lemmy - Link to source

Good NAS solution for dummies / apple users?

My parents are looking into getting their own NAS to replace iCloud. I don't really have much experience with that, and zero experience with apple stuff. They are also not very techy, but at least enthusiastic.

Can sombody recommend easy NAS products where you basically just buy a device, do some basic setup, and then it functions as your at-home cloud? I don't want to get roped into doing too much admin for them, but they do already have DDNS for some other smart home crap. Bonus if it's non-US tech.

Personally I run a nextcloud server on a VPS that I could expand, that's not quite selfhosted, I don't know if that integrates well with apple though, are they better off if I just onboard them onto that?

Cheers in advance

#selfhosted
in reply to Frank Heijkamp

lemmy - Link to source

Captain Aggravated

Mario analogy. In Super Mario games, a green mushroom gives you an extra life, a chance to start over from a point in the past. A red mushroom makes Mario bigger, allowing him to survive some damage that would have killed him. Also in many games it makes him able to do things he can't when small. RAID arrays often run faster than individual disks would.
in reply to PotatoesFall

lemmy - Link to source

piyuv

I haven’t used them but umbrel looks promising: umbrel.com/

I’m using a synology and as others have said, it’s pretty friendly to non-techies, with lots of point and click configurations

Umbrel - Personal home cloud and OS for self-hosting

Bring the cloud to your home with umbrelOS - a beautiful home server OS for self-hosting, and Umbrel Home - a plug-and-play home server. Install Nextcloud, Jellyfin, Bitcoin node, and hundreds of self-hosted apps in one click.
umbrel.com
in reply to piyuv

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

abeorch

I mean its running a proprietary os software and its terms of service say "the company is under no obligation to provide support or maintenance services." .. so I woukd say rather than being dependent on a random company that may disapear in a puff of smoke. Why not just use opensource software on commodity hardware and use something like #yunohost?
#yunohost

Selfhosted reshared this.

in reply to PotatoesFall

lemmy - Link to source

rouxdoo

This will be an unpopular suggestion here but why not just go all in on iCloud? It's reasonably inexpensive for not data-hoarding amounts of data, reasonably secure and E2E encrypted. Given the low cost, zero setup if they're already Apple people and lack of admin I think it is ideal for them.

I pay for iCloud storage because I want HomeKit Secure Video cloud storage (I also have a local copy on disk).

in reply to rouxdoo

lemmy - Link to source

123

One reason I would give is that apple and google makes it incredibly hard to leave. I had to use some third party script (and give it my credentials or token..) Just to export pictures with the exif metadata from iOS. Even Google's obnoxious "select a few thousand pics at a time" was easier (Google takeout puts the metadata separately, so it was also not an option).

Another reason is that big tech companies are complacent with kidnappings and oppressors and don't want to give them money.

I could see apple breaking the tool or throwing their legal team around in the future if it keeps some people on their platform, why not leave while you can more easily.

in reply to 123

lemmy - Link to source

rouxdoo

Fair enough, I knew my take wouldn't be a popular one here. In all fairness if you are using Apple products the iCloud sync brings all of the metadata with the data on every device that accesses it.

While I don't have any illusions that Apple has my back they do have a lot invested in keeping people's trust in their ecosystem. The automated on-device CSAM scanning kerfuffle that they backed away from shows that they are sensitive to the threat of people leaving their walled garden.

Another fairly easy to implement local solution that wouldn't be an admin headache is to put a Mac mini with a bunch of attached storage on the network and use it as a file server. I do that for my PleX.

in reply to rouxdoo

lemmy - Link to source

123

I only had an older iPhone (which I liked for the most part), but it was announced to not be getting security and related updates soon (what apple calls vintage at this point) so there wasn't much of an ecosystem once I got a different phone and exporting my pictures to my NAS, new phone, desktop and laptop made more sense.

I supposed I could lose everything if all of those burn in a house fire, but since I always have my phone on me, I'd imagine there would be more pressing matters like not burning to death myself.

Edit: I also have some stuff at my relatives, but their internet sucks, so I only sync family and more important pics there.

This entry was edited (Friday, December 12, 2025, 11:15 AM)
in reply to 123

lemmy - Link to source

Midnight Wolf

I was 110% a Google fan until about 9 years ago, when Project Fi was headed towards public release, and devices purchased from them (effectively through the Google Store with a different sticker on the box) kept mysteriously going missing in transit, and the customer got an empty box/a brick/whatever. This is annoying on its own, but G/Fi cs response to these instances were awful. As I was a Fi user (woo closed beta gang), and I bought my devices thru Fi, I became concerned that this might happen to me. That thought quickly snowballed, and I started migrating out of the G ecosystem because the realization that their cs is useless and if I ever have a dispute or situation, they can just delete my account without giving a single fuck.

To pay a company money and not receive some assurances that my data won't be wiped out of the blue while I am asleep, is - in my opinion - fucking stupid as hell. I don't know how the apple situation is, but until proven otherwise, fuck both of them for anything you care about.

This entry was edited (Friday, December 12, 2025, 4:30 AM)
in reply to rouxdoo

lemmy - Link to source

kingofras

Do a deep trace and you’ll see that all of Apples off shore data centres are Alphabet owned. There’s encryption but Apple is just renting from the least privacy focused company. Also Apples privacy is really not much more than marketing. All you need is a CEO change or hey how about the current one embracing nazism casually from his own wallet?

Low cost is the only argument here, but once you go NAS + VPN you never go back.

in reply to PotatoesFall

mastodon - Link to source

Frank Heijkamp

Good to hear your parents are aware of the issues with 'cloud' services and choose to invest in a NAS. To be honest any off the shelf NAS will do. Important is to determine the storage capacity they will be needing for the next five years and add a good 50% to that number. For instance, you expect they need 2.5 TB then you should get 4 TB netto storage.

Depending on your backup strategy and how robust you want the NAS storage to be you can choose a single bay or a multi bay NAS.

in reply to PotatoesFall

lemmy - Link to source

rsolva

I use TrueNAS, which supports TimeMachine out of the box and I have set up Samba-shares to make it simple for family members to drop files in a shared folder. Some of them also have a personal folder. This works on Linux, Windows and MacOS. I also use Wireguard to make sure they always have access to the share.

TrueNAS has a learning curve, but it is reasonably well documented and if you spend some time up front, it pays of.

I use an HP EliteDesk 800 Mini with two boot disks for redundancy and several disks connected trough USB3. Using USB disks are discouraged by TrueNAS but it has worked fine for several years for my low budget setup.

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