Help
Guides for setting up and running NAS Reborn, the app that turns a spare iPhone or iPad, or an old Mac, into a network drive for your home, with optional web, S3 and git serving, a live camera, your home's sensor data and encrypted off-site backups when you want them.
Setting up
Getting Started
Install the app on a spare device, start sharing, and see it appear as a drive on every computer in the house.
Always-On Serving
Keep the server running around the clock: Guided Access, charging and battery guidance, and the watchdog that alerts you if serving stops.
NAS Reborn on a Mac
The same app on an old Mac: it serves in the background from the menu bar, comes back after a restart, and needs File Sharing off. What differs from the phone.
A Stand for the Server
Print a charging stand that holds the phone upright and aims its camera, with files in three angles for any iPhone from the SE to the Max models.
The network drive
The Network Drive
Connect from the macOS Finder, the Files app on iPhone and iPad, and Windows Explorer, all of which speak SMB out of the box.
Time Machine Backups
The device advertises itself as a Time Machine destination, so your Mac backs up to the drawer device over the network.
Device Accounts
The username and password other devices sign in with, for the network drive and for git. One per person, each revocable.
Files and websites
Folders, Access and Websites
One directory tree: every top-level folder can be an SMB share, an S3 bucket and a website at once, editable in the Files app.
External Drives
Grow the server's storage with a USB drive: adapters for Lightning and USB-C, powering spinning disks, and supported formats.
Access Keys and S3 Clients
Create and revoke access keys, connect S3 Files with a QR code, and configure rclone, Cyberduck and other S3 tools.
Template Sites
Jekyll-style sites with Liquid templates, Markdown, layouts and posts, rendered live on the device with no build step.
Git Repositories
Host git repositories on the device, push from Working Copy, Tower or the command line, sign in with revocable API tokens, and publish a website with every push.
Cameras and sensors
Camera Feeds
Watch the server device's own camera live in a web browser, or have it watch for movement, keep short clips and notify you.
Home and Sensor Data
The device's own sensors and your Apple Home accessories, readable from template sites and charted on a dashboard.
Backups
Backing Up Your Server
Encrypted snapshot backups of the server's folders, to another NAS Reborn or any S3 bucket, with a recovery phrase that restores anywhere.
Hosting a Backup
Offer someone an encrypted vault on your device, cap its size and share an invitation; you can never read what lands in it.
Network and questions
Your Address and HTTPS
The server gets its own hostname under nas2.dk and a real Let's Encrypt certificate, set up by itself the first time the app runs. Or bring your own domain.
Trusted HTTPS on Your Own Network
The server answers at its .local name with a certificate it creates itself. Install it once on each device and connections at home are HTTPS, with or without an internet connection.
Reaching Your Server
On your own network it always works. For the wider internet: IPv6, automatic port mapping, manual forwarding, each verified from outside before it is offered.
Network Relay
Reach the printer, the router or a computer at home from your other iPhone, iPad or Mac, wherever you are, through your NAS Reborn device.
Frequently Asked Questions
Battery safety, pricing and the free tier's limits, backups, and what keeps working if the backend ever goes away.