I whitelisted my own npub, and enabled bip42 authoritization. I added that relay to my profile. Then I tried just posting a message, which showed up on the relay. After that I tried nostrsync. No manual upload involved.
Discussion
Ok, I too enabled nip42 (though a finite monetary supply for bitcoin is nice too, and it's already enabled on my bitcoin node). I think I've done it exactly like you. Maybe your relay was already a well-known one while mine wasn't? Not sure how it selects relays for publishing.
Have a look at - https://github.com/jooray/nostr-scripts
You configure the backup script with your server address and it sync your notes there.
Thanks for this! nostr-scripts really helped me. It also had me discover the great nostr army knife by nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 : https://github.com/fiatjaf/nak
`nak req` has recently added the `--paginate` and related flags that should, if I understand them correctly, remove the need for these scripts. The README has some examples.
I spun it up about an hour before.