I recently noticed that my nextcloud instance was missing photos. I have the android app set to automatically upload my photos. When I need to clear up space on my phone, I make a separate backup (because I’m a paranoid SOB and hard drives are relatively cheap). I noticed that nextcloud auto upload missed about 10% of the photos. I’m not going to bash the nextcloud devs, as I recognize that I am using a free product and am owed nothing, but I’m making this post so others are aware of this risk. Apparently I’m not alone https://help.nextcloud.com/t/android-client-does-not-auto-upload-all-images/216849/14
Can’t wait for proper Linux phones to be more viable so that we have more control over shit like this.
I’ve been using Syncthing for years and it’s been almost flawless with only rare file sync errors that are clearly shown in the UI. Was going to switch to Nextcloud for everything. Looks like I’ll be sticking with Syncthing for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for posting this.
This is a know issue that has a very long issue on github, it started for me when Google changed the rules on full file access. But the latest version of the app has been rock solid.
I ended up downloading all my photos to my laptop and doing a sync from there
Yeah. Unfortunately a known problem, even if the cause isn’t always clear.
I have the same issue with Immich on android. It pretty much never uploads files until I manually open the app; then the app refuses to acknowledge it has uploaded those new files until it’s closed and re-opened :( (power saving is set to un-restricted in android, and background data usage is allowed. I’ve been through troubleshooting very thoroughly, it just doesn’t work)
FolderSync has been the only reliable (non-root) backup solution I’ve used. It’s set to monitor my image folders for changes and upload any new files as soon as they’re created; this works ~85% of the time. Then, It’s also set with a few schedules to check for changes every 3hrs, backing up everything on the phone the app can access; this catches anything the on-change/on-creation file detection misses, while also backing up more data than just my images. I have yet to see that fail after ~3 years.
i just have a simple shell script that uses rsync to upload my files to a server and have a termux shortcut on the homescreen, i just press it once in a few days
Hoping you hit it with Borg backup before uploading anywhere!
I do something similar using only
rsync. I’ve had nothing but headaches whenever I used automated file syncing programs. The bare bones aspect of just using rsync has made it a much more consistent experience.I found using automated file syncing programs have too much complexity under the hood that just seems to lead to more time troubleshooting issues.
Do you have any need to backup things on a mobile phone? What do you use if so? I’m trying to make everything simpler and I already use rsync on my desktop.
There’s a few things I backup from my phone.
- Music downloaded from Seeker
- Youtube audio downloaded from YTDLnis
- Backups of Termux
- Notes in plain text
- Backups from certain apps that make their own backup data
- Pictures that I have sorted and want to saved
I have an Android phone so I use Termux as a terminal emulator. I use ssh and passwordless keys to make transfers simpler and quicker.
Although this is closer to a backup process and not like SyncThing where it’s syncing a folder between two devices. I don’t believe rsync is capable of acting like SyncThing but I’m tempted to dig into rsync more and see if I can put something basic together one day.
I’ve had very occasional issues with it not uploading new photos in a timely manner in the past. I haven’t had any issues in a long time, but I have gotten into the habit of explicitly opening the app, clicking “Uploads” and hitting refresh and making sure everything has been uploaded.
I’m not really sure what causes it, though if I had to guess Android is putting the app to sleep in the background so it may have something to do with power saving settings. I’ve switched to the F-Droid version of the app and manually disabled the appropriate power settings as a just-in-case, though that may have nothing to do with anything.
Can you reproduce it?
I don’t have the time, or quite frankly the inclination, to try, when I can just switch to immich and/or syncthing (currently evaluating my options right now). I will say we noticed photos missing from my wife’s upload as well, so that’s two android clients and one server. That plus the complaints in the link I provided are all the evidence I need to bail.
Just wanted to watch out for you cause I ran into this with Immich. It doesn’t chunk uploads. So if you haveva big video, it will never upload because anytime it gets interrupted, it has to start over.
Ok
