NAS Reborn
The Server Is Yours
A spare iPhone or iPad becomes a network drive for your home. It shows up in the macOS Finder, the iOS Files app and Windows Explorer, and it takes Time Machine backups, with the accounts living on the device itself. When you opt in, it also serves a real-HTTPS website and an S3 API to the wider internet. It uses little power, your computers talk straight to the device, and you buy it once.
How it works
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Dig out the drawer device
Install NAS Reborn on a spare iPhone or iPad, plug it in and tap the power key. It runs on iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2 and later, every device that runs iOS 15. An iPhone serving your files draws a few watts. On a Mac from 2015 on it serves from the menu bar while the Mac does whatever else you use it for.
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It shows up as a drive
On the same network the device appears in the macOS Finder, the Files app on iPhone and iPad, and Windows Explorer over SMB, with no client software to install. Drag files on and off, and point Time Machine at it to back up your Mac.
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Also on the web
Opt in and the device also serves a website and an S3-compatible API, with a Let's Encrypt certificate that renews itself. Drop a Jekyll-style folder in and it renders live, with no build step.
What it serves
A camera and a dashboard
With Pro, point the device's camera at the front door and watch live in a browser, or let it watch for movement and notify you with a clip. Read the phone's sensors and, from iOS 16.2, your Apple Home accessories, and chart them on a page it serves.
Backed up to a friend
Back up your folders to the device of a friend or to any S3 bucket. They are encrypted, so whoever holds one never sees a name or a byte. Each run leaves a snapshot, and hosting a backup for a friend costs nothing.
Git hosting of your own
Push repositories to the device and clone them back, large files included. Whichever git client you push from, the files on the drive and the website they serve are updated. Working Copy finds the server on its own.
A website in the same folder
The folder you drag files into is also the website. Pages can be Markdown with layouts and a post list, and a file you save is live on the next request. This site is one of those folders.
Room for a USB drive
Plug a drive into the device and share folders straight off it, so the server is not limited to the phone's own storage. With Pro the website and S3 serve from it as well. Time Machine backups can live there too. On a Mac, any drive the Finder shows will do.
Time Machine backups
Point Time Machine at the drawer device, which is ready for it as installed, and back up your Mac to it over the network, onto a USB drive when you plug one in.
Your home network, from anywhere
Reach the printer, the router or a computer at home from your other iPhone, iPad or Mac while you are away, through a network relay the device runs for them, with Pro.
Plays with your other apps
A pairing code on a folder's screen connects S3 Files on your other iPhone, iPad or Mac to that folder, and the server appears in the Files app and Finder. You can script it with rclone, and a browser reaches it like any website.
Your files stay files
Your folders hold plain files you can see in the Files app, or the Finder on a Mac, and leaving is as simple as copying them somewhere else.
Private by default
New folders are private until you decide otherwise. You can use one shared access key or, with Pro, hand out a separate key for each client.
Free and Pro
The network drive is free, giving you SMB sharing of two folders on the device, Time Machine backups and external USB drives with no size limits. The same two folders get a real-HTTPS website and S3 serving up to 5 GB each, and you also get two git repositories. A one-time Pro purchase removes these limits, serves USB drives on the web & S3 too, and adds a custom domain, camera feeds, a network relay into your home network, backups to more than one destination, and separate accounts and access keys for every person and every client. One purchase, paid once rather than as a subscription, covers iPhone, iPad and Mac, and the only bandwidth metering is your internet provider's.
Before you buy
The drive works on your own network. By default, NAS Reborn checks for security notices and sends anonymous usage statistics, and you can turn off both in Settings. It also registers with the NAS Reborn backend for a name at nas2.dk, publishes the device's address under it and gets a Let's Encrypt certificate for it, so HTTPS works the first time you turn on the website. Switching on the network relay, or hosting a backup for someone, adds a check-in with the NAS Reborn backend every 25 seconds, so the other devices can find this one. Being reachable from the internet is optional and depends on your connection, where you need IPv6, automatic port mapping or a router you can configure. NAS Reborn probes the device from outside and shows you which addresses work. Should the NAS Reborn backend ever disappear, your device keeps serving on your network and your files remain ordinary files in the Files app or the Finder.
