I'm looking to finally ditch Onedrive with a self hosted alternative, but I'm not sure what to go with. I want something with all of the files on a central server, with an Android client with the option to sync individual files for offline access as needed. Preferably the files should also be stored in plain format on the server to make backups easier and as a fallback if the service completely fails and I don't have time to fix it. Linux and Windows clients are a bonus but I'm happy just using a web gui if that's all that's available. These are the options I've considered so far:
Seafile - This was the one that I thought fit my needs the best until earlier but apparently it has a weird disk layout which means the files are basically inaccessible by anything else?
Nextcloud - I had originally ruled this out because I don't care about any of the additional features which people claim also slow it down and make it a bit of a resource hog, and I also don't want to deal with forced https. However I think the community image may actually be what I want as it seems to be just the file server and works with just http? I am a bit confused about the different options for the database though. https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/
Syncthing - Not quite what I'm looking for as you need to sync the entire thing, and I don't like whatever weirdness is going on with the Android app at the moment
SAMBA share - Also not really what I'm looking for as there's no offline syncing, but very easy to set up and basically nothing to go wrong
Are there any other options I should be looking into?
I think people generally look for a phone app / ease of use type of thing
The odd part of that is what files do I have on my computer that would be useful on my phone?
And when it's on my phone there is likely already ab app for that, eg. Music, calendar, notes, etc.
Immich for pictures seems like a good answer to your question. What's files: Mostly pictures I think. Why not just keep it on phone? people love their pictures. I have more than a phones worth.
But that is exactly what I am saying. Everything I have on my phone has an app. Immich for photos for example.
Each app that stores things on my server already manages the data to get there.
So is there a need for a file server that works on my phone like this person is asking about?
I mean I do have SMB access from my phone as well, but I hardly need it since individual apps are already pushing and pulling data from my server.
Non app storage needs then... My best guess then is messaging app attachments? maybe OP needs to save docs/pdfs he gets from Whatsapp/telegram. But you're right, that seems more of a laptop/PC activity.