How to Install Mealie on Your UGREEN NAS

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How to Install Mealie on Your UGREEN NAS

Mealie is a self hosted recipe manager and meal planner with a RestAPI backend and a reactive frontend application built in Vue for a pleasant user experience for the whole family. Easily add recipes into your database by providing the URL and Mealie will automatically import the relevant data or add a family recipe with the simple and user-friendly UI editor. Use Mealie this Thanksgiving, Christmas, for New Year or birthday celebrations to help you plan your menu and have all the recipes youā€™ve been eyeing and itching to try all in the same place. Mealie is an alternative to Tandoor Recipes. In this step by step guide I will show you how to Install Mealie on your UGREEN NAS using Docker & Portainer.

šŸ’”Note:Ā This guide works perfectly with the latest Mealie v3.14.0Ā release.

šŸ’”Note: Check out my guide on how to Install Mealie on Your Synology NAS.

  • STEP 1

Please Support My work by Making a Donation.

  • STEP 2

InstallĀ Portainer using my step by step guide. If you already have Portainer installed on your UGREEN NAS, skip this STEP. Attention: Make sure you have installed the latest Portainer version.

  • STEP 3

āš ļøMandatory: Add Read & Write Permissions to the Docker Folder.

  • STEP 4

Go toĀ Files and open the docker folder. Inside the docker folder, create one new folder and name itĀ mealie. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 1

  • STEP 5

Now create two new folders inside the mealie folder that you have previously created at STEP 4 and name them data and db. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 2

  • STEP 6

Follow my step by step guide on how to activate SMTP for your Gmail account. This step is mandatory. Note: If you don’t want to use the easiest way for SMTP with Google and you already have SMTP details from your own Mail Server, you can just skip this STEP and use your personalized email SMTP details instead.

  • STEP 7

Log into Portainer using your username and password. On the left sidebar in Portainer, click onĀ HomeĀ thenĀ Live connect. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Portainer Add Stack NAS 1

On the left sidebar in Portainer, click on StacksĀ thenĀ + Add stack. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Portainer Add Stack NAS 2

  • STEP 8

In the Name field type in mealie. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Note: Copy Paste the code below in the Portainer Stacks Web editor.

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:18
    container_name: Mealie-DB
    hostname: mealie-db
    user: 999:10
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-q", "-d", "mealie", "-U", "mealieuser"]
      timeout: 45s
      interval: 10s
      retries: 10
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/mealie/db:/var/lib/postgresql:rw
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: mealie
      POSTGRES_USER: mealieuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mealiepass
    restart: on-failure:5

  mealie:
    image: ghcr.io/mealie-recipes/mealie:latest
    container_name: Mealie
    hostname: mealie
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    read_only: false
    healthcheck:
      test: timeout 10s bash -c ':> /dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/9000' || exit 1
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 90s  
    ports:
      - 9925:9000
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/mealie/data:/app/data/:rw
    environment:
      TZ: Europe/Bucharest
      PUID: 999
      PGID: 10
      MAX_WORKERS: 1
      WEB_CONCURRENCY: 1
      ALLOW_SIGNUP: true #or false
      BASE_URL: http://192.168.1.18 #or your Domain Name or DDNS with https:// at the beginning.
      DB_ENGINE: postgres
      POSTGRES_USER: mealieuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mealiepass
      POSTGRES_SERVER: mealie-db
      POSTGRES_PORT: 5432
      POSTGRES_DB: mealie
      SMTP_HOST: smtp.gmail.com
      SMTP_PORT: 587
      SMTP_FROM_NAME: Mealie
      SMTP_AUTH_STRATEGY: TLS # Options: TLS, SSL, NONE
      SMTP_FROM_EMAIL: Your-own-gmail-address
      SMTP_USER: Your-own-gmail-address
      SMTP_PASSWORD: Your-own-app-password
    restart: on-failure:5
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value numbers for user with your own UID and GID values. (Follow my step by step guide on how to do this.) 999 is my personal UID value and 10Ā is my personal GID value. You have to type in your own values.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value forĀ TZ.Ā (Select your current Time Zone from this list.)
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Run command area below, change the value numbers for PUIDĀ andĀ PGIDĀ with your own values. (Follow my step by step guide on how to do this.) 999 is my personal PUID value and 10 is my personal PGID value. You have to type in your own values.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for BASE_URL and add your own Synology Local NAS IP. http://192.168.1.18 is my own UGREEN Local NAS IP. You should add your own UGREEN Local NAS IP.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for SMTP_FROM_EMAILĀ and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 6.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for SMTP_USERĀ and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 6.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for SMTP_PASSWORDĀ and type in your own Gmail app password. STEP 6.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 3

  • STEP 9

Scroll down on the page until you see a button namedĀ Deploy the stack. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below. The installation process can take up to a few minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 4

  • STEP 10

If everything goes right, you will see the following message at the top right of your screen: ā€œSuccess Stack successfully deployedā€œ.

Portainer Success Stack NAS

  • STEP 11

šŸŸ¢Please Support My work by Making a Donation. Almost 99,9% of the people that install something using my guidesĀ forget to support my work, or justĀ ignoreĀ STEP 1. Iā€™ve been very honest about this aspect of my work since the beginning: I donā€™t run any ADS, I donā€™t require subscriptions, paid or otherwise, I donā€™t collect IPs, emails, and I donā€™t have any referral links from Amazon or other merchants. I also donā€™t have any POP-UPs or COOKIES. I have repeatedly been told over the years how much I have contributed to the community. Itā€™s something I love doing and have been honest about my passion since the beginning. But I also Need The Community to Support me Back to be able to continue doing this work.

  • STEP 12

The installation process can take up to a few seconds/minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection. Now open your browser andĀ type in http://ugreen-ip-address:9925 Add the default Email address and Password, then click Sign In. You can change them later. Follow the instructions in the image below.

āš ļøWarning: the default Email is changeme@example.comĀ and the default password is MyPassword

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 5

  • STEP 13

Choose your language. Click Next. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 6

  • STEP 14

Type in your own details. Check Enable Advanced Content. ClickĀ Next. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 7

  • STEP 15

Click Next. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 8

  • STEP 16

Click Submit. After that, wait 1-2 minutes for the installation to be completed, then go to the next step. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 9

  • STEP 17

Mealie is successfully installed. Click Home. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 10

  • STEP 18

At the top left of the page, click the + Create then import a recipe by URL button to import recipes from the world wide web. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 11

  • STEP 19

Import a recipe in Mealie by pasting an external URL for a recipe of your choice, then clicking + Create. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 12

  • STEP 20

Your Mealie dashboard at a glance!

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 13

  • STEP 21

Note: If you want to run the Mealie container over HTTPS, check my guide on How to Run Docker Containers Over HTTPS on Your UGREEN NAS. āš ļøWarning: Also remember to change the BASE_URL environment variable at STEP 8 from BASE_URL: http://192.168.1.18 to BASE_URL: https://yourddnsordomainname

Mealie UGREEN NAS Set up 14

  • STEP 22

If you want to disable user registration in Mealie, just change the following line in the compose at STEP 8:

ALLOW_SIGNUP: true

with the following one:

ALLOW_SIGNUP: false

Click update the stack to update the settings. From this point on, the register button will disappear from the Mealie homepage.

Enjoy Mealie on Your UGREEN NAS!

šŸ†˜TROUBLESHOOTING

šŸ†™Note/Update/Container: How to Update Your Docker Containers on UGREEN NAS Using Portainer.
šŸ³Note: How to Create Docker Shortcuts on Desktop.
šŸ†•Note: How to Update Portainer to the latest version.
šŸ†•Note: How to Clean Docker.

This post was updated on Sunday / March 29th, 2026 at 4:05 AM

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