From Restic to ZFS: How Tech Pros Back Up and Sync Personal Data

Crafting a reliable personal data backup and synchronization strategy is a common challenge, especially in today's multi-device households. Finding the right balance between convenience, cost, security, and privacy leads to a wide array of setups, from simple manual copies to complex, automated multi-layered systems.

The Power User's Toolkit

For those comfortable with command-line tools and a hands-on approach, a few key pieces of software form the backbone of many robust backup strategies:

• Encrypted Backup Tools: Restic, Borg, and its newer alternative Kopia are frequently mentioned. These tools excel at creating encrypted, deduplicated, and versioned backups. They can target various storage backends, including local drives, SSH servers, and S3-compatible cloud storage like Backblaze B2, making them incredibly versatile.
• Filesystem-Level Snapshots: Users running Linux or FreeBSD often leverage the power of modern filesystems. ZFS, combined with tools like sanoid for snapshot management and syncoid for replication, provides an extremely efficient and reliable way to create instantaneous, space-efficient backups that can be sent to other machines.
• The Classics: The venerable rsync remains a go-to for simple, incremental file-level copies between systems. For ultimate simplicity and transparency, some still prefer a straightforward tar | zstd | gpg pipeline to create compressed, encrypted archives on an external drive.

Sync vs. Backup: A Tale of Two Needs

It's crucial to distinguish between keeping files synchronized across devices and creating true, versioned backups. Many use a combination of tools for these distinct purposes.

• Synchronization: For keeping files up-to-date across multiple computers and mobile devices, Syncthing is the standout favorite. It offers a private, peer-to-peer method for syncing folders without relying on a central cloud server. For those who prefer the convenience of cloud services, Dropbox and Google Drive are still used, but often with an added layer of client-side encryption via tools like Cryptomator to protect sensitive data.
• Backup: True backups are about disaster recovery. A common and highly effective strategy follows the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite). This often looks like:
  1. Data lives on the primary device.
  2. It's backed up or synced to a local Network Attached Storage (NAS) device (e.g., a Synology or a custom-built server).
  3. The NAS is then backed up to an offsite location. This could be a cloud service like Backblaze B2 or even a friend's NAS for a cost-effective, geographically redundant solution.

The Public vs. Private Cloud Debate

A central theme is the trade-off between the convenience of mainstream cloud providers and the privacy of self-hosted solutions. One side argues that for family use across different platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS), services like Google Drive, iCloud, and OneDrive are the simplest solution. They are cross-platform and generally easy for non-technical family members to use.

The opposing view raises significant privacy concerns, particularly around data scanning and use for AI model training. This camp strongly advocates for self-hosting with tools like Syncthing or Nextcloud, or at the very least, ensuring all data sent to the cloud is end-to-end encrypted. The consensus among the privacy-conscious is that if you use a public cloud for backups, it should only be a "dumb" storage target for already-encrypted data from tools like Restic or Kopia.

Handling the Mobile Ecosystem

Backing up mobile devices, particularly in a mixed iOS and Android environment, remains a significant pain point. While iCloud works seamlessly for Apple devices, cross-platform solutions are less elegant. Common approaches include:

• Using the respective cloud provider's app (Google Photos/Drive, iCloud).
• Syncthing on Android to sync the entire storage or specific folders to a computer or NAS.
• Specialized, privacy-focused photo apps like Ente (cloud-based E2EE) or the self-hosted Immich.