Can SN recommend a photo hosting and VPS combo that best achieves the following? \ stacker news ~AskSN

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Can SN recommend a photo hosting and VPS combo that best achieves the following?

3171 sats \ 20 comments \ @ACYK 27 Oct AskSN

I’m looking for a photo hosting and VPS solution that allows for as much of the following functionality as possible:

Main use is for sending a link out to friends/family to share trip and event photos. On either iOS or Android, they can easily upload both their photos and videos to the site with minimal clicks.
The site itself doesn’t need to have great viewing, but it should be easy for others to download everyone’s photos that were uploaded.
The server is pay-for-what-you-use storage space.
- Goal: Use this site to collect photos, then remove them when everyone has downloaded the group photos they want. Not intended for long-term large file storage. I may not know what storage space I need in advance deepening on how much video gets uploaded.

Bonus Points for:

People can sign up for alerts when new photos get uploaded.
Metadata remains on the photos so they can be plotted on a map in iOS with other photos. (This might be more of an iOS limitation, but if it’s possible, that would be great.)
Photos on iOS can be downloaded as photos easy, not just saved as files.
If added to the Home Screen, it would have PWA (Progressive Web App) functionality.
Easy to set up a new link for Group Trip B, that wouldn’t be seen or accessible to those with the link for Group Trip A.
- This could even be separate instances of the application running on the server.
Easy to link to from my domain (e.g., www.MyDomain/GroupTripA or GroupTripA.MyDomain.com).
People can optionally (or be required to) enter their name to share who uploaded the photos/videos.
If the site allows for easy viewing of the photos and videos, thats great as well.
Stretch goal: The site shows photos and videos on a map interface.

Reasons for not using Google Photos or similar:

It bothers me that Google Photos requires access to complete photo history on iOS.
For privacy reasons, I’d like to share a link with others that isn’t mining the photos for advertising purposes.
Don’t want others to have to sign up for an account. They should be able to just click the link and upload.

Can anyone recommend a solution that hits the mark on some/most of these?

Thanks!

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330 sats \ 10 replies \ @DarthCoin 27 Oct

Use your own NAS, as Qnap or Synology. Done, you could have your own cloud data center.

21 sats \ 9 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

Thanks, I did consider that route, which has other benefits, but didn't seem like it would achieve this specific functionality.

If I was linking to a NAS at home, I'd still have to deal with securely letting people connect to my network. It wouldn't be as simple as just sending a link out to a VPS.

I need something where friends and family can easily upload photos and videos with minimal clicks, so I'd still need some other layer on top of the NAS to simplify that most likely.

That would be more of a 'have lots of storage up front' kind of solution, whereas I was hoping to have something that could allow for large file uploads, but, I wouldn't need them for more than a week or two while we gathered photos then deleted them.

That said, if I'm thinking about it wrong, and there are ways to configure QNAP/Synology to align more with these needs, I’d love to hear! Otherwise, I’m hoping to find a solution that offers more flexibility around temporary uploads and easy sharing.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @nerd2ninja 27 Oct

Could also use torrent links. Just an idea.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 27 Oct

yes, NAS also have a torrent client integrated.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 27 Oct

Exactly that is doing Qnap, with his own software, you can share specific content, secure and do much more stuff. You should study it more. Is a wonderful solution that I use for 10+ now, with exactly the features you need.

Your data must stay with you not in a cloud server.

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

I agree that my personal photos should stay with me, but when it comes to collecting photos from other family/friends, most of which already have their photos in google photos, collecting them on a cloud server before moving them to more private storage is not a big concern to me. I'd rather that than worry about the security of connecting some friends of friends on a group trip into my own home network with a passwordless link, which I would still need to do with a home NAS.

100 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 27 Oct

here you have a demo to play around https://www.qnap.com/en/live-demo

I don't want to sell you Qnap, I just want you to think about. Synology have similar software / features.

I have for example configured my NAS on my mobile device and all photos I am taking are automatically uploaded to my NAS. If I lose that mobile, no worry all my data is safe. And many more cool features for personal data sharing. You could have even your own youtube if you like, photo albums etc

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

Yea, I'll definitely play around with it. Seems like more of an improvement to other areas of my file management, with a side benefit of if I set up a reverse proxy, I could securely use it for the purposes of this post. Perhaps a few extra steps, but combined with other benefits, may be worth it. Appreciate it.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 27 Oct

If you do not own a domain and a public IP at your home, no problem, Qnap/Synology is even offering a DynDNS free service for your NAS. Just few clicks and your NAS is available online from anywhere. Of course with some security restrictions for specific accounts. But as a end user, is very simply to setup.

You can configure your NAS in both ways:

directly with a public IP / domain : port
DynDNS through Qnap/Synology services.

Both ways works perfectly the same. You DO NOT have to publicly share this address of your NAS, share it only with your friends/family. You can even use just an IP, not even need a domain.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

Thanks, I’ll definitely look into this for my own use, but, I’d still be skeptical about sending out a link to a shared folder with upload capability, and having it be passwordless to friends of friends. Adding a password already adds a barrier to some, adding a weak password isn’t much better. I don’t have to want to keep track of what security vulnerabilities are out there which might allow for exploits to gain access beyond the group folder. I kind of like the idea of keeping my personal storage separate from links I send out to a wider audience for group photos. Even if the fears are unfounded, the value of peace of mind is real.

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120 sats \ 2 replies \ @hueso 27 Oct

Try ente or Immich.

110 sats \ 1 reply \ @1fatmess 27 Oct freebie

Came here to say Immich.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

Yea, ente and immich are the two I played around with the most today. Settled on giving ente a try with this friend group. The browser link functionality for both was similar, but, I figure there is a greater chance of these friends making a free ente account, in which case the app has significantly more album collaboration features. The same is true with immich, but much less likely these friends will create their own immich instances. Alternative would be having them create accounts on my VPS, but, ente seemed more beginner friendly in that regard.

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @rebel_nomad 27 Oct

Have you checked open source DAMs? Not sure about paying as you upload for those, but maybe it could be available as a module or easy to code even...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

I have not—any in particular to try?

The list of self-hosted photo/video sharing options I’ve found so far is below. Before trying each, I wanted to see if someone here might mention what they are already using that hits on the functionality I'm looking for without having to try them all:

Chevereto, Immich, LibrePhotos, Lychee, Mediagoblin, Nextcloud Photo Gallery, Photonix, PhotoPrism, Photoview, PiGallery2, Pixelfed, Piwigo, Synology Photos

I can try adding some DAMs to the list as well, to focus on pure file uploads and downloads and get away from the specific photo/video aspect. However, that might stray from this feature:

"Photos on iOS can be downloaded as photos easily, not just saved as files"

…which would be nice to have. Especially from some family members who would have no idea how to access photos they downloaded as files on iOS if they didn't show back up in their photo library.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @4d0874cf11 28 Oct

Nice

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @SwapMarket 27 Oct

You plan to charge your friends and family for storage?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

No, I plan to pay for the storage. I was going to pay for the VPS anyway (which also would have meant paying for the storage). Friends can have a free account (5 GB storage free), and still have full access to the shared album I am hosting (via paid storage) it appears.

The plan isn't to just have a ente.io account that keeps growing, it would be to collect all photos from a few trips, take them offline to personal storage (and friends can save what they want) then delete it. But some paid storage will be needed in the interim.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ACYK OP 27 Oct

Update: https://github.com/ente-io/ente is looking like a really promising option. Fully open source, end to end encrypted. Skip the VPS step and just pay for the storage you need, with lots of tiers to choose from. Pretty much ticks all the boxes above