VPN issue -- my phone runs VPN regardless of whether I am at home or not, so I would still need to be able to route synchthing outside of the VPN traffic to be recognized as being at home?

I don't need much space for pictures. I'm at 30 GB I believe. But outside of pictures I could also backup other data and maybe get to around 100 gb.

I'm going to guess that cronjobs allow you to schedule batch scripts to run at certain times of the day. So, as an example, you could rsync copy your library to another location in an automated way.

I'm willing to accept some risk of loss to get off Google, but would like to minimize the risk within my means (not much means). I'm not concerned about theft, nor fire. If I want to avoid hardware failure, I need to purchase an external storage space and back the data up there. I think with the quantity of data I have, I could spend $80-$100 USD for a SSD, and be well covered space wise.

Thoughts? And let me know if I interpreted anything you said wrong. I do computer stuff, but have always had to trust others for this part of things.