If you’re facing storage issues, a NAS sounds very appealing. After all, a centralized place to store your photos, documents, and media that is accessible from any device on your network is a great way to offload important data from your main devices. That said, dedicated NAS enclosures can cost anywhere from $150 to $400, and that’s before you start adding the drives.
But home file storage doesn’t have to be expensive. All you need is an old laptop, or even a phone, and a simple Python script that’s giving Nextcloud a run for its money.
The tiny server that makes your old laptop useful again
This lightweight tool turns any dusty machine into a surprisingly capable file server
Copyparty is an open-source, self-hosted file server that’s built into a single Python file. Its defining characteristic is its simplicity: the entire server and all its features are contained within a single Python file. Run it, and your file server is up and running in no time.
There’s no database to configure, no web stack to assemble, and no Docker containers to spin up. Docker is supported if you prefer it, but you don’t need anything other than a simple Python file to get a file server running on just about every device you have.
Yes, you read that right. Copyparty can run on anything from old laptops to discarded Android or iPhones you might have lying around. It might sound complicated, but running Copyparty on an old Android phone is a simple matter of downloading Termux and running one command. That’s it.
Despite the ease of use and minimalistic approach, Copyparty has more features than you’d need on a daily basis. It supports resumable, chunked uploads with checksum verification, meaning a dropped Wi-Fi connection mid-upload doesn’t force you to start over. It’s got built-in WebDAV support, which lets you mount your file server as a network drive in Windows, macOS, or Linux. It can index your files for fast, in-browser searching, generate video thumbnails, transcode audio, and even serve as an FTP server. All of this on hardware you might’ve considered e-waste.
- OS
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Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
- Developer
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9001
- Price model
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Free, Open-Source
Copyparty can turn almost any device into a file server with resumable uploads/downloads using any web browser.
Turn your old laptop into a file server
Just a few commands and you’re up and running
While you can run Copyparty on almost anything, using an old laptop or desktop is the better long-term option. It has more storage capacity, a dedicated power supply, and a battery as backup in case you face power cuts.
Any laptop running Windows, macOS, or Linux and capable of running Python 3.3 or newer will do the trick. In case you’re wondering, that’s practically any device you can get your hands on.
Installation is rather simple as well. You can either download the self-contained copyparty-sfx.py file from the official GitHub repository or install it via Pip using this command:
pip install copyparty
Once you have the file, put it in the root folder of the storage drive you want to use as your file server and run the server by typing:
python copyparty-sfx.py
And that’s it. You’ll see the local IP address and even a helpful QR code to connect to the web interface, where you can start adding files and using Copyparty as you want.
For a more permanent setup, Copyparty can integrate with systemd on Linux, letting it start automatically at boot as a background service. You can set up a basic configuration file to map your storage folders to URL paths, assign user permissions, and that’s pretty much all the configuration the average home user would need.
Access your files from anywhere on your network
Share, stream, and move files across devices like you actually planned it that way
Once Copyparty is running, every device on your local network can reach it through any web browser—no app installations required. The web interface handles uploads via drag-and-drop, lets you browse folders, download individual files, or even entire folders as ZIP archives. It also plays audio and video directly in the browser.
The WebDAV support also makes it feel more like a traditional NAS. On Windows, the /?hc page on your Copyparty instance generates a ready-to-run command that can configure rclone to mount the server as a local drive letter. This means you can copy files to and from your home server the same way you would with any folder on your desktop, with transfer speeds upwards of 30 MB/s as tested on my network.
Features you won’t find anywhere else
Simplicity doesn’t have to mean fewer features
If you’re looking at Copyparty’s simplicity and wondering why you can’t use a simple Samba share or a basic Python HTTP server, you totally can. But you’ll miss out on the dozens of features Copyparty offers.
First up is file deduplication. When you upload a file that already exists on the server—identical content, regardless of file name—Copyparty detects the match and creates a symlink or hardlink instead of storing the data twice. If you use your Copyparty instance as a backup for phone photos or documents, and like me, prefer to back up data manually, this can save a significant amount of space without any effort to sort or cross-check old data.
Copyparty’s chunked upload protocol, called up2k, also verifies each chunk as a checksum as it arrives. If any corruptions are detected, only the affected chunk is resent. If your upload is interrupted entirely, resuming is as simple as dragging the same file into the browser again.
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Copyparty also supports quite a few file transfer protocols. HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, FTP, FTPS, TFTP, it speaks them all. This gives the tool remarkable flexibility. You can mount it as a network drive on Windows, access it through your FTP client of choice, or just use the web interface as you would with any other cloud storage alternative. There’s even built-in media and thumbnail support with a music player that reads metadata and an image gallery for browsing photos.
Then comes security, a major concern with more lightweight file-management tools. Copyparty handles this through a single configuration file where you control everything. You can set up multiple user accounts, fine-tune file permissions using a flag system, and even control access to individual folders. The permission system is a bit old-school, similar to Linux’s chmod rather than modern cloud storage solutions, but it’s incredibly fast, effective, and easy to understand.
What Copyparty still can’t replace
It’s powerful, but not perfect
As great as it is, Copyparty isn’t perfect and can’t do everything. If you need features like collaborative editing, calendar syncing, or contact management, look elsewhere. Copyparty is purely a file server, and that single focus is what allows it to do the job so darn well.
Additionally, there’s no built-in HTTPS without a reverse proxy like Caddy or Nginx, so if you want remote access outside your home network, you’re going to have to set it up yourself. For local network use, which covers a majority of home storage scenarios, none of that is necessary.
That old laptop in your closet can be useful again
You might not need a NAS at all
For most people who want to stop paying for Google One or Dropbox and start keeping their own files on their own hardware, Copyparty on an old phone or laptop is just about the perfect solution. It’s easy to install and run, requires no setup for local networks, and is blazing fast with downloads and uploads.
The hybrid cloud setup that made me ditch paid Storage
My hybrid cloud setup combines the best of self-hosting and cloud backup.
This isn’t just a technical hack; it’s practical proof that sometimes the best file storage is the one you host yourself. Your next personal file server is already sitting in your drawer, and I highly recommend you give it a shot.
