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.

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
    3·
    6 hours 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