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Getting started · Chapter 2

Inviting your family

In nexdiary everybody has their own diary. There is no shared family account and no second-class accounts. Whoever runs the server sends the others an invitation link, and each person uses it to make their own account, with their own name and their own password.

Creating an invitation link

  1. Open the settings

    Tap your round account button, at the bottom left on a computer or the top right on a phone, and choose “Settings”. Only the operator sees that item. The “Accounts” tab is already open.

  2. Choose “Invite somebody”

    The button sits below the list of accounts. Under “Valid for” you pick 1, 7 or 30 days, with 7 preselected.

  3. Add a mail address if you like

    The “Mail address (optional)” becomes the address of the new account later. With it the person can reset a forgotten password on their own and hears about it when their account signs in on a new browser. If a mail server is set up under “Settings”, “Mail” tab, the switch “Send the link by mail” appears and nexdiary sends the link itself.

  4. Create the link and pass it on

    Tap “Create invitation link”. The link works once and is shown only now. Copy it and pass it on however you usually send each other messages. Without a mail server, nexdiary sends nothing.

Settings
Settings, Accounts tab: Jule as the operator, Paul, Mia and Ruth as members, all with a password and second factor on, each with the ticks AI allowed and Immich allowed and the button Send a link to reset, and at the bottom the button Invite somebody
A family's accounts, with the button for inviting below.

Open invitations are listed below, with the day until which they hold. “Withdraw” cancels a link that has not been used yet.

The link starts with the address nexdiary is reached at. If you have been working at 127.0.0.1 so far but your family reaches nexdiary at another address, enter that one first under “Settings”, “Sign-in” tab, as the “Public address”.

What the invited person does

  1. Open the link

    The page “Invitation” appears, with the sentence “You are invited to nexdiary. Make yourself an account; your diary is seen only by those you show it to.”

  2. Choose a name and a password

    The “Name” is the sign-in name, 2 to 64 characters made of letters without accents, digits, dot, hyphen or underscore. The “Password” has at least 12 characters. Then “Create account”.

  3. Set up the second factor

    Just as with the first account, the QR code for the authenticator app comes next and then the eight recovery codes. Only then does it go on to “Today”.

If a sign-in provider is set up, authentik for instance, the page also has a button “Accept with …” carrying the provider's name. Setting up a provider is described in the chapter Operator.

Accounts for children and grandparents

nexdiary has no child accounts and no sub-profiles. Mia gets an account of her own with her own password, just like Ruth and Paul. What she writes nobody else sees, her parents included, unless she shares a day herself. A few things make daily life easier.

  • The second factor applies to them too. The authenticator app does not have to live on their own device. For a child it can sit on a parent's phone.
  • A passkey makes signing in easy. After that a fingerprint or the tablet's PIN is enough, without password or code. It is added under “My account” on the “Security” tab, once nexdiary runs under https.
  • Staying signed in. With “Stay signed in on this device” ticked, the account stays signed in until it has not been used for 30 days. Handy on their own tablet, not on other people's devices.
  • A name everybody knows. Under “My account” on the “Profile” tab, everybody gives themselves a “Display name”, Granny Ruth for instance. That is how the others see them when they share a day.

When something gets lost

If Ruth has forgotten her password, tap “Send a link to reset” in her row. She uses it to choose a new password herself, because nobody sets a password for somebody else. Without a mail server, or without a mail address on the account, nexdiary shows you the link once and you pass it on. It works once and for 24 hours.

If her phone with the authenticator app is gone, open the menu “More for Ruth” with the three dots and choose “Remove second factor”. Ruth is told and sets the second factor up again at her next sign-in. Whatever else you can do with accounts is in the chapter Operator.

Good to knowAs the operator you manage accounts, but you read no entries. It says so above the list of accounts, and it holds just as much for anybody you later add with “Make operator”.