Auto Delete in Server and Phone and vice versa

I notice when I delete a photo on my nextcloud server, it doesn’t auto-delete in my phone. And vice versa, if I delete a photo on my phone, it doesn’t auto-delete in my nextcloud server. I tried this both Android and iOS and it’s not auto deleting. I just want it sync between devices.

Do I need to configure something? What did I miss?

Hi @HHUBS

The Auto Upload feature in the mobile apps is not a true two-way sync. It is, as the name suggests, an automatic upload function.

The basic idea of the Nextcloud app is to make the contents of your Nextcloud available on your phone and to sync individual files and folders to your phone. If you want a real two-way sync for folders on your phone (e.g. the camera folder) I can recommend the app Folder Sync on Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full

I’m not really familiar with iOS, so I can’t give you a recommendation there.

@HHUBS
You find your photos in two folders of your phone. In the normal photo app/folder and in Nextcloud app/folder. Perhaps here is the real problem.
After upload to Nextcloud the Nextcloud is the main storage for my photos.

There are three options in the Auto Upload settings about what to do with a file after it has been successfully uploaded…

  1. Keep the file in the original folder
  2. move it to the app-folder
  3. delete the original file.

What 1 and 3 does is obvious. But i’m not sure how 2 fits in what @HHUBS is trying to achieve. Obviously the advantage of 2 is, that the files are available in the Nextcloud app even when the device is offline. But will they also get deleted, when you delete them in the Nextcloud WebUI?

Yes. If i use “synchronize” on an folder (green icon) and the file is local und remote after remove remote (WebGUI) and refresh in the android folder the file is gone, too.

Yes, I know the “synchronize” function. But in combination with the Auto Upload function, the photos would then exist twice on the phone. Once in the Nextcloud folder and once in the original Camera folder. Unless you have selected option 2 or 3 in the autoupload settings of course…

Regarding the three Auto Upload options, it would be interesting to know if it is even necessary to explicitly synchronize the AutoUpload folder, if you use option 2.

Ok I tested it :slight_smile:

If you select option 2 “move to app-data” in the AutoUpload Settings, the sync checkmark is automatically added to this photo in the Nextcloud app and it should therefore also be deleted on the device when you delete it in the Nextcloud WebUI…

@HHUBS This workflow could possibly be an alternative to Folder Sync, if the photos on the phone need to be available offline as well . Otherwise I would just delete them on the phone after they have been successfully uploaded, that’s what I do.

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And if you want them after upload to the cloud only in the cloud and not on the phone you can move them in the cloud from the sync folder to another folder. And if you need them on the phone again you can view them online in the not synced folder.

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Thanks, @bb77 and @devnull

I see that the “move to app folder” function is only available for Android. When I check on my iPhone, it seems it doesn’t have the same function. I’ll check what are my options.

If you don’t mind, is nextcloud your photo sync app? Do you have recommendations for alternatives that will work both iOs and Android?

Thank you.

Personally I only use Android. But yes I use the Nextcloud app to upload my photos from my phone, and also to look at my photos. However, I can only view older photos when I am online, since I regularly delete my photos on the device after they are uploaded to my server.

As I said I’m not really familiar with the iOS app. My girlfriend has an iPad and browsing and viewing the photos works fine when the tablet is online. However I can’t tell much about synchronisation since she doesn’t use it to take photos or access photos or other files offline. The device is used 99% of the time on the sofa with WiFi connection on. :wink:

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Perhaps you find or create an issue if something is wrong with iOS.

Issues · nextcloud/ios · GitHub