Pixel 6a as an always-on home server: 1TB HDD, Syncthing, SMB, Tailscale
Sharing my low-power homelab. No PC, no Pi, just an old Pixel 6a.
Hardware
- Pixel 6a (rooted), always on
- 1TB HDD in a powered USB enclosure (powers the HDD directly)
- USB-C hub dongle with pass-through charging, so the phone stays plugged in 24/7
- HDD mounted on Android using an ext4 FUSE layer
Software and network
- Tailscale: Pixel is always on my tailnet. No port forwarding, no public IP
- Syncthing: Photos and videos from my Vivo sync to the Pixel. On the iPhone I use the Synctrain (a Syncthing client)
- Google Photos: Pixel backs up to Google Photos
- SMB: Whole HDD accessible from any device, on local Wi-Fi or anywhere over Tailscale
- DroidVNC + SSH: Since the Pixel is rooted, I can control the whole device with DroidVNC and SSH into it, from home or away
- code-server
- Custom app: Self-hosted app I use daily
Photo flow
Vivo + iPhone → Syncthing → Pixel (HDD)
Pixel → Google Photos
Result: one copy on the HDD, one copy in the cloud
Why this setup?
- Low power draw (not measured yet, will update)
- Built-in "UPS" (the phone battery)
- Silent and tiny
- Cost almost nothing, since I already had the phone
Downsides
- FUSE ext4 is slower than native
- Android can kill background apps, so battery optimization must be disabled for everything
Happy to answer questions or share setup steps.