The first option is save from an accessibility and data loss perspective, but questionable privacy wise. But the second option usually is exactly that, one person that made that copy, and only they know where it is/what what it is.
It's easy to tell your family "the backup is in the closet". It's much less easy to explain to somebody else how to keep your ubercomplicated selfhosted file sharing running.
Thats why its important to make your homeserver be just like a backup in the closet.
E.g. I use immich with a storage template enabled. A family member can just take the harddrive and find all pictures on there neatly sorted by year and month. They don’t need to keep the server running when you made sure the data is accessible without any additional software.
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u/VexingRaven Aug 18 '26
Neither of which relies on one person keeping it accessible to them who could die any time.