Switching file storage

Kept stores files (photos, receipts, documents) on the data volume (KEPT_STORAGE=local, the default) or in an S3-compatible bucket (KEPT_STORAGE=s3 with the KEPT_S3_* variables). Changing KEPT_STORAGE alone doesn’t move anything: the files already stored stay where they were and Kept can’t find them. Moving them is a copy.

Moving

Files never change once stored, so the copy is safe while Kept runs, and it can be repeated: a file already at the destination with the right hash is skipped.

1. Add the destination’s settings beside the current ones (for S3: KEPT_S3_BUCKET, KEPT_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID, KEPT_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and, if needed, KEPT_S3_ENDPOINT, KEPT_S3_REGION, KEPT_S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE), keeping KEPT_STORAGE as it is.
2. Copy while Kept runs: kept admin storage copy --to s3 (or --to local). Every file the database refers to, and its resized versions, is copied and its SHA-256 checked. --dry-run only counts.
3. Stop Kept, and copy again: only what arrived since is copied.
4. Set KEPT_STORAGE to the new store, and start Kept.
5. Verify: kept admin storage verify --store s3 checks every file the database refers to.

The old files are left where they were; delete them yourself once you’re satisfied.

Before you choose S3

• Turn on bucket versioning: with S3 storage the backups don’t hold the files, and versioning is what brings back a deleted or overwritten one (backups).
• Phones fetch files from the bucket directly, through short-lived signed links. If the server reaches the bucket at an address phones can’t (inside Compose, say), set KEPT_S3_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT to the one they can.
• Serve the bucket from its own hostname, never Kept’s.