How to Install OwnCloud on a Website Hosting Account

Last Updated: December 30, 2018

OwnCloud is a web application that’s really similar to Google Drive or DropBox, except you can host it on your own server or hosting account. The benefit of this is ultimately privacy, and its often cheaper than paying for something like DropBox, due to the cost of web hosting accounts being super low nowadays. OwnCloud also has an encryption feature which plays into the privacy aspect.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:
Downloading OwnCloud

1
Open your web browser and navigate to the following URL: https://owncloud.org/install/
2
Under section 1, “Get ownCloud Server”, select Download.
3
Select the option on the right, “Download ownCloud Server”.
4
Navigate to the “Web Installer”.
5
Right click “Download ownCloud Web Installer” and select “Save Link As…”

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:
Uploading the File to Your Hosting Account

1
Upload the file to your hosting account. To do this, please login to your cPanel hosting control panel. This will be provided to you when you purchase your web hosting account from your provider of choice.
2
Scroll down and navigate to the FILES tab. From there, select the File Manager button.
3
Double click the “public_html” folder to enter it. Here you will upload the file you downloaded previously
4
Upload the file we downloaded earlier by pressing the upload button in the navigation bar.
5
Select setup-owncloud.php to upload it.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:
Setting Up the Database

1
Go back to the cPanel control panel by navigating to the cPanel URL, and then locate the DATABASES tab, and select the MySQL Database Wizard button.
2
Select a name for your database. For example, you could use “ocloud”. Make sure you copy the full database name, and store it somewhere because you’ll need it later.
3
Select a name for your database user. You might name the database user “ocloud” as well. Make sure you copy the full database username, and store it somewhere because you’ll need it later. For example, mine is wikhow_ocloud.
4
Generate a random password using the Password Generator button.
5
Grant your database all privileges.