This is another item I hadn't considered presenting a difficulty. I had been using "File Manager +" for quite a while. The basic Graphene Files app was like the Google Files app, very simple, and annoying to navigate. I heavily rely on my home server where I store all of my backups including my full photo library.
While I didn't have too much trouble finding a file explorer that allowed me to seamless browse my network storage alongside local storage, I ran into some trouble with the actual experience. I have my photos in monthly folders but with twin toddlers in the house a single month is often around 1,500 photos - sometimes more. This isn't my primary reason for needing a file explorer and I'm planning on setting up a Photoprism instance in the near future, but it still seemed like the best way to evaluate my options.
Amaze seemed nice at first but quickly froze up while trying to navigate these large folders. Ghost Commander seemed to handle them mostly OK, though it often needs to reload and ask for my SSH password. I also couldn't find a way to switch to an icon/thumbnail view. Click and preview worked fine and I could swipe without having to exit and re-enter the preview mode but this was still far from ideal. At the moment I'm using Material Files, which has so far been handling everything without any major problems.
Notes in general have been something I've spent a lot of time with. Last year I started using Obsidian.md with the Github plugin for syncing. My usage of Obsidian has been an entire project in and of itself, especially as I've developed a personal workflow with templates and various customizations, and integrated it heavily into my dayjob. I exported all of my Keep notes and almost everything from my Notion account and converted them to markdown format, which made moving them into my Obsidian vault as simple as dropping those files into a folder.
The only two things I'm still using in Notion are my shopping list and my recipe database. The shopping list is something my wife and I both use constantly so it needs to sync immediately and be easy to access and manipulate. For now that means sticking with Notion, mostly for my wife's sake, until I figure out an alternative we can transition to seamlessly.
My recipe database is just a beast that I'm not sure how to handle yet. I've been using the Notion web-clipper in my browser to "clip" recipes I want to save, this automatically adds the page as an entry in my recipe database and scrapes the URL, title, and recipe into the body of the entry. I then give it a few tags for easy browsing ("quick & easy," "chickpeas," "Korean," etc.) and set the "cover" image to a picture of the completed dish from the website. I've got a nice image-centric board that's easy to browse visually or filter by ingredients and tags plus multiple filtered views like "On Deck." These are recipes where I have ticked the "On Deck" custom-property box meaning "I'm planning to make this soon," which then makes revisiting what I need while building the grocery list easier and pulling up the recipes when it comes time to actually cook. Each entry also has a notes field so I can add what we all thought of the meal or any modifications I made to it or want to make in the future. Moving this database isn't something I've thought a lot about yet just because it sounds like a pain and I really like how I've got things. So for now I haven't fully given up on Notion.
I've had some trouble with the Obsidian mobile app syncing and annoying conflicts in the workspace and plugin config files but I think that's been more an issue with me being bad at Git than it is some problem with the app. I've gotten that mostly figured out now but the longterm plan is to move to using Syncthing and my personal server rather than relying on GitHub for storage.
I had been a longtime OnePass user until their big data breach at which point I made the jump to BitWarden. It's been less reliable when it comes to autofill, especially in apps, or with automatically saving new logins on mobile, but otherwise fine. I've considered self-hosting it but at this point I don't think my setup and abilities are strong enough to justify the risk.
I've been using a patched (read: cracked) version of Spotify installed via xManager for a while now. It has some quirks (namely lacking the option to add whole albums to the queue) but otherwise has been nearly identical to the paid Pro experience, so as long as this project is alive I'm sticking to it and not giving Spotify a dime. That $15 a month can go to artists on Bandcamp and I can still get an ad-free experience when I want to stream Dua Lipa or whatever.
Similar to the above I had also moved to a patched YouTube experience installed via ReVanced on my phone and SmartTube on my TV via Fire Stick (another item on my chopping block but one which requires actually opening the device and shorting some connections to unlock). I'm not really a heavy user but I've got a lot of playlists connected to my Google account and I haven't looked into my options. I've taken a peek at NewPipe, a privacy-focused mobile client, but I've got to spend some more time with it.
I'm pretty basic when it comes to how I use GPS in that I really don't like turn-by-turn directions so I mostly just calculate directions and then refer to the list of steps while navigating. I find this helps me be more aware of my surroundings in a way that improves my ability to get around without needing a GPS all the time. I'm OK with making a wrong turn or taking a potentially less-efficient path.
My wife is heavily reliant on turn-by-turn, though, so finding her a good alternative is going to be important if she's going to follow me down this path. OsmAnd seems to cover all the bases but I haven't spent much time with it yet. I love all the data it offers and the various off-line options and plugins (like choosing an area and downloading all the relevant Wiki articles pertaining to its history and points of interest) but the initial screen was definitely overwhelming and hard on the eyes. I'm going to have to spend a little time customizing it and testing out the turn-by-turn option.
One of the Google services I've used most has been Play Books. For years I've been taking advantage of the fact that it allowed uploading any eBook to the cloud, syncing across devices, offering a browser experience, a clean and simple app, and one of my favorite parts: highlights stored in book-specific docs synced to Drive. The organization aspect has generally been lacking, though the shelves introduced in the last few years have helped, and search is terrible. I may be missing something but I've never been able to search my library without my search also including results from the Play Store.
Over the years I've tried a variety of alternatives and none have come close. A lot of people recommend Calibre and Calibre-Web but... I hate Calibre. I've used the desktop app for conversion and de-DRMing in the past and I just can't imagine using it any more than I have to. That said, I haven't actually tried Calibre-Web and maybe I would be happy with it.
I've been hosting my audiobook library via AudioBookShelf, which has recently added ebook support, so for now I'm sticking with that. I haven't been entirely happy with the reading experience in the app, frequently when swipping to the next page I get stuck in an in-between space and have to swipe back and forth a few times to fix it. I also haven't loved the highlighting experience (which of course doesn't have the auto-export feature of Play Books) but it's also new functionality in general and a work in progress, so I'm doing a little wait-and-see. I might give Ubooquity and/or Kavita a try again at some point to see if I like them any better than I did a year or two ago when I last tried.
AudioBookShelf also has Podcast support, which I've recently started to use. I was a longtime Podcast Addict user but after annoying issues with handling local files I started using AudioBookShelf for all the podcasts I have locally that don't have working RSS feeds anymore. Now I've started moving active podcasts into it, too, and it's been working just fine. The UI could use some work but overall I'm happy with it.
Another huge project I've been working on is smart-ing our home without any outside involvement or access. I don't like the idea of doorbell cameras for a variety of reasons (regardless of companies involved this sounds absolutely dystopian to me) but I really don't like doorbell cameras that give everything to Amazon and cops. I do love a lot of the conveniences smart devices can provide, though.
Our house came with a Z-Wave lock on the front door and I've found it comforting to have it set up to lock itself if it's after sundown and its been unlocked for more than a couple minutes. It's also nice to have various lights turning on and off on a schedule and notifications for the garage door being open or our sump pump leaking. I've been running a local instance of Home Assistant from a dedicated Raspberry Pi for a couple of years now and though it definitely has a learning curve it's been great to take advantage of those things without feeling like our house is being monitored by anyone but us.
I did take advantage of an offer a few years ago to get a Nest Thermostat for nearly nothing so Google does have an eye on our temperature, but it looks like controlling it exclusively locally via Matter is potentially possible. Another thing to look into later. For now I can control it as needed in Home Assistant and I don't have the Google Home app installed at all.
The easiest de-Googling move to make. Set DuckDuckGo as default and forget.
Continue to Part 3 HERE