Hi Sven!

If the external storage is already mounted directly to your server's filesystem (for example, at /mnt/external-storage)you do not need the Remote Storage plugin at all. 

The Remote Storage plugin is designed specifically for cloud object storage APIs (such as AWS S3). Since your storage is mounted at the OS level, PHP and your web server can treat it as a regular local directory.

The easiest and most reliable way to move your images to the mounted storage is to use a symbolic link (symlink) or a bind mount:

Step-by-step setup:

1. Move the existing uploads folder to your mounted drive.

By default, NorrCompetition stores all uploaded images in the ncuploads folder in your Joomla root directory (or a custom folder name if you changed the Uploads Directory setting in NorrCompetition → Options → General). Move this folder (including its photos and photos/tmp subdirectories) to your mounted storage, for example: 
mv /path/to/joomla/ncuploads /mnt/external-storage/ncuploads

2. Create a symbolic link in your Joomla root.

Create a symlink in your Joomla root pointing to the new location:
ln -s /mnt/external-storage/ncuploads /path/to/joomla/ncuploads

3. Check permissions and server configuration.

Make sure your web server user (e.g., www-data, apache, or your cPanel/Plesk user) has read and write permissions on /mnt/external-storage/ncuploads.

Ensure your web server has symlink following enabled (Options +FollowSymLinks in Apache or disable_symlinks off; in Nginx, which is usually enabled by default).

If your PHP configuration uses the open_basedir restriction, make sure to add /mnt/external-storage/ncuploads to the allowed paths in php.ini / hosting panel.

That's it! NorrCompetition will continue to use ncuploads transparently, all existing image URLs will remain unchanged, and all new uploads will be saved directly to your external storage without taking up space on your main disk.

Kind regards,

Dmitrijs