This actually sounds quite interesting. Is this controlled with DNS entries at the domain level somehow, or is the subdomain fixed/mandatory?

Yes exactly. I didn’t wanna name-drop them cause they are closed for new dynDNS signups. You can create an account to manage your own domain, but you currently can’t signup for their dynDNS service, unfortunately.

That being said, I would still highly recommend them for managing your own domain, if you’re looking for a place to host literally just the DNS part.

There are dyndns providers that support the DNS challenge that have free tiers. Those are sufficient, and you can even get wildcard certs for your subdomain that way. Perfectly sufficient for a homelab.

Yeah I was just so confused when I found out that this isn’t possible. Like, it’s a file hosting and sync-ing application. That’s like absolute basics. It isn’t even “just” an open source project any more, there’s a company behind this product now. I am the last person to be angry about an open source project, run by a volunteer or three, not being feature complete.

For what it’s worth I think it works in the iOS version of the app (possibly always has?). But that’s doesn’t exactly help me either.

The native Android client just can’t do two way sync. Just put a text file or something into any folder (from the web or desktop). Now sync that folder to Android. Now edit it on the web/desktop, and look for the changes on Android (without actively telling it to “sync”). Then change the file on Android, these 2nd changes are never sent back to the server unless you explicitly tell it to “sync” again, manually. That’s what I mean with 2 way sync.

There are quite a few files where you just need that to work to use them properly, like the database of a password manager as a prime example. Mine can talk to Nextcloud natively, so I don’t need the client for that, but I was incredibly close to just switching to syncthing, if I didn’t have active users that use the web office integration of Nextcloud.

Nextcloud can’t do two-way sync on Android. At all. That’s like core functionality for the product IMHO and there’s a feature request open I think. When I found that out, I basically spit out my coffee. It’s fine if you just want to upload photos you take, that kinda works (but my god is it fragile).

Nextcloud is pretty good at quite a few things, including extensibility, but having some omissions in functionality that boggle the mind.

Another name, depending on the exact context, is “hairpin NAT”. Should make googling with the specific router OP has easier.

It doesn’t really fill all the basic use cases I have either unfortunately. But it will probably be my fall back, yes.

I wish tried it. The thing implied twice and I had to start from scratch. Not exactly “smooth”. Went to a full manual install, which is better but still very far from “good” or “stable”.

Unless something changed in the last few weeks, Android app can’t do bidirectional folder sync like you’re used to from Google drive, Dropbox or one drive. You can mark a folder for “sync”, but try copying something into it, it changing an existing file: no change on the server. I think you can manually open the app, navigate to the folder and open the menu to “sync”, but what the hell is the point in having it marked to be synced then? I wanted to use it for my keepass DB for example, where that would be a requirement.

Yes, updates are a nightmare. I’m not on docker (also not sure if better or worse) and every 2nd update sometime significantly breaks that I have to fix manually. Last time, the “group folders” plugin (official, from the Nextcloud devs) broke it so bad that Nextcloud wouldn’t even start. I had to go into maintenance mode, disable the plug-in (“app” I guess it’s the term?), update it from console, re-enable it, disable maintenance mode. Not pictured: finding out what the god damn problem was this time. I’ve just about had it…

I’m still using Nextcloud, have been for only 2-3 years, but it’s getting to the point where I’m more annoyed about it than appreciating the usefulness

It’s not just being slow, it issues with the install. I’m pretty sure these days I’d be better of with specialized individual services than this one monster that die absolutely nothing well. It still can’t even sync files on Android ffs. I’d consider this core functionality.