### Author:  [@Lander0606](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lander0606)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 10:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/1 "2025-06-13T10:08:30Z")
Hi all,
I’m trying to change the Discourse uploads location to an external storage location on my self-hosted instance due to space constraints. I have a CIFS share mounted and already copied all existing uploads with the same directory structure to the mounted location.
Then, I added the following lines to the `app.yml`:
```plaintext
- volumes:
- volume:
host: //uploads
guest: /shared/uploads
```
After rebuilding the container with `./launcher rebuild app` (I’m the `root` user), the images are not visible anymore on the website. I appears that they all return a code 404.
I tried mounting the CIFS share as `root:root` and `_default_hostname:www-data`, but every time, images don’t show up.
What is the best (or correct) way to perform this change of locations for uploads?
Thanks in advance guys!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/2 "2025-06-13T15:15:44Z")
Here is what is the default:
```plaintext
volumes:
- volume:
host: /var/discourse/shared/standalone
guest: /shared
```
You probably want something like this:
```plaintext
volumes:
- volume:
host: /var/discourse/shared/standalone
guest: /shared
- volume:
host: /your/cifs/share/discourse-uploads
guest: /shared/uploads
```
---
### Author:  [@Lander0606](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lander0606)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/3 "2025-06-16T10:21:08Z")
True! I tried it that way, and it worked, just keeping in mind that the mounted storage location must have the right permissions. `root:root` doesn’t work, but `_default_hostname:www-data` seems to work.
Another thing I noticed: uploads in topics, even with moving them to the new storage location, don’t work anymore and have to be re-uploaded. Other images/uploads (logos, headers etc) work fine.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2025, 10:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/4 "2025-06-16T10:42:19Z")
> [@Lander0606](#):
>
> Another thing I noticed: uploads in topics, even with moving them to the new storage location, don’t work anymore and have to be re-uploaded
That shouldn’t be. Maybe you copied the files to the wrong place.
---
### Author:  [@Lander0606](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lander0606)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2025, 12:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/5 "2025-06-16T12:01:53Z")
I was thinking that too, but I double checked that I copied the whole `uploads` folder from `shared/standalone/` to my external storage location, including the `default` and other sub folders.
It’s important to mention that I tried a few times to change the uploads location with different configurations for the external storage (mostly different file and folder permissions) and in between executed a `rake posts:rebake` in an attempt to let the attachments work again, and maybe somewhere in between the problem occurred…
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/6 "2025-06-16T14:17:17Z")
It’s strange that uploading it again fixes it.
You can look at `Uploads.pluck(:url)` in rails and see if there’s something strange there.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploads-to-external-storage/370033/7 "2025-07-16T14:17:24Z")
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