Questions and Comments After Exploring Nextcloud

General Discussions
1

I just upgraded to an SSD for my node and have been exploring Nextcloud a bit… wow. I am thoroughly impressed by how much it can do. Two sections to this post: first a few questions related to Umbrel that have come up now that I am expanding my use of the node and then a brief outline of some of the cooler features in Nextcloud that I didn’t know about till I dug deeper.

Questions:

  • Has anyone set up backups for lightning services? Now that I am adding (somewhat) critical data to my node storage it would be nice to have it backed up on a second drive. Is this as simple as setting up a recurring rsync of the Nextcloud app_data folder?
  • Has anyone tried to set up a certificate to run the the connections via HTTPS? I know this has come up before - Tailscale has generally served me well, the hangup here is that Apple decives apparently won’t allow calendar or contact syncing over HTTP (even though the connection is effectively local via Tailscale). This would be more of a hack, but it would be nice to get it working.

So in general, there are some features of Nextcloud that won’t work super well when contained within your own network and installed within Umbrel, like federating with other Nextcloud clients or setting up addition external storage, but there are tons of apps that do work and I am finding to be better than other solutions like Google Drive.

A couple less known apps to use with Nexcloud within Umbrel:

  • Joplin - open source, completely free notes app (on all platforms) that uses Markdown and allows syncing and backup to multiple devices via Nextcloud. I am using this in conjunction with Tailscale to connect from remote locations and it is quite remarkable how well it works. I fully plan to ditch other notes apps. The only real missing feature for me is having collaborative notes and to-dos, but I can put those in another place.
  • Cookbook - this one is a bit weird, but it allows you to rip recipes off of websites and save/edit them. I have never found a good digital way to store recipes that I cook at home and have basically been at the mercy of websites changing the recipe or having to copy it all in a word doc to save my own notes. This app lets you build a digital cookbook, which is admittedly niche, but super helpful if you cook a lot at home and don’t have an existing solution.
2

I’m having issues connecting Joplin to Nextcloud, either by using the Nextcloud TOR app or Tailscale via umbrel.

I have Joplin installed on my phone. I have Tailscale installed in Umbrel and my phone. I can see the Tailscale IPs. Can you provide a step by step how to connect Joplin to Nextcloud using Tailscale or the Nextcloud TOR app?

Thanks in advance.

3

I am using the Tailscale method you mentioned. Are you able to see your next cloud instance on the umbrel from your phone through the web browser even when you are on your home network? I would try to test to make sure that Tailscale is working as expected first.

Generally:

  1. Install Tailscale on both devices and make sure you can access your umbrel via your phone using the Tailscale IP - this is different than your local IP or your computer name. Note that you can also name your devices on Tailscale and use that name in the url, but I would test just using their xx.xx.xx.xx IP for each device. So typing that set of numbers for your umbrel node into the phone browser should get you there
  2. Go find your Nextcloud WebDAV URL in the nextcloud setting (bottom left I think). Here are the help docs - they describe it a bit at the topThe URL will look something like http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8081/remote.php/dav/files/user/Notes/Joplin
    You may have to change the first part of the url from your local network address (something like umbrel.local) to a Tailscale address (xx.xx.xx.xx)
  3. In Joplin go to your synchronization settings, choose nextcloud as your cloud provider and drop your WebDAV URL for your node into the field.

As long as Tailscale is working properly and you get that URL right everything should just work. It might just take some playing around with Tailscale to make sure things are working properly

4

Thanks for the response.

I think the major item that’s missing from this explanation is the need to alter the config.php of Umbrel’s Nextcloud app. This would need to be done for either method used: TOR or Tailscale.

Thanks! I’ve gotten it to work

2 Likes
5

Hmmm. I don’t think I needed to do anything like that… it’s possible I did and just don’t remember!

What exactly did you need to edit in config.php?

6

From another thread:

SSH into Umbrel Node, then run following line

sudo nano umbrel/app-data/nextcloud/data/nextcloud/config/config.php

Edit the file to add the IP of device trying to connect to the Nextcloud (should look similar to below, the 100.X.X.X:8081 is the Tailscale IP)

‘trusted_domains’ =>
array (
0 => ‘umbrel.local:8081’,
1 => ‘100.X.X.X:8081’,
),

7

Huh, I am 99% sure I didn’t need to do that with my Tailscale configuration. That said, I do have some warnings about the reverse proxy set up in my nextcloud settings. It may be something that I need to get fixed on a newer version :thinking:

Thanks for sharing

8

It’s not the IP of the device trying to connect that goes in that list. Is the IP that Tailscale gives to the Umbrel machine