I decided to try Nextcloud after not using it for 10 years, and after testing it a bit I find myself turned off by the email (and other profile options) being visible to “everyone” by default.
I found how to disable the profile by default : email still visible Hide the email in profile settings of user manualy : still visible completely remove email : no notifications
In addition to that, from what I understand, even if I change the default setting to private the other profile options, they are automatically shared with anyone you connect to the Talk app?? I was really hoping to try it out, but that’s another turnoff.
It does not seem to be a problem to most users so they have not done anything since 2019 about it (from the github issues and forum threads I found). It is an instant turnoff to me, I am questionning using it only for myself and use something else to share with family… if you have a solution for the user info privacy, I am all ears.
I just want a multiuser file sharing app that works with authentik and works with android/windows/linux. Bonus points if it does not encrypt files on the server.
Edit to add : I tried seafile and it kept going down and corrupted a lot of files after an unexpected server shutdown. It shared the corruption to all the local files on every app/pc I had it shared to. Never figured out a way to restore the healthy files from a backup (that’s a me problem but still not a fun experience). Thankfully I was the only user, I try to test out the apps a few months/year before sharing.
TLDR : what alternatives do you have to nextcloud or seafile ?
I am questionning using it only for myself and use something else to share with family
I’m confused, you don’t want your family to be able to know each other’s email addresses? That seems like a bit… extreme level of profile paranoia.
I have my family on my Nextcloud and I can guarantee 90% of them don’t even know where their own user profile is nevermind anybody else’s. Maybe you have a different family than mine.
Removed linux off all the computers in my house because i found out the passwd file can store full names and phone numbers! Then the admin can even use something called finger to show this information!!
Also, you could setup users without email. As I don’t think it’s mandatory
Edit: can confirm email is optional
multiple reasons :
- I have some friends I want to share with that might not want to share their email address with my family and vice versa.
- There is maybe a limited number of family members that know my personal email account and I want to keep it that way.
- I have multiple emails depending what app I use and do not want to share them.
- just not wanting to share an email address should be reason enough wtf
- Using authentik, I might not want people to know what email I use for other apps.
- I have a kid in my users and their info is all of a sudden public, even for a day? huh-uh, that’s totally legit.
- I don’t want to share my private email to other peoples guests.
There are so many usecase that make this very not a normal configuration. So many apps exist that let you hide your email, this is common sense.
I can remove the email from nextcloud, but if the person wants to get notifications : gotta chose between what is more important.
I also know the majority of my users don’t care enough about it to know that the information exists, but then they share to someone that does and you just game your whole families personnal information to someone on a silver platter (hopefully they are a nice someone).
ps: this isnt only about the email, it is the lack of care for private information in general from something as big has Nextcloud. There are so many ways I can get my (and others) information stolen as it is, I will not use an app that just makes it normal and easier then it already is.
File browser quantum allows for file sharing, supports Authentik through OIDC, and doesn’t mess with the data on disk.
FBQ is amazing. I love it. It’s exactly what I was looking for when I was trying to set up file sharing.
Interesting - I’ve never heard of this but it looks useful. Love that it supports OIDC. Thanks for the link.
Syncthing is pretty good.
I tried seafile and it kept going down and corrupted a lot of files after an unexpected server shutdown. It shared the corruption to all the local files on every app/pc I had it shared to.
This sounds like an issue with your server rather than with Seafile specifically. Was the unexpected shutdown due to a power outage? You should have a UPS so that it can properly shut down during outages. You’ll hit similar issues with any other system otherwise.
The battery of the UPS died and I didn’t notice until there was an outage. None of my other apps had any problem except seafile + I never found out why it kept going down randomnly. I kinda stopped caring after the corruption ;;
edit : I am already using syncthing between my machines/phone and it works great for me, but I want something I can share with family and friends, sadly syncthing is too complicated for them.
Copyparty is good for me, very basic but both highly customizable and quick to setup with sane defaults.
On android I use a DAVx⁵ mount
I’m not sure I really understand your use case, but OwnCloud and OpenCloud offer fewer features than Nextcloud and are mostly about file sharing.
Other things you could consider: pydio cells, or Copy party (very simple and more just cloud storage, no syncing).
Opencloud.eu should be leaner, has apps for those platforms, and preserves file structure on-disk. If you don’t need fancy syncing options and just wanna share links to file, look into copyparty
So these are called apps in nextcloud. You can actually create a group and put your user to that group. Then you can include and exclude groups from applications.
This is possible in nextcloud. That way only you for example can see the email app.
Basic SMB share or SFTP?
sadly too complicated for some of my users. just going on a website to enter their info is a chore.
This right here is the answer. Active Directory too, but not sure how much that costs.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol for encrypted file transfer, over SSH SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 15 acronyms.
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Expand on your file sharing model/needs/usage pattern. .
Syncthing synchronizes specified folders. It’s quite configurable, but it’s really meant for a stable, regular syncing process. If you need more ad-hoc, it can do it but it’s not like using a network share.
Resilio Sync has a neat feature - selective sync, that allows you to grab specific files from a shared folder ad-hoc, rather than always sync all files all the time. I use it to grab media files (multi-gig) from my server when traveling.
IIRC, both have a “send only” setting for a sync job, so everyone could simply share to a specific folder, and have selective sync enabled for that folder… I think.
Both are Windows/Linux/iOS, and I think they’re both Mac.
NextCloud does a lot more than just filesharing, and I’m not familiar with Seafile (anymore). I had to read your full post to understand what you’re looking for, only to realize that I cannot help with that particular aspect.
Sorry.
