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I am using Nextcloud via a “managed hosting” service (provided by Tab.digital).
I have realised that while it’s straightforward to keep local copies (and therefore back up) of my files, there is all sorts of other data (contacts, calendar, tasks, deck etc) that doesn’t live here but in a database on the server.
Seeing as part of the point of moving to Nextcloud is to have more control over my own data (and not be totally reliant on a hosting service keeping proper backups for me) I expected there to be some way to automatically back up this data, at least say on a daily basis, and keep the backup somewhere other than on the main server.
I have asked this question and they say they can’t offer this. Is this going to be the case for any “managed hosting” provider, or should it be possible to provide what I want?
My shared cloud is hosted by all-inkl.com (a German webhoster) and while I can of course backup all the files via FTP, it is also possible to view and backup the database using phpMyAdmin. Which boils down to saving locally stored backups of ALL files I need to restore my NC elsewhere if I ever need to.
Are you sure your service doesn’t grant you access to your database(s) through phpMyAdmin?
Thanks for your reply. How would I find out whether I have access via phpMyAdmin? Should it be visible within my Nextcloud settings somewhere, or do I need to ask my hosting provider?
The phpMyAdmin tool should be accessible in the backend of your webhosting service. It grants you access to the tables of all the databases you have installed for setting up Nextcloud, WordPress, MediaWiki and other applications…
Please be careful and don’t experiment with features and commands that you are not familiar with, as you may destroy your data. If you manage to gain access to phpMyAdmin, just use the Export tab to backup the contents (SQL format) in a file.
I’m afraid that to make a complete backup of the nextcloud_db using pg_dump, you need SSH access to the cloud server. You would need to know whether you have this.
To back up calendar and address book data, for example, you can use JavaScript, Powershell or Bash scripts.
The following German-language website offers a number of these:
To clarify, this is not a Nextcloud installation that I’ve set up on a regular webhosting service. It’s a specific “Managed Nextcloud” service where they set up and manage the Nextcloud installation for me. This:
So I think my access is very limited. It’s not like my regular webhosting service, with another provider, (where for example I have my website hosted) where I have access to cPanel and stuff like that.
Thats what i thought too and was the reason to suggest you the use of the Scripts i liked above. Those Scripts use regualar export URL’s you can create in the web-Interface of your managed NC. Its a similat procedure you know from WebDAV-Shares.
Here an exammple for such an URL: https://nextcloud.myserver.com/remote.php/dav/calendars/<UserName>/personal/?export https://nextcloud.myserver.com/remote.php/dav/addressbooks/users/<UserName>/contacts/?export
The result will be *.ics and *.vcf files that can be stored an used for backups.
Oh and my opinion is on a managed NC like you seems to have it is the job of the NC-service provider to take care of regular backups of your NC DB, becasue you can’t do so on your own. So ask your NC-service provider support for that.
@adelaar Thank you - these scripts deal with calendar and contacts but actually the main thing I want to back up is the data from “Tasks” and “Deck”. Do you know if there’s an equivalent for those things?
When I previously asked my providr about backing up calendar and contacts they pointed out that if I sync these with for example my desktop Thunderbird email client, then effectively they are backed up in the copies that exist there (and get captured by my regular backup routine for my desktop computer).
To sync calendar and contacts with for example my desktop Thunderbird is not a replacement for backups.
As the name sync implies its synchronise calendar and contacts with the Thunderbird. I do that too and aditionally synchronise calendar and contacts with some Android Device. Each of the devices is able to delate calendar-entries and contacts. And when i delete a calendar-entry in my phone it will be also deleted in Nextcloud and shortly also in Thunderbird with next sync.
So this explains why sync is not a propper backup. If someone hack you NC and delete calender and contacts those will be gone with next sync also in Thunderbird and in my case also in all my android devices.
Thats why i have a nightly cronjob that starts a Bash Script and backup calender and contacts on a different Server.
In my case, my desktop is backed up using Time Machine. So in the scenario where everything in NC gets deleted, I would just go into time machine and go back to the last point where Thunderbird still contained everything it should. I also have a cloud backup that lets me restore from various time-points (to some extent).
It’s not an ideal setup but one that I’ll consider “good enough” until I find a better one.
Because I have no special IT expertise, I don’t really want a solution that involves things like running scripts because then that’s another thing for me to maintain and check that it’s working, without the appropriate knowledge to do so properly.
Hence paying for a “managed” NC installation. I’m paying the hosting company to do that stuff for me (or will be, if I continue with them). Unfortunately what they are doing for me doesn’t seem to include a proper backup routine that gives me a local copy of the backup data.
Would this not do it? Or is it too far out of date?
it says its supports exporting to a file, tho not sure if that has to be ON the NC server or not. If so, that could be a useful tool. Be an easy way to migrate to another NC server.
By the way the answer I eventually got out of my nextcloud managed hosting provider (tab.digital) is that they back it up once a week, to somewhere external to the server. So if something goes badly wrong then I can request a restore to the most recent backup. At worst I lose a week’s worth of data. Naturally this doesn’t cover me if the hosting company themselves disappears.
It seemed like they could offer me a more thorough backup system if I was paying for one of their much more expensive “business” plans. It’s obviously possible in principle.
For now my conclusion is that if you are using one of these “managed hosting” plans (of the type aimed at individuals) then the only data that’s safe is your files, as long as you have your own backup regime for the copies that are synced to your desktop. And same applies for contacts and calendar (and maybe basic tasks) but nothing else.
If Nextcloud is ever going to become used by more mainstream users (rather than just tech enthusiasts or “normal users like me with a very high tolerance of fiddling around with stuff) I think they need to sort out something reliable and integrated in such a way that a user on a “managed hosting” plan can set it up to send regular backups to some other location.
There are solutions like this for - for example - wordpress installations.
