How to Sync Files from Ubuntu Touch to Nextcloud using UBsync

Ubuntu Touch is awesome. Nextcloud is also awesome. Put them together and you have awesome… squared. How cool would it be to have your photos automatically sync to your own Nextcloud sever? Well, you can do it today and here is how.

EDIT DEC 24, 2018 – Important Security Warning before beginning!
Currently as of the time of this post, UBsync is not very secure. The volunteers who forked it are not security experts and the password file is not secure and is in plain text. Therefore, be warned that if your content is of extremely private nature, do not use this blog contents until the app has been properly updated.

However, if you are just trying to move your selfies from your phone to your Nextcloud for safe-keeping, this blog will suffice and hopefully in the next little while we’ll have some helpers in the project to improve the way the password is handed.

Also, there is a way to mitigate some risk so that at least your main NC user/password cannot be high jacked. When you log in to your Nextcloud user settings through a browser and go to ‘Security’ and ‘Create new app password’. Be sure to save this password right away during creation and in a safe place because you can only see the password one time (you can’t come back and see it again).

Once you have this password ready, continue with the blog.

1. Make sure that you have a user account and password from a Nextcloud server.
   If you don’t have a nextcloud user account, consider strongly hosting your own. You can do this on an unused computer, or using Nextcloudpi on a Raspberry pi, or host a more ‘serious server’.
2. In your Nextcloud user directory, create an appropriate directory to put your Ubuntu Touch files in. If you don’t touch anything everything will go into your ‘Photos’ folder by default.
3. Make sure you have the UBsync app installed from the OpenStore
4. Go to System Settings in Ubuntu Touch
5. Go to ‘Accounts’
6. Select ‘Add Account’
7. Select ‘Nextcloud’
   Note: If you try to add an account and it doesn’t respond and take you to the next step, you may need to reboot your device.
8. Enter your Nextcloud credentials (from the ‘new app password’ you created at the very beginning)
9. Open UBsync App on your Ubunt Touch device
10. Select ‘Add a New Account’
11. Select ‘allow’ if the prompt is showing the correct username with the correct server address
12. Go back to ‘General Settings’ screen of UBsync
13. Set your sync frequency.
14. Select any other changes you want on this page.
15. Go back another screen with the back button top left
16. Select the folders on your device that you want to sync to your Nextcloud with the ‘Sync Folders’ option.
    The default option will put your Ubuntu Touch photos (unedited) into the /photos directory (which is a default directory when Nextcloud creates a new account) from the following Ubuntu Touch directory

Default: /Pictures/com.ubuntu.camera/.original

• Add a new folder with the + plus sign on the top right.
  Select the directory on your UT device you want to sync. NOTE: This is the tricky part, the big ‘tick’ check mark in the center of the screen is not ‘touchable’ but is trying to direct you to hit the ‘tick’ in the top right menu!

Do the same actions for the remote folder.
If the Folder doesn’t exist you can create a new one easily by just typing it. After creating it, touch it again and hit the ‘tick’ in the top right to make it real.

1. When complete, press the back arrow at top left of ‘sync settings’ title.
2. Start the sync
   Select ‘sync service’ and then the green ‘sync’ button. NOTE: Make sure you are on wifi if you allowed your settings to use both cell phone data and wifi as the sync could be pretty big, especially the first one while it pulls the files from your phone and moves them to nextcloud.

How to Delete an Account un UBsync for Ubuntu Touch

1. Go to System Settings in Ubuntu Touch
2. Go to ‘Accounts’
3. Touch ‘Nextcloud’
4. Select ‘Remove Account’ button

That’s it. The account is now removed/deleted.