Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

[Thread #273 for this comm, first seen 4th May 2026, 18:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

I pay for a Hetzner Storage Box which serves as a Restic backup point for my password database and my Paperless documents.

Recommend you follow the 321 backup strategy. Adopted to modern times I would say it is broadly:

• Have your data in more than 1 place
• Use more than one provider
• One of your types of backups should be physical media like an external hard drive.

From what you described if apple was to wipe your data[1] you would be completely out of luck.. for example if something deletes data in your Mac and then that deletion gets synced... For the most part syncing data is not a backup.

Lastly, recommend you try to put all your critical data in one folder, or identify folders with critical data and prioritize backup of those first while you figure out the rest.

[1] Not only can a deletion "sync" from your mac, but there can be any number of issues.. like a bad update to a file. There is also the possibility, no matter how small, that apple could wipe your data. Over time you always see news of "company X deleted entire set of data for user/company Y".

To help with the overwhelm, If you scanned these important documents then I'm presuming you still have the (paper?) originals?

Treat them as your source of truth and work with them first - some might have superceeded your backups anyway.

Then, as others have said, follow the 3-2-1 principle, but keep one of the backups as plain and simple files (.pdf I presume)

If you lock the files in an app, you're making it even more difficult to restore them later.

Personally, I put my files (ie. .pdf, .jpg, etc) in encrypted online file storage (Hetzner) and I made sure I keep instructions elsewhere on how to get them back again (in case I'm... not able to)

Keep it simple

I have a NAS with a couple of SSDs configured in a ZFS mirror that backs up to a Raid Z2 storage pool on the same NAS. Again, on that NAS, I run Paperless-ngx in a docker container. Finally, I use the iOS app Swift Paperless to upload documents to Paperless-ngx. All done over Tailscale.

My load bearing NAS has a lot of redundancy but no offsite backups so I still keep some important documents in the cloud. I'm saving up for another NAS that I can keep at a family members house but prices are insane right now :/

If you can follow the 3-2-1 storage rule without using the cloud, that's awesome. However, the upfront cost can be expensive depending on how much you are storing. Just do the best you can using whatever you have available to you, even if that means using iCloud as part of your setup.