How to install Nextcloud on Raspberry Pi
NextCloud is an excellent, open source server application that gives users the ability to get a Dropbox-like file-syncing experience on a home server. The software is built to be lean, and run on nearly anything, which makes it perfect to use on the Raspberry Pi.
Download Nextcloud for Raspberry Pi
There are a few ways to use the NextCloud syncing software on a Raspberry Pi. You can download and install it on Raspbian, run it as a Snap package with the Pi version of Ubuntu, or even install it as a module on the Pi release of Open Media Vault.
Going with Ubuntu, Rasbian or Open Media Vault are good choices, but generally, only users that know a little bit about Linux or the Raspberry Pi should bother with them, as it takes time to configure, and isn’t something that you can turn on and have it “just work.”
A great way to run the NextCloud software on a Raspberry Pi device is NextCloudPi. It’s a specific Pi Linux distribution that only exists to run NextCloud so that you can manage your files.
Getting a copy of NextCloudPi is tricky because the developers of NextCloud do not advertise it to the world. Instead, you’ll need to go to the OwnYourBits website to get a copy.
Once on the OwnYourBits site, look for the NextCloudPi menu button and select it to go to the NextCloudPi page. Then, from there, scroll down to the “Download” button.
On the downloads page for NextCloudPi, there are a variety of operating system images available. Look through the link list for ” NextCloudPi_RPi” and download the release to your Linux PC.
When the NextCloudPi file is done downloading, open up your file manager, click on “Downloads” and do the following.
Note: Windows and Mac users, you may need a third-party extraction tool to handle Bz2 and Tar files.
Right-click on the NextCloudPi Bz2 file and extract it. It should output a NextCloudPi IMG file if it doesn’t extract the Tar file to reveal the IMG.
Burning NextCloudPi
The Raspberry Pi computer board runs operating systems directly from an SD card so, in order to use the NextCloudPi operating system correctly, the image downloaded earlier must be burned (AKA flashed) to an SD Card.
To start the burning process, take the SD Card out of your Pi and plug it into your PC. After that, ensure that it’s ready to be accessed by the system.
Note: be sure to back up any files from the SD Card because the burning tool will delete everything!
With the SD Card plugged into your Linux PC it’s time to download the Etcher USB/SD imaging tool. To get this program, head to Etcher.io and download a copy.
It’s important to note that in this guide, we focus on Linux and Linux users. However, the Etcher tool runs the same way on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows, so even if you aren’t a Linux fan but still want NextCloudPi, the instructions will work just fine!
After downloading the latest release of Etcher to your PC, extract the ZIP archive and double-click on the file inside to start it up.
In Etcher, find the blue “Select image” button and click on it with the mouse. Clicking on the “Select image” button will bring up an open file dialog. Use the dialog to browse for the Pi image downloaded to your PC.
The Pi image is loaded into Etcher. Now you must click the blue “Select drive” button, and use the dialog to choose the Pi SD card. When done selecting the Pi SD card, click the “Flash!” button to begin the burning process.
When the SD Card burning process is done, Etcher will show you a message saying so. Read the message then, plug the SD Card into the Pi, connect an Ethernet cable and get ready to start up.
Access NextCloud on the Pi
To set up the NextCloudPi device, you’ll need to access it over the network. To do this, log into the router on your home network and learn the IP address of the Pi.
Assuming you know the IP address of your Pi, open up a new browser tab and fill out the IP address into the address bar.
https://ip.address.of.pi
When you enter the IP address of the Pi in the browser, the NextCloud startup page will appear. Use this page to create a new administrator account, and log in.
Once logged in to the NextCloud web interface, feel free to read the startup page that appears to learn how to get the most out of your new Pi-powered cloud server. Also be sure to install the sync client on your Linux PC, so that you can upload files!
