How to back up and restore Nextcloud AIO remotely using BorgBackup

Post date

April 17, 2025

What are the benefits of a remote backup?

Remote backup is a convenient way to protect yourself against local incidents like hardware failures, ransomware attacks, and natural disasters. Remote backups make sure your data survives even if your server doesn’t.

That is also a compliance measure when a regulation requires you to have offsite and long-term archiving. And finally, it is your key component to a sound disaster recovery plan, when you need to restore your Nextcloud quickly and effectively.

How to back up Nextcloud AIO remotely using Borg

Once you have installed your All-in-One Nextcloud solution on a Windows or a Linux server, you will get access to the AIO interface. Scroll to the “Backup and restore” section to find your backup settings.

1. Submit the backup location

Enter the remote backup location into the Remote borg repo input field and click on “Submit backup location” to proceed. It should be in the form ssh://user@host:port/path/to/repo.

1.1 Remote backup Nextcloud AIO using Borg copy

2. Start a new backup container

A new interface will open. Here, Click “Create backup” to start a new backup container.

3. Authorize the SSH key

Initially, you won’t be able to proceed without an SSH key. But don’t worry, you will get the key after your first attempt. Authorize the key on your Borg remote, then scroll down to “Backup creation” and click “Create backup” again.

3 Remote backup Nextcloud AIO using Borg

4. Finish the backup process

Once your back up has been created successfully, you should see a confirmation with the time and date.

5. How to to restore a backup

Scroll down to the “Backup and restore” section of the AIO interface and click “Click here to reveal all backup options”. In the the “Backup restore” subsection here, select the version that you want to restore and click the “Restore selected backup” button.

5.3 Remote backup Nextcloud AIO using Borg

5.4 Remote backup Nextcloud AIO using Borg

How to restore Nextcloud from a remote backup with a new AIO instance

If you spin up a new AIO instance and easily restore the state from a remote backup repository. Follow the steps below to learn how.

1. Submit the backup location and password

Scroll down toto the “Restore AIO instance from backup” section in the AIO interface. Enter the remote Borg location and the Borg encryption password, and click “Submit location and encryption password”.

The next step is to test this path and encryption password.

2. Authorize the SSH key

The initial test will fail, but this is fixed easily — you just need to authorize a new SSH key. Obtain the key from the information on your screen and authorize it, then click on “Submit location and encryption password” again.

7 Remote backup Nextcloud AIO using Borg

3. Repeat the test

Run the test again by clicking on the Test path and encryption password button. If your test has been successful, you will be notified and prompted to restore the backup from the chosen location. Click “Restore selected backup” to start the restore process.

4. Finish the process and update your containers

Once done, you will land in the panel with an overview of your containers. Now click “Start and update containers”. Done!

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