I’m fairly new to self-hosting and privacy. I used to be all about Apple. I scanned all my important documents and stored them in iCloud. That worked pretty well, but because I tend to make my life harder than necessary, I switched from an iPhone to a Pixel with GrapheneOS. It’s a hassle, but I’m happy with my decision overall. Unfortunately, my files are still in iCloud. As a Mac user, that’s not too bad, but not being able to access my files on the go is annoying.

I’m afraid to store all my important files in an LXC on my Proxmox server, even with daily backups.

Should I switch from iCloud to Nextcloud, Proton, or something similar? Or should I create an offsite backup—one encrypted in the cloud and one in my house? How are others handling this? Would an extra backup at a family member’s house be a good idea? Is paying for cloud storage common? I’d really appreciate any suggestions or ideas. Right now, I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities. Also, having 2 TB of iCloud storage made it too easy, since I didn’t carefully choose the files to upload. But paying 10 bucks a month feels a little stupid now that I don’t have the comfort factor any more.

  • francisco_1844@discuss.onlineEnglish
    2·
    23 days ago

    Recommend you follow the 321 backup strategy. Adopted to modern times I would say it is broadly:

    • Have your data in more than 1 place
    • Use more than one provider
    • One of your types of backups should be physical media like an external hard drive.

    From what you described if apple was to wipe your data[1] you would be completely out of luck… for example if something deletes data in your Mac and then that deletion gets synced… For the most part syncing data is not a backup.

    Lastly, recommend you try to put all your critical data in one folder, or identify folders with critical data and prioritize backup of those first while you figure out the rest.

    [1] Not only can a deletion “sync” from your mac, but there can be any number of issues… like a bad update to a file. There is also the possibility, no matter how small, that apple could wipe your data. Over time you always see news of “company X deleted entire set of data for user/company Y”.

    • pimat@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      23 days ago

      Thanks, yeah that is a good point. Also: you just unlocked a new fear…

  • BartyDeCanter@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    23 days ago

    I recently did a big expansion on my home networking infrastructure, and backups were one of bigger triggers.

    My setup is based on a local NAS + Hetzner storage box. The NAS runs Immich, Paperless, and the arr stack. Immich and Paperless back up to the storage box via borg, along with the configuration and docker files, but not the media. I either have physical copies of that or don’t really care because I can just download it again.

    My computers also back up to the storage box via borg, except for the Photos, Music and Video directories, for the same reasons. My partners Mac is currently backing up to an external USB drive, but the plan is to move them to Backblaze for the easy SAF and/or the NAS as a Timemachine target.

  • a_fancy_kiwi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    23 days ago

    I have a NAS with a couple of SSDs configured in a ZFS mirror that backs up to a Raid Z2 storage pool on the same NAS. Again, on that NAS, I run Paperless-ngx in a docker container. Finally, I use the iOS app Swift Paperless to upload documents to Paperless-ngx. All done over Tailscale.

    My load bearing NAS has a lot of redundancy but no offsite backups so I still keep some important documents in the cloud. I’m saving up for another NAS that I can keep at a family members house but prices are insane right now :/

    If you can follow the 3-2-1 storage rule without using the cloud, that’s awesome. However, the upfront cost can be expensive depending on how much you are storing. Just do the best you can using whatever you have available to you, even if that means using iCloud as part of your setup.

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    To help with the overwhelm, If you scanned these important documents then I’m presuming you still have the (paper?) originals?

    Treat them as your source of truth and work with them first - some might have superceeded your backups anyway.

    Then, as others have said, follow the 3-2-1 principle, but keep one of the backups as plain and simple files (.pdf I presume)

    If you lock the files in an app, you’re making it even more difficult to restore them later.

    Personally, I put my files (ie. .pdf, .jpg, etc) in encrypted online file storage (Hetzner) and I made sure I keep instructions elsewhere on how to get them back again (in case I’m… not able to)

    Keep it simple