Use your own storage

Keep your encrypted synced files in your own S3-compatible bucket, such as Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze, instead of Filarr Cloud.

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By default, your synced files live on Filarr Cloud. You can store them in your own storage instead: any service compatible with Amazon S3, where you rent a "bucket" (a storage space). You stay a Filarr customer: your account, sign-in, devices and billing don't change. Only your personal sync moves, and it stays encrypted, so your provider stores files it cannot read.

What stays on Filarr Cloud

Shared vaults, share links, Filarr Send and file requests always stay on Filarr Cloud. A vault belongs to several people, so it can't live in one member's bucket.

The Filarr storage quota doesn't apply to your bucket: you pay your provider for the space you use.

Supported providers

Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Scaleway and OVHcloud have their own entry. For any other S3-compatible service, choose Autre (MinIO, Garage, NAS). This label appears in French even when the app is in English.

Prepare the bucket at your provider

  1. Create an empty, private bucket.
  2. Create an access key limited to that bucket, with read and write rights. Copy the secret right away: providers show it only once.
  3. Write down the endpoint (the address of the S3 service, not the provider's website), the region and the bucket name.

When you fill in the form, Filarr shows the card The access key to create at your provider. For Amazon S3, Wasabi, Backblaze B2 and Autre (MinIO, Garage, NAS), it gives the exact rules to paste there, with a Copy button. For Cloudflare R2, Scaleway and OVHcloud, it tells you what to choose in the provider's console. It also recommends turning on object versioning on the bucket: a deletion then stays recoverable on your side.

Your bucket needs no CORS setting: neither the desktop app nor the browser talks to it directly.

Two common examples:

FieldCloudflare R2Amazon S3
Endpointhttps://YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.comhttps://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
Regionautothe bucket's region, such as eu-west-1
AddressingPath-styleVirtual-hosted

The endpoint must be a public HTTPS address, with no path after it. Filarr refuses http://, localhost and private addresses.

Connect your bucket

  1. Go to Settings → Account & Sync, section Where synced files live.
  2. Choose the scope: Account (all profiles), or Profile followed by the current profile's name, to set a bucket for this profile only. A profile without its own bucket shows Inherited from account.
  3. Click Use my bucket.
  4. Pick the Provider, then fill in Endpoint, Region, Bucket, Addressing, Access key ID and Secret access key.
  5. Click Test. Bucket reachable. means Filarr could reach it. The test takes a few seconds and uploads nothing.
  6. Click Save.

From the next sync, new files go to your bucket. Filarr keeps your secret encrypted and doesn't show it again.

Storage on your own network (desktop app)

In the desktop app, Where the storage lives also offers On my network (NAS, MinIO, Garage). Filarr's servers can't reach such storage, so its health isn't checked and your existing files aren't copied over: it starts empty and fills up with your next syncs. An http:// address is accepted there. Your files stay encrypted, but your storage keys travel unencrypted on that network.

Bring your existing data over

After you save, the panel Bring your data into this bucket shows what is still only on Filarr Cloud. Sync stays paused until it is copied.

  1. Click Copy now. The copy runs from server to server: the encrypted files move as they are, and nothing goes through your device. You can Stop and start again later; the copy picks up where it left off. An object already in your bucket is never overwritten.
  2. When the copy is complete, you can free the space on Filarr Cloud with Delete Filarr Cloud copy. Filarr first checks that every object exists in your bucket.

Check your bucket's health

The status card shows your provider, your bucket and the result of the last check. Filarr checks your bucket every few hours and emails you after three failures in a row. Click Check now to test it at any time.

While your bucket can't be reached, sync stops. Filarr never concludes that your cloud is empty.

Go back to Filarr Cloud

  1. Click Switch back to Filarr Cloud.
  2. Choose what happens to your files:
    • Copy them back, then switch (recommended): Filarr copies everything back to Filarr Cloud, from server to server, then switches. Your data must fit the Filarr Cloud quota of your plan.
    • Switch without copying: Filarr Cloud only has what it had before you switched. Files added since stay in your bucket, where Filarr no longer sees them.

Either way, Filarr doesn't empty your bucket. Delete its content at your provider if you want to.

Limits

  • You can change the storage target twice every 7 days, or once when the provider is Autre (MinIO, Garage, NAS). Filarr shows how many changes you have left. Replacing your access keys, with the same endpoint and bucket, doesn't count.
  • If your subscription ends, Filarr stops writing to your bucket, keeps reading it for about 30 days, then stops using it. Your files stay at your provider.