What is Nextcloud / Borg using all that space for?

ℹ️ Support
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1

This is an overview question.

I have a small AIO Nextcloud installation. Currently just me. I make a few calendar entrees, and maybe 2 or 3 low or medium resolution photos per week.

I run the built-in Borg backup.

The Borg backup repository is now at an incredible 2.6 gb. Every week, it loads up another 200 mb.

I would guess that the actual information that I have in NC is less than 1 gig. The file page says 1 gig.

What exactly is it backing up that takes so much space? Or is it actually backing up parts of the NC machinery as well ? Or does the Borg system make duplicates of some files?

I worry that if I actually added users it would quickly become unmanageable.

Thanks!

2

Hi, see GitHub - nextcloud/all-in-one: 📦 The official Nextcloud installation method. Provides easy deployment and maintenance with most features included in this one Nextcloud instance. · GitHub

3

Hi! Have you tried running borg info and borg diff /path/::backup_last_week ::backup_today to see exactly what’s happening under the hood?

That should give you some good insights!

Let me know

4

It makes things feel worse? It says the original data was 49g, or compressed 27g, but de-duplicated to 3g ?

Also, there isn’t a ::backup_last_week archive. Perhaps that is when people do it by hand? What there is is a series of directories like:

20260416_000244-nextcloud-aio

Inside each of these is a directory

nextcloud_aio_volumes

And inside of that:

nextcloud_aio_database
nextcloud_aio_database_dump
nextcloud_aio_elasticsearch
nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer
nextcloud_aio_nextcloud
nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data

When I dig down into nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data I can find my photo’s. But it shows all the photos. If these are real, and not some type of sym-link, that would mean every backup is saving all my photo data ?

But doing a du -h inside the directories, it looks like it’s backing up every font, every template, every kitchen sink. So I hope that maxes out at 3 gigs and only grows linearly as real data is added.

I guess I’m looking for confirmation that all this is normal, and what other people are experiencing too. My impression is that the Borg backup is relatively new, and other people are using other, ad-hoc, backup solutions.

Thanks!

5

No, the borg backup is not new. It is there since the initial creation of Nextcloud AIO.

6

Hi, do not worry. I think this is completely normal and your backup works fine.

Here is a short explanation:

  1. The size: The 3g is the real space on your disk. Borg only saves changed data. Going from 49g to 3g means the program works well.
  2. The names: Sorry for the confusion, ::backup_last_week was just my example. The folders with the date (like 20260416...) are the correct automatic names.
  3. The files: If you see all your photos in every folder, it does not mean they are copied again. Borg just makes a link to the first backup.
  4. The du command: The command du -h shows the normal size of all files together. It does not know that Borg used deduplication, so it shows a wrong, much bigger number.

Your backup will only grow slowly when you really add new files. I hope this helps.