FAQ's
Nextcloud snap is designed to be easy to install and simple to maintain. The ideal Nextcloud snap is an "install and forget" Nextcloud instance that works on most architectures and updates itself without needing administrative skills. Combining Nextcloud with snapd makes it a perfect fit for IoT or scalable environments. Snapd is a secure and robust technology which the Nextcloud snap team has embraced.
The Nextcloud snap team packages a stable default upstream Nextcloud, adds some snap magic, tests and releases that snap package. Since the Nextcloud snap team are neither upstream Nextcloud developers nor app developers, they need to ensure that the default Nextcloud snap does what it should. That entails packaging a stable default Nextcloud into a neat, easy to install package and testing fresh installs as well as automated updates, so that the Nextcloud snap community has peace of mind.
Sometimes the Nextcloud snap team needs to wait for some Nextcloud issues to be resolved upstream before releasing a stable default Nextcloud snap to the public. Some upstream changes may need more snap magic to ensure that it simply works, which requires careful configuration and testing. This excludes non default third party apps!
Note
Some people are wondering when they should prefer the snap over the VM or even Dockers which are available from other repositories.
The snap is nice for getting up and running quickly with minimal space, and will work great if you're happy not messing with it. It's a quality, optimized LAMP stack that will scale just as well as a "normal" Nextcloud installation; it's made for production. Since it's a snap you also get the benefit of automatic updates and the ability to rollback without worrying about needing to take a snapshot, etc.
However, the snap is very opinionated. Don't want to use Apache? Sorry, the snap uses it. Don't want to use MySQL? Sorry, that's what the snap uses. Something other than PHP whatever-we're-using? We picked the version we feel gives the best results. In other words, it's not very tinker-friendly. We don't do this to be mean, we do this so that we can reliably update it without your needing to worry about it.
The VM is much more flexible. It's a full version of Ubuntu server edition, allowing you to tweak whatever you need and it comes with many apps which are not that easy to configure for inexperienced administrators. This of course makes it larger. You'll also need to make sure you maintain it and keep the OS up-to-date. Since it's virtualized you can assign disk, CPU, memory, and network quotas to it (you'd need to install the snap in an lxc container or a VM to get the same abilities).
Nextcloud snap is designed to update (refresh) automatically by default.
You have full control to manage if and when your Nextcloud snap is updated with snapd daemon! See managing updates.
Note
Snaps update automatically, and by default, the snapd daemon checks for updates 4 times a day. Each update check is called a refresh. Updates can be set to occur on Friday at midnight, or for specific days of the month, such as only the third Monday, or even the last Friday of the month, between 23:00 to 01:00 the next day. They can even be postponed indefinitely, or for a set period of time. When, if, and how often, these updates occur is the job of the snap refresh command.
See what to do if an automatic update breaks my Nextcloud See how to manage automatic updates with snapd See how to revert Nextcloud snap after a failed automatic update See how to resolve automatic update issues
Note
First of all, let's get you back up and running. Snaps were designed to have a robust upgrade story. In the case of the Nextcloud snap, every time it refreshes (updates), it takes a snapshot of the database and other version-specific things (not the raw data though, e.g. pictures and documents) and holds them alongside the old revision of the snap.
sudo snap revert nextcloudWith that command, you should be back up and running right at the moment before the update happened.
This warning is only a suggestion. The "theming app" uses Imagick to generate favicons. The theming app works fine without the Imagick PHP module enabled, but this may differ from system to system.
Note
You will have to live with that warning... Nextcloud snap does not ship the Imagick PHP module!
Caution
Imagick is a security concern, and as such isn't enabled on purpose! You see this warning because the theming app uses Imagick to generate favicons. As a result, that particular feature (favicon generation) isn't possible while using the snap.
disable setup warning in Administration settings --> Talk --> disable warning
The Nextcloud snap "fixer" service nextcloud-fixer handles these missing indices for you. Be patient this may take a couple of minutes depending on your architecture.
If you're impatient you can add missing indices manually:
sudo nextcloud.occ db:add-missing-indices
After automatic upgrade the following upstream warning may be displayed One or more mimetype migrations are available. Occasionally new mimetypes are added to better handle certain file types. Migrating the mimetypes take a long time on larger instances so this is not done automatically during upgrades. which can be resolved by issuing command:
sudo nextcloud.occ maintenance:repair --include-expensiveImportant
The following mimetype migrations may take a while depending on system resources, so be patient!
Some files have not passed the integrity check. Further information on how to resolve this issue can be found in the documentation
↗️ . (List of invalid files…)
If you get a message that the integrity check has failed due to invalid files, check your logs for the invalid files. There is usually a link in the integrity failure message with a list of the files causing integrity failure. Within that listing there is usually a reference to the directory from which you may deduce the app name (i.e "spreed").
Important
Read the documentation
- find the files causing the issue in your logs or by following the link in the message and discover which app (
<appname>) those files reference - double check the app name in question
sudo nextcloud.occ app:list - remove the app in question
sudo nextcloud.occ app::remove <appname> - reinstall the app
sudo nextcloud.occ app:enable <appname> - run the integrity check manually and see output
sudo nextcloud.occ integrity:check-core - run the integrity check on the app
sudo nextcloud.occ integrity:check-app <appname>
The message should disappear. You may want to truncate your logs.
Q: Incorrect version displayed on Nextcloud security scan
If you have previously scanned your domain or subdomain via that scan page, it shows cached data from previous scan by default. There is a button called trigger re-scan → Try hitting that button, then wait for 5 minutes to revisit that scan page to query your domain or subdomain.
There are various factors that could cause an issue with your Nextcloud snap instance. Your logs may help find a probable cause. There is a good chance someone in the community has had a similar issue and knows how to resolve it. That depends on how you request assistance. So read your request for tone, avoiding hyperbole and assuming good intentions.
Important
Most importantly don't panic! Relax, take a deep breath, get a cup of tea and consider your options. Recollect all steps taken and note recent changes and then structure that information. Do the basics and try to get a grasp of the situation.
See getting help
Caution
Not having a backup makes a bad situation worse. There is nothing anyone can do if you don't backup your data. A good backup strategy will enable data recovery in the case of disaster. So depending on your backup frequency and how often you practice restoring your backup, you'll have a good chance of system recovery within a couple of hours with limited data loss. See backup, restore & migrate Nextcloud snap.
Tip
Depending on the type of failure, there is a good chance of recovering your raw data. By default all the stuff you care about is in the /var/snap/nextcloud directory. So just copy the entire directory to another drive (or machine). In the worst case you lose your database, but at least you'll preserve your raw data. Your raw data can be found in /var/snap/nextcloud/common/nextcloud/data if you haven't changed your data directory.
See what to do if an update breaks my Nextcloud
Important
Some third party apps are incompatible with Nextcloud snap. We do not maintain these apps and thus we can't fix anything within them to make them work, nor do we have the manpower to do so. If you're having issues with a third party app, please log an issue against the app itself.
First check your logs to discover which third party app is causing an issue. Then disable the app in the Nextcloud administration apps interface. If your Nextcloud interface is not available or your Nextcloud is in "Maintenance mode", you can disable apps using the management console or command line:
- list apps:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:list- disable apps:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:disable appname- remove apps:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:remove appname-
Duplicate Finder
- Disable duplicatefinder:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:disable duplicatefinder-
Recognize
- Disable recognize:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:disable recognizeNote
Recognize app path to node.js is reset by the app after an Nextcloud snap update. The admin would need to configure the path to be /var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/extra-apps/recognize/bin/node.
Tip
uninstall Recognize app before an update and reinstall after update -- if the Snap will not start after update, revert and remove Recognize, then update manually and reinstall Recognize
Important
Latest Recognize versions, when in WASM mode, require Node.js 20, which in turn requires a version of glibc >= 2.28 (more context here). The nextcloud snap is still using glibc 2.27 (from core18) due to Snap confinement, so Recognize's WASM mode won't work with the snap till this issue is solved.
Note
Similar to Recognize the Memories app tries to load tensorflow in node.js and will bump into glibc 2.27 and fail due to Snap confinement, so the Memories app won't work with the snap until this issue is solved.
-
Memories
- Disable memories:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:disable memoriesNote
The preview generator app installed manually besides 'default nextcloud previews' to generate previews for all sorts of media files, gobbles up disk space blowing up the database and increasing CPU load. After uninstalling the preview generator app you can safely delete the /var/snap/nextcloud/common/nextcloud/data/appdata_occredxxxx/preview/ directory. The file previews will be regenerated with 'default nextcloud previews' without requiring the preview generator app saving disk space and CPU load.
The "cached" files will want to be removed from the system drive to free up space. You will need to rescan and cleanup files and apps after removing the Preview generator app, and sometimes the database too.
Important
Be patient, regenerating default previews may take a while depending on system resources, files quantity or external media to be scanned!
enable birthday calendar for contacts:
sudo nextcloud.occ dav:sync-birthday-calendar
See Improve upload performance
See Configure CODE & Nextcloud office
or set up an alternative:
- how to install and configure Collabora CODE server for Nextcloud snap with docker
- how to install and configure Collabora CODE on a separate server for Nextcloud snap
So you've tried to encrypt your Nextcloud snap with Lets Encrypt and something went wrong after entering incorrect data, you'll need to correct that data.
You may run into a ... permission error because only root may overwrite the data.
Simply switch user to root sudo -i and try entering the correct data as root # nextcloud.enable-https lets-encrypt.
If that doesn't work, you'll need to encrypt from scratch.
Disable maintenance mode:
sudo nextcloud.occ maintenance:mode --offSee Managing cron
restart cron:
sudo snap restart nextcloud.nextcloud-cronenable cron:
sudo nextcloud.occ background:cronthese regular peaks (every 15 minutes) could be caused by failing Nextcloud cron.
see managing cron especially cron fails after upgrade
restart cron:
sudo snap restart nextcloud.nextcloud-cronenable cron:
sudo nextcloud.occ background:cronSee Snap confinement
Removable media must be mounted to either /media or /mnt as root with root permissions and connected to Snap!
The interface providing the ability to access removable media is not automatically connected upon install, so if you'd like to use external storage (or otherwise use a device in /media or /mnt for data), you need to give the snap permission to access removable media by connecting that interface:
sudo snap connect nextcloud:removable-mediasudo snap connect nextcloud:removable-mediasudo snap connect nextcloud:removable-mediaSee Setting default phone region
Find your country code using ISO 3166-1 country codes and edit config.php and add/edit line in config.php
'default_phone_region' => 'GB',
or issue command on host replacing "GB" with your country code:
sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set default_phone_region --value="GB"See Setting default maintenance window
Set default maintenance window time 01:00 (1 a.m.) UTC
edit config.php and add/edit line in config.php
'maintenance_window_start' => 1,
or issue command on host:
sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set maintenance_window_start --value="1"In some cases apparmor="DENIED" syslog warnings are "complaining" about failing Apparmor profile audits. These warnings are nothing to worry about since the snap is doing exactly what it should and confining the snap! The warning means, that automated Apparmor audits are failing because the request is being denied due to snap confinement. Not being able to audit those profiles should have no effect on the Nextcloud snap.
audit: type=1400 audit(1732273383.121:15114): apparmor="DENIED" operation="example" namespace="root//lxd-NEXTCLOUD_<var-snap-lxd-common-lxd>" profile="snap.nextcloud.nextcloud-cron" pid=2057758 comm="ps" requested_mask="read" denied_mask="read" peer="unconfined"
kernel
Apparmor comes with a predefined profiles, but there are also additional upstream Apparmor profiles which may reduce log warnings;
sudo apt install apparmor-profiles-extra
Snap confinement is a snap security feature on Ubuntu. This is the reason Nextcloud snap is not supported on non-Ubuntu distributions. So unless you allow the Nextcloud snap to access removable media in /mnt or /media you will not be able to access any other directory outside of the confinement on Ubuntu.
In a self-hosted environment on Ubuntu where SSH is available on the local network, yet blocked externally (firewall/router), you can access any local non-root directory, such as your home directory by connecting to local server via SFTP using the external storage app.
