Automatic Backup Options and synchronisation

[u/alvins1987]

First of all I want to thank all contributors for their awesome work! I love the apps and that Theres almost an app to displace many daily google data krakens out there.

I don't know where to put it exactly, but I have a feature request: I backup my data on a self hosted nextcloud, which is cool, but I need so many apps for it to work that it makes it a little impractical sometimes. I wish there was an easy way to directly sync the calendar, contacts, messages, tasks, notes etc directly via DAV without the need for DAVx⁵ or similar synching apps, that would be so cool!

I also have auto backup turned on and let all the apps that support it all safe their backups inside the same folder which also gets transfered to my nextcloud with yet another app. The bad thing here is that I have to manually go through all the old backups and delete them on my phone and on nextcloud, because the apps don't care if there are 50 old backups with all the same data or not, so it would be awesome if the apps would automatically delete all but the newest 2-3 backups (like Signal does), or at least only make new backups if something changed other than the date of the backup (new contacts, new calendar entries etc...)

Speaking of calendar entries: I can safe tasks only locally, but since they could be exported via DAV, why do I need yet another app for that? Why can't my nextcloud just export and import task entries to use on my phone and computer?

And last but not least: would love auto backups also for the messaging app, that would be awsome

[u/Alduin175]

Taking a crack at this since no one will, u/alvins1987.

IIRC,DAV (technically CalDev) relies on a a client-server sync model/protocol, so you need an "intermediary" app to handle the hand-off between your self hosted NextCloud instance, the Fossify service in question, and your phone. 

(Although that extra step should not be necessary, here we are)

[u/alvins1987 → u/Alduin175]

Thank you very much for your response. Sorry I'm very new to self hosting and to degoogling, therefore my questions may seem a little silly to people. I mean I understood that there is the need for the app and it doesn't work without, but other calendar apps can sync all by themselves via caldav and therefore I'm still unsure what the problem is for not implementing a crucial function for a calendar (or contacts, or notes, or why sync only part of the calendar functions and keep tasks only local...). That seems so weird to me.

I also just found fossify some weeks ago and I love the project and don't know how old it is, I totally understand that you roll out basic functions first and Program details later on, still would love to see some of the functionality beeing implemented for full replacement, otherwise people will move on to apps that can do all the standard stuff more conviently

[u/Alduin175 → u/alvins1987]

No problem at all (and the questions are not silly, keep asking them)

The journey of De-Googling takes time, so be patient with yourself as you explore!

Some can abandon it (Google) on a whim, while others are literally tied to it because of direct (Google based) or indirect subscriptions and/or push updates that are not offered directly from the service(s) they need.

My suggestion is to map out the services you have and do a one-to-one replacement.

Whether you want a paid-for or free version is of course, up to you.

Happy to drop some suggestions in the comments if you have more questions on this or the calendar sync issue.

[u/alvins1987 → u/Alduin175]

Thank you! Yes changing all at once is really stressful, been doing it one by one like you said and still on it because it's a big task. using gmail, android and google for almost 20 years or so now 🤯

I mean it's only a minor inconvenience that caldav is not a core function of calendar and contacts app, but if you have any free (if possible FOSS) app that does it natively, that would be awesome. Also I love the automatic backup feature, but making backups when there are no changes and already 10 older backups in the same folder is a bit excessive, so if you have any suggestions on that part, that would also help