't backup movies and tv series at all.

My final recommendation is, it's critically important to test deploying your backups regularly.