docker

Seafile, self-hosted online drive app with markdown editing and plentiful of features

Stable clients for all platforms. Does exactly what an online drive should do.

Alexandros Kastanis

Sep 25, 2024 • 2 min read

I've been using all sorts of drive apps on my home network, but I didn't want to join my work laptop to my home VPN to access them. So I went looking for a solid option to host on a VPS where I could access it from anywhere. Seafile was the answer. It is exactly what it promises to be. An open source file sync & share platform that boasts two versions, a self-hosted community edition one, amongst them.

A full WYSIWYG markdown editor is available on the community edition

I spun up the docker container with a compose file and created a new user, gave admin rights and deleted the default admin created for initialization. I logged out and logged back in with my new account credentials and I also enabled two-factor auth that is available.

Two factor enabled with the help of an authenticator app

Furthermore, I installed the available AppImage for Linux, created a .desktop file for it and added that to my autostarting apps list. It's obvious that Linux works, it just takes a few more steps to get there.

The Linux sync client. There's also a drive client that acts as a virtual drive.

I found it interesting that you can selectively sync top-level folders, named "libraries" in the app. So you have a central hub where all your files reside, and you sync different parts on your laptop and your desktop for instance. All parts of the app, phone client, server and desktop are stable since they all have a long development history already.

You can even password encrypt your libraries and your password is removed from the server after an hour.

Markdown can also be edited in "code view" as I prefer

Having apps for all platforms, stability, ease of use and a solid feature set for an online drive this one comes highly recommended. Go check it out!