ORIGINAL REDDIT POST

I want to send files from my phone straight to specific folders on my home server - no matter where I am. How can I best accomplish this?

I've seen several solutions to at least get partway there, but I'm hoping to set this up for my family to use, too, so I'm looking for the most idiot-proof setup possible. Example scenario: I (or a family member) takes a photo on 1/1/2031. That file stays on…

Original postr/selfhosted

I've seen several solutions to at least get partway there, but I'm hoping to set this up for my family to use, too, so I'm looking for the most idiot-proof setup possible. Example scenario: I (or a family member) takes a photo on 1/1/2031. That file stays on the phone, until I open a specific app or site or whatever that lets me upload/sync these new files to my server, remotely. It auto-sorts the files into appropriate folders based on the file type, the date, and the source of the upload. These file locations can be configured, revisited, downloaded from, or managed (deleted, moved...) both remotely and from the Windows 10 server it's running from. Feels like it should be simple, right? What's my best option for making this type of thing work?

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24 comments

u/asimovs-auditor

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u/FantasticFrontButtOP

Windows 10.

u/RobbieL_811

Same applies for a Windows 10 machine. Install tailscale and setup a samba share. You'll be able to access it securely from anywhere in the world.

u/FantasticFrontButtOP

this is not remotely what I am looking for

u/FantasticFrontButtOP

Thanks for the immich rec. Super easy to set up!

u/FantasticFrontButtOP

Thanks for the advice, and for bothering to think about the request! Tailscale is goated so far, just tryina figure out how to put the file repository somewhere other than the server desktop. Immich is great, but I have some nuances to figure on that, too, so I can auto-sort *existing* stuff into albums. Your FileBrowser rec is...not bad. For the family. I'd love to do this for myself and my wife, who's more-willing to learn something new for this than basically everyone else, so having the ability to remotely connect to the server and place specific files into specific folders would be preferable. Thanks, though!

u/Jamizon1

OneDrive = no thank you

u/ucyd

immich for fotos, syncthing fro auto files, sftp if you need to move the files around.

u/boltfoxapp

Half the answers here are sync tools and I think that's a mismatch with what you actually described. You said the file should sit on the phone until someone deliberately opens something and pushes it. Syncthing does the opposite — it grabs everything the moment it appears — and the folder setup on it is not something I'd hand to family members. Immich is much closer. You pick which albums it backs up, you can trigger it by hand instead of on a schedule, it sorts by date itself, and the app is plain enough that people who don't care how any of it works will still use it. The catch is that it wants to own its own library layout, so it's less "drops files into my existing Windows folders" than you're imagining. If keeping your own folder structure is the non-negotiable bit, I'd run FileBrowser, give each family member their own upload folder, and move things where you want them with a scheduled script. Ugly, but it doesn't fall over and everyone only ever sees an upload button. Whichever way you go, put it behind Tailscale rather than opening a port for this.

u/enormouspoon

Photos? Immich. Any file? Syncthing.

u/iamdadmin

SyncThing, it has a shared virtual folder which can have different local paths on each device. Any changes get mirrored, nat tunneled, etc, on all devices with the virtual folder.

u/mik3lang3l0

Ubuntu server? Samba. Anywhere? Tailscale. It's what is working for me, I few commands and scripts and everything is running smoothly.

u/jebotecarobnjak

syncthing works well for me

u/cardboard-kansio

I like Filebrowser behind Traefik with a subdomain + SSL + Tinyauth for web-based stuff. SSH and rsync for moving stuff around when I'm at a terminal. If I'm lazy, Wireguard + phone's native file browser with my NAS folder mapped as a network drive (it's just Samsung's "My Files" app). It's all just a matter of risk tolerance vs convenience, and your own competence to set it up.

u/ReachingForVega

There is a self hosted pair drop app, it's how I tend to do it if I'm not sshing.

u/Shotokant

I use onesynch. You can map folders on your phone to folders in Onedrive.

u/ucyd

theres also copyparty. im gonna see if i can set it up with oidc.

u/Jamizon1

On iOS, I use an app called, “FE File Explorer” Works beautifully

u/Zame012

If you have a NAS you could use NextCloud or might be able to point it to a drive specifically. Not sure on the specific drive but I did point NextCloud at my NAS and it works flawlessly

u/PapasanPower

Look at pCloud. It's free up to 10gb I think.