Nextcloud: How do you use it?

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Hi all, I wanted to create a topic to find out how people are using Nextcloud.

Specifically, I have heard the complaint “Nextcloud tries to do too many things and therefore some of the things are broken”. However, as I have tried to use many applications who “do one thing well” (Ethercalc, Etherpad, etc.), you also run into the issues.

Nextcloud looks very good and I’m trying it out in testing.

Are people just installing Nextcloud and then using the “App store” to get things like mail (rainloop is an app!?), forms (not framaforms) calendars (not baikal), spreadsheets (not ethercalc), etc.? Does it work reliably? What are the things to take into consideration? Any tips?

The packaging looks excellent, so thanks to packagers! :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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I am trying to find out by using and expanding the usage.

At the moment only ‘live upload’ from mobile phones to Yunohost/nextcloud; that works quite reliably (so far for three Yunohosts).

I am trying to get the ‘social stuff’ running, but that is a bit of a bumpy ride (federation via activitypub is difficult on an installation with nginX and a subdomain or subdir on the host).

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Im just using it for syncing files between my phone and computer. Im wanting to use it for more but dont have a need.

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Hello, I use files, contacts, calendars notes sync with nextcloud on web, mobile and desktop for years, without major problem. I tried onlyoffice, and it worked but an upgrade broke it. As I don’t really need it I removed it. I also have taks, sms sync, but I don’t use them a lot.
I have rainloop, ttrss, transmission, keeweb in yunohost, not in nextcloud.

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Hi,
This is my first post here. I’ve been reading the forum for a few weeks now.
I am at beginner level. Never had a VPS before but decided to move my business Wordpress site to a carbon neutral VPS. They recommended Yunohost and after a few trials and errors, I’m nearly up and running. Although, I still haven’t managed to migrate Wordpress and I’m investigating the 404 error on permalinks.

I installed a few apps included Nextcloud. I use it with my clients (I work with NGOs) to share documents. I installed OnlyOffice this week (I couldn’t get Collabora to work) and had 3 successful workshop collaborating on documents.
I installed Talk for video conference but that didn’t work so I’m waiting for Jitsi to be available (but not within nextcloud). I also installed Deck, a very basic Kanban, too basic.

So for me NextCloud is my own branded, eco friendly, equivalent to Gdrive and Gdocs.

I hope I can contribute more in the future. At the moment I’m mostly reading to learn and fix issues.
PS. Je parle super bien français.

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Same here… but I do use a lot calendar and contacts too… For files hosting/sharing is very good, file sync between computers, phone, upload pdfs scanned with the phone (scanbot), and talk… well i do prefer xmpp but for videoconferencing is great… I do believe that if the stands talk starting in xmpp will be much more adopted, but create a silo, not federated yet… is not good. If they started with xmpp up to videoconference, then it will be adopted everywhere.

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Hi bjarkan,

Could you tell me how you managed to get Talk working?
For me it works with my own networks but I can have anyone outside using it. They just see a black screen.
I’ve read you need STUN servers and TURN server but as beginner I have no idea what that means or how to get these done.

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Stun is a service that identify your external IP, the default works very well ‘stun.nextcloud.com’ as far as I can remember. Turn in the other hand is a more bandwidth consumer… Basically it’s a wall where the signal bounce… The package in Debian is call coturn, the configuration file is /etc/turnserver.conf or similar… Is very document the file… Here https://help.nextcloud.com/t/howto-setup-nextcloud-talk-with-turn-server/30794 you have a full step by step explanation… As always… I’m here to help you in whatever you need, as any other in this forum.

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I will try that soon but keep in mind until 2 weeks ago the only “nano” I was aware off was a portable music player from 2001.

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Good question @decentral1se,

I cannot say that I actually use my install of Nexcloud yet. But I can say how I would like to use it. I am basically looking for a self-hosted replacement for Google docs and Skype, so that I can work together with people without Google and Microsoft spying on us.

I thought that I would find it in simply installing Nextcloud on Yunohost. However, it seemed that just getting those functions like docs and Skype has, I needed to run extra applications which are not easily installable on Yunohost yet. I spent many hours, but still did not get it working.

My conclusion is that the packages and manuals are definitely not ready yet. I think it is a real pity. Having an easily deployable Google docs and Skype alternative would be a great unique sellingpoint to get normal users to Yunohost, instead of only the fringe of hackers. I hope to live the day that these functionalities are made rather mundanely available, and will loudly applaud anyone working towards it :smiley:

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Hey, thanks for the thoughts all.

To revive this a bit, I see that this is also a point of discussion for Framasoft:

Déframasoftisons Internet ! – Framablog (FR)
Let’s De-frama-tify the Internet! – Framablog (EN)

Drawing on what we learnt from De-google-ify Internet, we sense that it’s possible to build a new, simpler, and handier offer for a range of services, both for users and hosts. Through observing your uses of those services and listening to your expectations, we (along with many other people !) believe that Nextcloud, rich in many applications, is one way to go. We believe this software could fulfill most of the needs of people trying to change the world.

Framasoft served 38 services or so and it seems like they are also coming to a conclusion that it is hard for them to manage also for users to navigate (amongst other problems).

Personally, I have also started to move everything under my Nextcloud instance due to the fact that users find it easier to manage. I know we have the YunoHost dashboard but sometimes you are not automatically logged into the app and then it is confusing to log in twice (not a limitation in YunoHost itself but in the app implementation mostly).

So, I will be investigating having most services under NextCloud for the future …

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Hi @decentral1se,

I have been using Own/Nextcloud for about 4-5 years, initially as a replacement for Dropbox/Google Drive for file storage, calendar and contact synch.

I originally installed it on my homeserver and have had it running there since. I use it continually, every day. I’ve followed a really good install documentation from a guy called Carsten Rieger (https://www.c-rieger.de/category/nextcloud/). They have good advice on hardening the install and so far I’ve not had issues. :crossed_fingers:

Since they’ve started releasing more apps, I’ve started using it for as much “cloud services” as possible to remove my reliance on other cloud services as possible.

I’ve not got it installed via YNH, but I have been thinking about it - the main thing holding me back is, I use it for work and if it goes down it’s a big annoyance. I’ve only been using YNH a few months and don’t have enough troubleshooting skill yet to fix it quickly enough.

Right now, I’m using it for file storage, synching photos from/to my devices, web-mail interface (Mail), bookmarks (an app called Tasks) (daily things, FOSS projects, work, etc), tasks/todo (Tasks), rss reader (Nextcloud News), tracking my location (Phonetrack), web-conferencing (Nexcloud Talk), and web-radio (Radio).

I did have Collabora Online working once but then an update broke. I want to get it working again.

For backup I have my data on an external disk, it’s rsynched to another disk and the NC configs are backedup to the USB disk also. I also have everything synched to another desktop machine.

My ideal situation is to get YNH installed on a second home-server, with all the apps I use via YNH, also install Collabora or Only Office, and then connect that to my stand-alone Nextcloud.

I really recommend people try Nextcloud as an alternative to commercial options.

I hope that’s useful to you!

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Yea the built in collabira server gave me trouble as well, I anded up installing the standalone version ( oftel called loowsd at least in ubuntu repos) it works well altho spellcheckers where a bit of a project to get working

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Sorry for replying to this very old post.

I have tried using the Nextcloud SMS sync in F-droid, but it unrecoverably broke the Nextcloud client every time I tried (diffent phones, different Yunohosts). It must have been in 2019 as well, do you still have it installed? Does it work?

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Great to see all the suggestions here! Helpful thread!

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I am running my YunoHost server on an old 32-bit netbook, so I cannot run
Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server (64-bit only), and so have not yet been able to test Collabora Online. I plan to upgrade to a 64-bit server soon, and look forward to trying Collabora out in Nextcloud.
M
PS Er du norsk? Eða ertu kannski íslenskur? Jeg lærer både norsk og islandsk./Ég læri bæði norsku og íslensku.

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I couldn’t make Collabora or onlyoffice work with nextcloud. Onlyoffice told me that it’s readonly.

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I do not use SMS sync anymore. It seems to be broken actually. I know guys at e.foundation are working on that, on their side, and it it not already merged upstream: Info: Fork of ncsms · Issue #230 · nerzhul/ncsms-android · GitHub - One other reason is that where I am GSM is not reliable, so I use Signal with a lot of people, and Whatsapp with those who are still using it.

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I’m using nextcloud to store my personal files on a private server since 2017. My nextcloud instance has been with different server tiers at scaleway. Some people close to me are using my nextcloud server to store their files. I think managing a nextcloud instance is more interesting than using propietary hosting services

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