So I’m quite familiar with both Nextcloud and unRaid at this point (but by no means an expert). But one thing I’ve thought a lot about is how to integrate Nextcloud with my existing file structure and file permissions.

Right now I have the normal unRAID setup with public SMB shares and various docker containers. Now Nextcloud can access the existing files by mounting SMB shares inside of Nextcloud, but this is quite slow and I would preferably mount the directories locally like one mounts directories in a docker container. The problem with this is that Nextcloud wants to control file permissions and indexing within its own datafolder. Just linking existing shares from unRAID into Nextcloud would (to my understanding) break file permissions and I would no longer be able to access any new or updated files (by Nextcloud) from SMB. Neither would any other container like qbittorrent, emby, sonarr or anything else.

As I see it, one way around this would be to change all users to the same ID. Or putting all users into the same group. But this is where my knowledge ends and where I’d like some help.

What I want to achieve is pretty clear. I want to be able to access all files from SMB and control them as I please, but sill be able to see and manipulate ALL those files from Nextcloud as well, having all containers work like they should and having no permissions difficulties.

I want to note that my main use for Nextcloud is accessing Photos and Documents.

I know this might not be the way Nextcloud is meant to be used and I’m 100% open to suggestions on how I can set this up.

I'm going to be honest, I skimmed your question, but my guess is you want to mount your unRaid shared files directly into next cloud.

 

add the external devices/drives plugin/add-on in next cloud, then map the directory or directories in you want next cloud to have access to in your docker docker settings to a new mapped point. then in next cloud, in the external devices plugin mount it there.