[GNC] Recommendations for hosting gnucash file - Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Local server?

[R Losey]

On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 8:57 AM Bruce Griffis <bruce.griffis at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I am running GnuCash 5.5 on my Ubuntu 24.04 desktop. I also have GnuCash
> installed on my Windows 11 laptop. Right now I just copy my most recent
> GnuCash file over to USB if I want to work on it using my laptop. I
> tried using Google Drive, but found the application hanging when using
> Google Drive under Ubuntu. Not sure if it is because my connection is
> too slow (1 Gig to my Cisco switch, 1 Gig to my router, 100 Megs across
> my carrier) or if Ubuntu has timing issues with Google Drive. I also
> have a subscription to Microsoft 365 and my Windows backups go there.
> Ubuntu backups go to an attached USB drive. althouhg I'm considering
> cloud storage for Ubuntu as well.  I've read that Ubuntu 24.04 supports
> Microsoft drive, but you may need to log in whenever you access the
> drive. Only reason I'd consider it is that my Microsoft subscription
> comes with a decent amount of cloud storage. Finally, I have a spare
> desktop under my desk I could fire up as a headless server. And I have
> an older Raspberry PI I could probably turn into a NAS and share it
> locally using Samba.
>
> What is the current recommendation for sharing GnuCash across multiple
> PCs when it will be one user? I don't want to get too tricky. Heck, I
> could probably just share my desktop's drive locally for a low tech
> solution.
>

In considering a solution, there are a couple of things to consider: One is
your particular setup, and the other is the issue of backups.

For example, most modern routers have a place to plug in a USB drive, and
that can be made available over your home network. It would be a
reasonable solution... but you would have to make sure that the data is
backed up.

I have a NAS and I keep my GnuCash data there. The NAS is a "mirror" setup,
so two copies of the data are maintained -- both drives would have to fail
in order to lose the data... plus, I regularly back up the NAS. I run
GnuCash from MacOS, Windows, and Ubuntu (mostly Mac and Windows), and I've
not had a problem using the NAS.

I would have thought that cloud storage would work, too -- perhaps it's
just Microsoft 365's service? The other issue with cloud storage is privacy
- how confident are you that your financial data will remain private?  All
it takes is one bad employee of the cloud company to examine your data.  I
don't like to put data like this in the cloud.

Copying the data is okay, but you have to remember to never forget to do
the copy... just one slip, and you've lost data.

Just some thoughts of mine.

_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8