Want your own private Google Drive or Dropbox? With Nextcloud and a Raspberry Pi, you can host your own cloud storage, accessible across your local network. 🏠☁️

In this post, we’ll walk through installing Nextcloud on a Raspberry Pi 3 from scratch — including PHP, database, web server, and self-signed HTTPS.

🧰 Prerequisites

• Raspberry Pi 3 (or newer) running Raspberry Pi OS
• Internet connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)
• MicroSD card (16GB+)
• Optional: External USB storage
• SSH access or connected keyboard and screen

🔧 Step 1: Update System

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sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Common Errors:

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dpkg was interrupted: Fix with

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sudo dpkg --configure -a

🌐 Step 2: Install Nginx, PHP, and MySQL

We’ll be using Nginx as a lightweight and fast web server.

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sudo apt install nginx php-fpm php-mysql mariadb-server unzip curl -y

Additional PHP modules needed by Nextcloud:

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sudo apt install php-curl php-gd php-xml php-zip php-mbstring php-bz2 php-intl php-bcmath php-gmp php-imagick -y

🛠️ Step 3: Configure MariaDB (MySQL)

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sudo mysql_secure_installation

Choose a strong root password, and answer the prompts as: Remove anonymous users: Yes Disallow root login remotely: Yes Remove test database: Yes Then create the Nextcloud DB:

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sudo mysql -u root -p

Inside MySQL prompt:

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CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;
CREATE USER 'nextclouduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO 'nextclouduser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

📦 Step 4: Download & Extract Nextcloud

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cd /var/www/
sudo curl -O https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.zip
sudo unzip latest.zip
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data nextcloud
sudo chmod -R 755 nextcloud

🌐 Step 5: Configure Nginx

Create a new config file:

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sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud

Paste the config:

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server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name 192.168.1.210;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/nextcloud.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/nextcloud.key;

    root /var/www/nextcloud;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the config:

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sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

🔐 Step 6: Create Self-Signed HTTPS Cert

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sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 \
-newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/nextcloud.key \
-out /etc/ssl/certs/nextcloud.crt

Use your own name/email/org when prompted. It’s just for internal encryption.

🚀 Step 7: Access Nextcloud Web Installer

Go to:

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https://192.168.1.210

⚠️ You’ll see a browser warning due to the self-signed cert. Accept it and continue.

Create admin user

Use database:

DB user: nextclouduser

Password: your-password

DB name: nextcloud

Host: localhost

🧪 Troubleshooting Tips

✅ Final Thoughts

At this stage, your Raspberry Pi is now acting as a personal Nextcloud server. 🎉

In the next post, we’ll tackle static IPs, router configuration, and hostname issues for reliable access.

Stay tuned!

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