Nextcloud andrdoid phone DCIM sync workflows

📱 Desktop & mobile clients 🤖 Android
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1

Goal: I want to achieve a true two-way sync between my Android device’s DCIM folder (or any folder of my choice) and my Nextcloud user account. This means:

  • Additions, changes, or deletions on either the device or the cloud should automatically sync to the other end.

  • No manual intervention or risk of re-uploading deleted files.

Current Setup:

  • I have Auto Upload enabled for my Android device’s DCIM folder, which works well but is one-way only (device → cloud).

  • This creates a workflow issue: if I delete files on the cloud, the device may re-upload them if they still exist locally.

Issues with Current Solution:

  • Deletion workflow is cumbersome: If I delete files on the cloud, I must also delete them on the device to prevent re-uploads. This is impractical for bulk deletions (e.g., cleaning up videos).

  • App folder limitations: Syncing to the Nextcloud app folder means files are not always visible to other Android apps that only scan standard folders like DCIM.

What I’ve Tried So Far:

  1. Nextcloud Sync Function:

    • Can only target existing cloud folders, syncing them to the app folder.

    • Files in the app folder are often ignored by other Android apps (e.g., gallery apps).

  2. Auto Upload + Sync App Folder:

    • With Option Move uploaded files to the Nextcloud app folder and syncing it could work, but inherits the visibility issue mentioned above.

  3. Syncthing (or similar tools):

    • Syncthing works for syncing files, but Nextcloud doesn’t detect changes made via direct filesystem mounts same with mounting on Windows explorere via SMB,NFS instead of Webdav.

    • Running occ files:scan manually is not a viable long-term solution.

2

I don’t use 2-way sync on my phone with Nextcloud, but FolderSync (Pro) seems to be a quite popular app that should achieve what you want. According to many users here, it works well with Nextcloud: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=folder%20sync&c=apps.

If you’re looking for FOSS alternatives, I found the following app on F-Droid: EasySync | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository.

I have no experience with it, though, and can’t say how well it works.

3

Thank you for your input but iam looking for a true sync between the folder of the device and the cloud, a Folder sync local would only double the consumend space on the android device in this case there are around 300gb of image/video in the DCIM folder

4

Did you even look at the links I provided?

According to the description in the PlayStore link and the documentation available at https://foldersync.io/, which I’m not going to summarize for you, and also based on my own testing years ago, FolderSync does exactly that: it synchronizes local folders on the device with various cloud storage services, including WebDAV storage such as Nextcloud.

I’m not familiar with EasySync, but based on its description in the link I provided, it appears to do the same thing.

So maybe you could take a look at the links I provided and give one or both apps a test run. Alternatively, you can also search for this forum for FolderSync. The topic of two-way sync has come up many times here, and FolderSync has often been the recommended solution.

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5

Iam VERY sry i must have miss understood what you wrote and imediatly ignored it, i found you where talking about syncing the DCIM folder to the app folder (folderSync).

i looked them throu and wonder how i never stumbled over those solutions as i was only looking for docker container solutions ^^ and with you suggested apps they seem a perfect fit.

I still need to try them but thank you in advance

6

What you can do is install DAVx and enable the nextcloud folder by Burger Menu > Settings > WebDAV.

Now you need to change the storage folder of your camera app to the DCIM folder in the WebDAV. It depends, if you can see/reach it.

At this step you don’t need to sync/upload as the folder is already in the cloud and deleting on the folder will remove the files also on the device.

But keep in mind, that at any time you have struggle with the cloud, you don’t have a hard backup any longer. You should backup the cloud files anywhere else without sync on a separate storage.

For desktop, this works exactly like expected having a local folder or drive with 2way access.

One disadvance on Android or LineageOS when removing files from DICM and store them in the cloud and restore them back is, that this crushes the view, images are no longer shown by creation time and the gallery can’t access the nextcloud folder.

If you wanna watch videos and images, this is only possible with the nextcloud app.

This would also be fixed, when on Android would be a accessable storage folder like on desktop.

7

Yes, but as far as I understand, that creates a WebDAV mount on your device, which is different from synchronising a local folder on your device with a Nextcloud folder.

First of all, as you said, you the no longer have a backup. Although technically, two-way sync isn’t a backup either, since files deleted on one side are also deleted on the other.

A more important issue, though, is that if you don’t have a connection to your Nextcloud instance, the mounted folder won’t be available on your phone. So what happens if your camera/DCIM folder points to such a mount point (assuming that’s even possible) and the connection drops or becomes unstable? Where would the camera app store photos in that case? Could you even take a photo, or would the app crash? I suppose that would need to be tested.

I’d say DAVx5 WebDAV mounts are fine if you just want to access files from your phone’s native file manager instead of via the Nextcloud app while you have a connection to your server. However, if you want all photos to be available offline on your device as well, and to have the same content on both sides, even when you delete photos on one side, i.e. proper two-way sync, disabling auto-upload in the Nextcloud app and using something like FolderSync is the way to go.

Of course, in both cases you should have proper backups of your Nextcloud instance. :wink:

8

The main problem of the webdav on android is, it lack on system sharing for the other apps. For example, gallery can’t see this folder, only special apps can do that and this is not handy and plug and play.

The better workaround is, to set in the nextloud app settings sdcard as storage, check if enough space remains and then go to the file menu and enable sync for all folders you want on your phone.

Currently this only works for subfolders and files for me.

But finally you have all files in a (synced) copy on

“…/sdcard/Android/media/com.nextcloud.client/nextcloud/{your_server}/{your_synced_folders}”

On F-Droid there is the “Fossify Gallery” App, where you can add a folder to read. Add the folder and you have all files from the nextcloud.

The good thing is, it remains available when not connected to the nextcloud server. Would be bad to redonload hundreds of GB again and again. As I tried, don’t try to store your pictures from camera directly into this folder, treat it as read only.

Now you a good base for a sync process. Having a second “beauty and nice media” folder for final curated, removed duplicates and ugly pictures folder. In advance, this folder is a family or group shared folder.

Your old unsorted DCIM folder is just for backup and device share your RAW files. Unsync on any device you’ll never edit these, prefer the “beauty and nice media” folder.

For serious first nextcloud folder backup I recommend doing this with manual with a GUi tool like Freeyfilesync. You’ll never know if one file was removed, edited or whatever in a way, you don’t want.

Only you as admin know, if this was right as an automated process or AI can just check, if the process was technically correct.

The backup of the nextcloud backup can be done automatically as it was curated. And even then, it is possible, that some files are destroyed one wrong read/write process.

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9

@DevelOpsMan As i understand it you would “mount” a remote folder over the devices folder what makes does not satisfies the therm “2waySync” caus here the files are Only residing in one place at the time.

So i would say its nether a backup (coping files to a second location) nor a sync.

and what you describe if i understand correctly (what i obviously not allways do) is mostly the same functionality as the Nextcloud auto upload with the option delete after upload.

10

Yes this would be a way similiar to the post of @bb77 maybe with a extra step but manageable.

Good points here.

11

Sry, I can’t explain it better. In most case I just follow the conditions of the apps.:wink: The Nextcloud app has a fixed mount on /Android/… by default on intern, but on settings one can choose sdcard. As user you can’t influence it, but use it.

What sounds similar is the description what you can and what you can’t do with the app to help you decide how your final settings will be.

12

I don’t understand why you’re insisting on using either DAVx5 or the Nextcloud app.

The OP has explicitly said multiple times that they want classic two-way sync. In other words, they want the camera folder to be synced to Nextcloud in the traditional way, i.e. all files exist on both sides, and if a file is deleted on one side, it should also disappear from the other.

And, since you mentioned reliability, tinkering with WebDAV mounts or redirecting the default directories where apps store their data will likely increase the risk of losing files compared to simply using FolderSync.

My principle is: Don’t overengineer things. Keep it simple and, above all, use the right tool for the job.

In short, if you want two-way sync for folders, why not just use a two-way folder sync app? :wink:

And again, of course, you have to make sure that you regularly back up your Nextcloud and maybe also your phone separately, because if you accidentally delete photos on one side, they will be deleted on the other side as well.

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13

The order of syncing is simply the backup and only after the backup one should start with deleting data and never the other way round.

That was the point, especially with writeable group shares.