Many private users of Nextcloud hardly make backups. An app is now supposed to store their own instance encrypted with others.

The development team of the collaboration and file sync server Nextcloud has introduced a simple backup solution for private users of the software. The idea is to be able to store the contents of one’s own instance as an encrypted backup on another Nextcloud instance, for example at friends’ or family members’ homes.

Regarding the technology, the team writes: “The Nextcloud Backup App was developed to close the gap in data backups on a private Nextcloud instance operated by a less tech-savvy user.” According to the developers, many of these users forgo backups because they are often too complex. In addition, many home users also use Raspberry Pis or old notebooks or similar as hosts for their own Nextcloud instance. However, this can easily lead to data loss.

The new backup app saves the entire Nextcloud instance, including data, configuration and apps used. The backups can be set to run completely automatically. In addition to a full backup, incremental backups can also be created. There should only be a short downtime when creating the snapshot. The backup snapshot itself is then still compressed and encrypted into 100 MByte parts.

The backup itself can be completely restored after a data loss. However, it is also possible to restore only individual components such as separate files. The new Nextcloud backup app can be tested as part of the current beta phase of Nextcloud 23.