Nextcloud is one of the most popular in-house, open source cloud solutions for business. It’s powerful, flexible, and easy to use. But for it to be considered a true cloud service, most users prefer to have it integrated into their mobile devices or desktops. That is one other reason why Nextcloud shines–it’s a cross-platform client that does an outstanding job of integrating into the desktop.
Nextcloud offers easy-to-install desktop clients for both Windows and MacOS, and the source for Linux installations. However, Ubuntu users do not have to worry about installing from source. In fact, there is a considerably easier way to get Nextcloud integration on the desktop. I’m going to walk you through the steps for installing the client onto Ubuntu 17.10 and how to connect it to your server.
I will assume you already have a working instance of Nextcloud as well as an active account on the server. With that said, let’s install.
Installation
Open up a terminal window on your Ubuntu 17.10 machine and add the necessary repository with the command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nextcloud-devs/client
Once that command completes, update apt with the command:
sudo apt update
You’re ready to install with the command:
sudo apt install nextcloud-client
That’s it, the client is installed.
Connecting to your Nextcloud server
Once installed, open the Nextcloud client (search for it in your desktop menu). The first-run window (Figure A) requires you to enter the address of your Nextcloud server.
Figure A
The address to be used will be in the form of http://192.168.1.177/nextcloud. Of course, you will use the specific IP address (or URL) of your Nextcloud server. Click Next and then (when prompted) enter your username and password for your Nextcloud account (Figure B).
Figure B
Click Next and then (in the resulting window) select your options (Figure C).
Figure C
Make sure to select your location of choice (for the syncing between your desktop and the server) as well as what specifically you want to sync. By default, the client will sync to ~/Nextcloud. If you have a reason for it to sync outside of your home directly, change it here. Once you’ve configured the client as you need, click Connect and you’re good to go. You will be presented with the option to open Nextcloud in either a browser or a local folder. The local folder option will open your file manager in the directory you configured for syncing. Any file or folder you add to the Nextcloud folder will automatically sync with your account on the Nextcloud server. Because the sync is two-way, anything you add to your Nextcloud account on the server will automatically sync to your desktop).
And that’s all there is to installing and configuring the Nextcloud client on Ubuntu. Do note this installation will work with any Ubuntu derivative (such as Elementary OS).
