Paperless from NAS[Support]

[Jyaelev]

What's your question or issue?

Hello,
If I install paperless on my NAS, it is possible for someone (with access to the NAS of course) to use as if it were a website?
I am currently archiving old family papers, my mother does not know anything about computers, dockerc etc...
If I install paperless on a NAS, can I just give her an address and she would open it as if she was opening a web page?
If yes... which is what I am hoping for, how do I go about installing it?
thank you for your help,

Jessica

What have you tried?

No response

Paperless-ngx version

Documentation Paperless-ngx v2.20.6

Host OS

docker

Installation method

Docker - official image

System status

{
    "pngx_version": "2.20.6",
    "server_os": "Linux-6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2-x86_64-with-glibc2.41",
    "install_type": "docker",
    "storage": {
        "total": 52427747328,
        "available": 52227244032
    },
    "database": {
        "type": "postgresql",
        "url": "paperless",
        "status": "OK",
        "error": null,
        "migration_status": {
            "latest_migration": "paperless_mail.0011_remove_mailrule_assign_tag_squashed_0024_alter_mailrule_name_and_more",
            "unapplied_migrations": []
        }
    },
    "tasks": {
        "redis_url": "redis://broker:6379",
        "redis_status": "OK",
        "redis_error": null,
        "celery_status": "OK",
        "celery_url": "celery@58a32da144bb",
        "celery_error": null,
        "index_status": "OK",
        "index_last_modified": "2026-02-09T13:52:07.766195+01:00",
        "index_error": null,
        "classifier_status": "ERROR",
        "classifier_last_trained": "2026-02-09T13:05:00.567034Z",
        "classifier_error": "No training data available.",
        "sanity_check_status": "OK",
        "sanity_check_last_run": "2026-02-09T09:07:05.455709Z",
        "sanity_check_error": null
    },
    "websocket_connected": "OK"
}

Relevant logs or output

No response

[stumpylog]

There's not a lot of information here to really help. How do you access paperless? Is your family member on the same network or somewhere else? Do you have a domain? a reserve proxy?

[Jyaelev]

Hi, thank you for getting back to me.

Sorry. Right now I have paperless on my own OC installed with Docker.
my mother would be off-site (her house, not mine).
I have a synology NAS, to which I can give her access through OpenVPN.

as far as I know, no domain, no proxy (I may be wrong)

thanx!

[stumpylog]

Then from the sounds of it, she could access it via it's IP address and port, using the address assigned to it in your VPN configuration. I assume that's about how you do it locally?

[Jyaelev]

Thank you. I was also wondering how to set up Paperless on a NAS for such an access... Thank you, Jessica Le lun. 9 févr. 2026, 19:08, Trenton H ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Then from the sounds of it, she could access it via it's IP address and port, using the address assigned to it in your VPN configuration. I assume that's about how you do it locally? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#12048 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK3U3SUY6SQ2YJCWBM4ARU34LDELDAVCNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNZUGY2DCNI> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: <paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/repo-discussions/12048/comments/15746415@ github.com>

[HiranChaudhuri]

Create some test installation to evaluate first. You will notice that paperless will have to be accessed via http(s) - through a browser or with API clients.

You did not mention how, but you said your users can access the NAS, and you can install paperless on the NAS. In that case there is no problem acessing paperless via web browser. Likely you need allow paperless to listen on a separate port, but that should be it.

[Jyaelev]

but is the installation the same as with windows?
that is, dockers (but were? directly on the NAS?) then paperless with all directories mounted on the NAS?
thank you

[StefanOltmann]

I run paperless-ngx on my Synology NAS.

Follow this tutorial: https://mariushosting.com/synology-install-paperless-ngx-with-office-files-support/

[StefanOltmann]

Indeed, the instances for redis, tika and gotenberg can be shared. You can have three distinct paperless instances.

[Jyaelev]

thank you leimer and stefan.
What do you mean by sharing redis, tika and gotenberg?
Please note that I am very new at this. I've never used containers before (did not even know what it was), so I'm learning as I go along and I'm finding this extremely interesting...

[StefanOltmann]

You can have multiple instances for paperless, but you only need one container for redis, tika & gotenberg.
For redis you just assign a prefix (see the docs). The other services don't depend on paperless at all.

I believe if you use postgres you will need multiple postgres instances, but you can also just use sqlite if you don't have a huge amount of documents.

[HiranChaudhuri]

You can even have one postgres or mariadb, given that this process runs several databases.
Regardless whether you go with three database containers and one DB each or with one database container providing three databases, be sure to correctly configure the three paperless instances to access the database. This is done with environment variables as documented in https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/configuration/#database

[Jyaelev]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you...

Reading Marius Hosting, I kind of understood that I need to install Portainer on the NAS.
Does that mean I have to install Portainer first, then Docker to do a regular docker installation?

[leimer]

This kinda matches my scenario.

You need the following:

• A docker compose setup to start up with the Container Manager of Synology.
  Container Manager -> Project -> Create -> Source : Create docker-compose.yml
  You can start with mine (anonymized):

version: "3.4"
services:
  broker:
    image: redis:7
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /volume1/documents/dms/redisdata:/data

  db:
    image: postgres:17
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /volume1/documents/dms/pgdata-17:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: paperless
      POSTGRES_USER: paperless
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: paperless

  webserver:
    image: paperlessngx/paperless-ngx:latest
    container_name: webserver
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - db
      - broker
      - gotenberg
      - tika
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - /volume1/documents/dms/data:/usr/src/paperless/data
      - /volume1/documents/dms:/usr/src/paperless/media
      - /volume1/documents/dms-export:/usr/src/paperless/export
      - /volume1/documents/scan:/usr/src/paperless/consume
     # scratch dir for uploads
      - /volume1/documents/dms/tmp:/tmp/paperless
    env_file: paperless-ngx.env
    environment:
      PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379
      PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENABLED: 1
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_GOTENBERG_ENDPOINT: http://gotenberg:3000
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENDPOINT: http://tika:9998

  gotenberg:
    image: gotenberg/gotenberg:latest
    restart: unless-stopped

    # The gotenberg chromium route is used to convert .eml files. We do not
    # want to allow external content like tracking pixels or even javascript.
    command:
      - "gotenberg"
      - "--libreoffice-auto-start=true"
      - "--libreoffice-start-timeout=90s"
      - "--chromium-auto-start=true"
      - "--chromium-start-timeout=60s"
      - "--chromium-disable-javascript=true"
      - "--chromium-ignore-certificate-errors=true"
      - "--chromium-incognito=true"
      #- "--chromium-allow-list=file:///tmp/.*"

  tika:
    image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/tika:latest
    restart: unless-stopped

with the paperless-ngx.env file containing your paperless-ngx configuration -> see documentation for setup.

• The file system setup to map the important folders => see paperless-ngx documentation for this setup
• Verify your paperless instance is accessible from your own local network by http://:8000 where as 8000 is the port you defined in the compose.

Once this is running, setup the vpn access for your family.

• aquire a dynamic dns service to have a public mapping from your most likely changing ip address to a static name like someone.dyndns.org or so.
• setup your synology nas in Settings -> External Access -> DDNS
  Either use an existing provider or create a custom one.
• Then you setup a vpn access (haven't done this yet with synology)
• Give the connection details to your family
• your family connects to the VPN and opens http://:8000
• Done

[Jyaelev]

thank you very much, I will look into it!
thanks for your time.

[Jyaelev]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you...

Reading Marius Hosting, I kind of understood that I need to install Portainer on the NAS.
Does that mean I have to install Portainer first, then Docker to do a regular docker installation?

[Jyaelev]

Thank you, Stefan, I will need to look into this a bit further, as I am a bit lost here… I thought the container was paperless! Is the easiest (and maybe safest for me!!!) way would be just to create different instances of paperless, as I mentioned earlier? FYI : I used postgres and I will end up with a large number of documents (1000s). Enclosed are my .yms and .env for info… From: Stefan Oltmann ***@***.***> Sent: mercredi 11 février 2026 17:22 To: paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx ***@***.***> Cc: Jyaelev ***@***.***>; State change ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx] Paperless from NAS[Support] (Discussion #12048) You can have multiple instances for paperless, but you only need one container for redis, tika & gotenberg. For redis you just assign a prefix (see the docs). The other services don't depend on paperless at all. I believe if you use postgres you will need multiple postgres instances, but you can also just use sqlite if you don't have a huge amount of documents. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#12048 (reply in thread)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK3U3SSKVWLAR4WDMW2FDZT4LNJKHAVCNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNZXGE3TENI> . You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AK3U3SQCXNRVKEEG6MNEHR34LNJKHA5CNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQA6CUE2.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[Jyaelev]

Thank you, Stefan, I will need to look into this a bit further, as I am a bit lost here… I thought the container was paperless! Is the easiest (and maybe safest for me!!!) way would be just to create different instances of paperless, as I mentioned earlier? FYI : I used postgres and I will end up with a large number of documents (1000s). Enclosed are my .yms and .env for info… From: Stefan Oltmann ***@***.***> Sent: mercredi 11 février 2026 17:22 To: paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx ***@***.***> Cc: Jyaelev ***@***.***>; State change ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx] Paperless from NAS[Support] (Discussion #12048) You can have multiple instances for paperless, but you only need one container for redis, tika & gotenberg. For redis you just assign a prefix (see the docs). The other services don't depend on paperless at all. I believe if you use postgres you will need multiple postgres instances, but you can also just use sqlite if you don't have a huge amount of documents. — Reply to this email directly, <#12048 (reply in thread)> view it on GitHub, or <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK3U3SSKVWLAR4WDMW2FDZT4LNJKHAVCNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNZXGE3TENI> unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AK3U3SQCXNRVKEEG6MNEHR34LNJKHA5CNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQA6CUE2.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[StefanOltmann]

Paperless has its own Docker container, but it depends on external services like Redis.
If you want additional features you can also provide a tika and gotemberg instance.
This all goes in one Docker compose setup.

I suggest you follow a tutorial like https://mariushosting.com/synology-install-paperless-ngx-with-office-files-support/ and if you have everything up and running you can modify your setup to include additional paperless instances. They can all go into one docker compose setup.

In doubt ChatGPT can help you modifying your docker compose setup accordingly.

[Jyaelev]

Thank you ! I created a « second paperless”, that is I copied my docker-compose.yml and everywhere “paperless” appeared as a directory. I changed with the new directory name “paperlessLitt”, so I got : services: broker: image: docker.io/library/redis:8 restart: unless-stopped volumes: - D:/paperlessLitt/redis:/data db: image: docker.io/library/postgres:18 restart: unless-stopped volumes: - D:/paperlessLitt/pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql environment: POSTGRES_DB: paperless POSTGRES_USER: paperless POSTGRES_PASSWORD: paperless webserver: image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest restart: unless-stopped depends_on: - db - broker - gotenberg - tika ports: - "8010:8010" volumes: - D:/paperlessLitt/data:/usr/src/paperless/data - D:/paperlessLitt/media:/usr/src/paperless/media - D:/paperlessLitt/export:/usr/src/paperless/export - D:/paperlessLitt/consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume env_file: docker-compose.env environment: PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379 PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENABLED: 1 PAPERLESS_TIKA_GOTENBERG_ENDPOINT: http://gotenberg:3000 PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENDPOINT: http://tika:9998 gotenberg: image: docker.io/gotenberg/gotenberg:8.25 restart: unless-stopped command: - "gotenberg" - "--chromium-disable-javascript=true" - "--chromium-allow-list=file:///tmp/.*" tika: image: docker.io/apache/tika:latest restart: unless-stopped volumes: pgdata: redisdata: and I changed the ports to 8010:8010 in my docker desktop it seems that everything is fine: But if I click on the port, or write the address on the explorer I get an error message, and I can’t access it! What did I do wrong? I still have my original paperless and I’m not running it . Thank you for your help! From: Stefan Oltmann ***@***.***> Sent: mercredi 11 février 2026 18:09 To: paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx ***@***.***> Cc: Jyaelev ***@***.***>; State change ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx] Paperless from NAS[Support] (Discussion #12048) Paperless has its own Docker container, but it depends on external services like Redis. If you want additional features you can also provide a tika and gotemberg instance. This all goes in one Docker compose setup. I suggest you follow a tutorial like https://mariushosting.com/synology-install-paperless-ngx-with-office-files-support/ and if you have everything up and running you can modify your setup to include additional paperless instances. They can all go into one docker compose setup. In doubt ChatGPT can help you modifying your docker compose setup accordingly. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#12048 (reply in thread)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK3U3STANIN6PCICPCLFJOD4LNO3HAVCNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNZXGIYDENA> . You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AK3U3SUXSHSOPRIK2ZMT73T4LNO3HA5CNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQA6CUXQ.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[Limerick-gh]

Hi

Port config should be like:

ports:
      - "8010:8000"

You would reach Paperless by external port 8010, but internal port needs to remain the same with 8000.

Maybe it's just that.

[Jyaelev]

Hi Limerick-gh,
I tried and still I'm not getting in...

I have a feeling all is fine as far as containers are concerned, but somehow I'm not getting in using the UI...

enclosed is my docker

thanks

[Limerick-gh]

Hi
Well, if you're on the same network as your NAS is and http://<NAS_IP>:8010 shows nothing, I would try to check the container logs from webserver-1.
Maybe some else can give further hints.

[Jyaelev]

I haven't tried setting up the NAS yet, but I tried sting the different instances, and I succed by adding the line :
PAPERLESS_URL: http://localhost:8010
to the webserver environment

Thank you all for your help!

[Jyaelev]

Thank you, i'll try. Le jeu. 12 févr. 2026, 20:55, Limerick-gh ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Hi Port config should be like: ports: - "8010:8000" You would reach Paperless by external port 8010, but internal port needs to remain the same with 8000. Maybe it's just that. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#12048 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK3U3SVPYDK53WOIL4KH2M34LTLDDAVCNFSM6AAAAACUPQUGNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNZYG4ZDMNQ> . You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state.Message ID: <paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/repo-discussions/12048/comments/15787266@ github.com>

[Jyaelev]

Reading Marius Hosting, I kind of understood that I need to install Portainer on the NAS.
Does that mean I have to install Portainer first, then Docker to do a regular docker installation?