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setting up OwnTracks on my server # source
OwnTracks is a self-hostable service for tracking locations.
It's like an open-source, self-hostable version of Life360, Apple's Find My Friends, Google's Find My Device or many other apps which let you view the location history of yourself or others.
You can self-host it on a raspberry pi, a server, or otherwise a computer which is always-on and has access to the Internet (with a static IP).
I tried installing it on my server, and this is what I ran. Notably, it wiped my existing nginx configuration, so I suggested a clarification of that in the documentation and made sure to back my config up so I could restore it. Thankfully I was already doing that.
# install files
cd /usr/alifeee/
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/owntracks/quicksetup
mv quicksetup owntracks
cd /usr/alifeee/owntracks/
# edit configuration
cp configuration.yaml.example configuration.yaml
nano configuration.yaml
# back up nginx.conf
(cd /media/alifeee; sudo ./back-up.sh)
# set up
sudo ./bootstrap.sh
# reset nginx conf (it blanks it)
sudo chmod u+w /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
sudo cp /media/alifeee/20250307T1749/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# put this into config
echo '# for owntracks
map $cookie_otrauth $mysite_hascookie {
"vhwNkyPGPCvnMCiQRkCs" "off";
default "My OwnTracks";
}'
# get passwords
sudo tail /usr/local/owntracks/userdata/*.pass
Files are stores in /usr/local/owntracks. I can then visit https://owntracks.alifeee.net/, login, and see a setup. I downloaded the Android app and set it up by opening the file from my website with the app, and it set up pretty well!
Then, I went for a walk, and looked at the "frontend", which puts out a view like this, of my location history:
___
___/ \
/ alifeee
|
/
|
\___
\__
It's pretty neat! And self-hosted! Another service to join the maybe-too-many on my server…
I made an account on it for my friends and we plan to use it to keep track of each other in our hitchhiking adventure next week.