Using External Storage

The External Storage application lets your Nextcloud server connect to remote file systems — such as Amazon S3, SFTP servers, SMB/CIFS shares, or WebDAV servers — and present them as folders inside your Files view. Your administration team configures which backends are available and which mounts are shared with you.

If your administrator has enabled user-managed external storage, you can also add your own connections under Personal Settings.

Accessing external storage

External storage mounts appear as regular folders in your Files view. You can browse, upload, download, and delete files in them just as you would any other folder. Whether sharing is available depends on whether your administrator has enabled it for each individual mount.

A colored indicator next to the folder name shows the connection status:

  • Green — the storage is connected and ready to use.

  • Yellow — the storage could not be reached; Nextcloud will retry automatically.

  • Red — the storage is unavailable. Contact your administrator if this persists.

When a mount is unavailable, Nextcloud marks it as offline for ten minutes before retrying. You can trigger a manual recheck by clicking the status indicator.

참고

Some external storage mounts may be read-only. You will not be able to upload or delete files on a read-only mount.

Sharing files from external storage

Sharing from an external storage mount works the same as sharing any other file or folder — use the share icon in the Files view. Sharing must be explicitly enabled on each mount by your administrator, so the share icon may not be available on all mounts.

참고

Server-side encryption is not available for external mounts pointing to other Nextcloud instances.

Adding your own external storage

If your administrator has enabled user-managed external storage, you can connect your own storage services under Personal Settings → External Storage.

To add a new mount:

  1. Click your profile icon in the top right and select Personal Settings.

  2. Select External Storage from the left sidebar.

  3. Choose a backend from the Add storage dropdown.

  4. Fill in the required fields for the backend (server address, path, credentials, etc.).

  5. Select an authentication method from the Authentication dropdown.

Required fields are marked with a red border. Once all required fields are filled, the mount is saved automatically.

A green dot next to the mount confirms a successful connection. A red or yellow icon means Nextcloud could not connect — check your credentials and network settings.

To remove a mount, open the three-dot overflow menu next to it and select Delete.

참고

Mounts you add under Personal Settings are visible only to your account.

Supported backends

The following backends may be available, depending on what your administrator has enabled:

  • Amazon S3 — Amazon Simple Storage Service buckets and S3-compatible storage.

  • FTP — FTP and FTPS servers.

  • Nextcloud / ownCloud — Another Nextcloud or ownCloud instance over WebDAV.

  • OpenStack Object Storage — OpenStack Swift buckets.

  • SFTP — SSH File Transfer Protocol servers.

  • SMB / CIFS — Windows file shares and Samba servers.

  • WebDAV — Any WebDAV-compatible server.

For backend-specific configuration details, see Configuring External Storage (GUI) in the Administrator’s manual.

File change detection

Files you add or change through Nextcloud are reflected immediately. Files added or changed directly on the external storage — without going through Nextcloud — may not appear until the next background scan.

If externally added files are not appearing, ask your administrator to run occ files:scan or to configure a periodic background scan for the mount.