Record video straight to Nextcloud or your own WebDAV server

Your server, your rules, and one limitation to plan for.

For organisations and individuals who do not want footage sitting with a large US cloud provider, Witness can upload to a Nextcloud or WebDAV server you or someone you trust runs. This page covers what that gives you and what it costs. Written by the developer of Witness Camera, so read it with that in mind; where another approach is better, it says so.

Short answer. Witness can upload each 15-second piece to Nextcloud or any WebDAV server while recording. That keeps footage off Google and Dropbox, so it is not reachable by legal process served on them, and there is no Witness server in between. The trade-off is that WebDAV has no sharing mechanism, so an emergency contact is not granted access automatically and you share the folder yourself. Google Drive and Dropbox are the only options where emergency contacts are granted access automatically.

Why choose your own server

No US cloud provider in the middle. Footage in Google Drive or Dropbox is reachable by warrant served on those companies. Your own server is not.
You control retention and access, which matters for organisations with policies.
No Witness server either. Footage goes from the phone to the server you connected.

Setting it up

Choose Nextcloud or WebDAV when connecting storage. Nextcloud uses its login flow, and WebDAV takes the server address and credentials.
Test with a 30-second recording and confirm the files appear on the server.
Plan how footage will be shared with colleagues, since there is no automatic sharing.

The trade-off

Emergency-contact sharing has to go through the storage provider's own interface. Google Drive and Dropbox have one, WebDAV does not, so with your own server nobody is granted access automatically. For a team, that usually means a shared account or a folder shared by an administrator.

What is still true

You are responsible for the server's security and availability.
Hashes and the manifest are written the same way, and the time-stamp is requested the same way, whichever storage you use.
Proton Drive is not supported, because Proton publishes no interface a third-party app can use.

See Witness for NGOs and human rights teams for a wider workflow.

Questions

Can Witness upload to Nextcloud?

Yes, Nextcloud and any WebDAV server are supported, in addition to Google Drive and Dropbox.

Why can't my emergency contact see footage on WebDAV?

WebDAV has no sharing mechanism, and Witness has no server of its own, so automatic access works only on Google Drive and Dropbox. Share the folder yourself.

Does Witness support Proton Drive?

No. Proton encrypts files with keys tied to your account and publishes no interface for other apps.

Is footage safer on my own server?

It avoids legal process served on a large US provider. Its safety then depends on how you run the server.

Try it free

The free app includes this. Set it up and test it before you need it.

Get Witness Camera for Free Get it on Google Play

More Witness features explained

Written on 27 October 2026. Features and prices change. This is not legal advice.