Problem: I spend waaaaay too much on my Nextcloud server (I won't tell you how much).

Solution: replace it with a managed Nextcloud server from Hetzner (this is not the same as their Storage Box solution!), possibly ask people if they want to opt in and fund me for it.

I'll be following this guide and noting any difficulties I encounter. Wish me luck <3

Setting up the managed Nextcloud server from Hetzner

The server took about 3 minutes to set itself up before I could ssh in, impressive!

To access the Nextcloud, you're given a standard domain, e.g. uXXXXX.your-storagebox.de. I want SSH / SFTP access so I could figure out what Nextcloud instance this is and how to migrate, except...

From self-managed to managed Nextcloud - should I?

... I realised that Hetzner provides a managed Nextcloud solution, so the point is not to give you admin access. My main objective was to save money, and actually this has the co-benefit of saving me some administrative hassle. However, Hetzner admins would theoretically have access to my files, so security is an issue. This is annoying, but not the end of the world for me. I don't want companies sifting through my data, which I am fairly confident would not happen with the Hetzner server, and anything requiring true privacy I have other solutions for (e.g. cryptdrive).

So OK, let's keep going with this. As it stands, the process seems actually easier than if I followed the migration manual. Here's what I think I need to do:

  1. Download all of my Nextcloud files on to my laptop 1.1 Possibly fix sync errors 1.2 I also have some other files I want to download onto my SSD for safekeeping
  2. Back these up onto my SSD
  3. Do the same for the one other user on my Nextcloud
  4. Put my old Nextcloud into maintenance mode
  5. Use the data migration tool to export important data e.g. contacts, calendar, cospend, ...
  6. Upload these to my new Nextcloud, check that these work 6.1 Download all the apps that I use on the new Nextcloud
  7. Repeat for other user
  8. Double check that my girlfriend's internet connection can deal with me uploading 500 GB of data
  9. Double check that everything is OK 9.1 Folder sizes have stayed roughly the same. 9.2 I'm assuming I'll have some data loss, that's fine
  10. Point my domain the new Nextcloud, deal with eventual errors
  11. Trial out the nex Nextcloud for a couple of days, after that delete my old server

OK, going through these steps

Downloading files

This took a while, as I had a couple of GB of files which I had kept on Nextcloud and not synced to my laptop. It didn't help that I constantly got Nextcloud errors

Preparing the new Nextcloud instance

Install all the apps I had before - easy.

I transferred my calendar, settings, etc using the User Migration app. I tested it before going into maintenance mode, as I was unsure whether it would succesfully import my username (even though its the same). A quick glance at my calendar, cospend and contacts suggests it works pretty well! I will have another attempt with the deleted files.