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# Nextcloud

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Related articles

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Nextcloud is a suite of client-server-software that (by means of so-called apps) allows all kinds of sharing, collaboration and communication, e.g.:

- file sharing
- personal information manager (contacts, calendar, tasks)
- messaging (mail, chat, video conferencing)
- collaborative editing of documents (text, Office integration)

Nextcloud is open source and based on open standards. Data sovereignty is a big plus, i.e. with your own instance of Nextcloud, you break free from proprietary (and potentially untrustworthy) services like Dropbox, Office 365, or Google Drive.

Depending on your needs Nextcloud can be deployed from single-board computers (like e.g. a Raspberry Pi) all the way up to full scale data centers serving millions of users. With an elaborated authorization scheme and the option for federation (connecting discrete instances) Nextcloud is well suited for use in enterprise environments.

Nextcloud is a fork of ownCloud. See Wikipedia for the history.

## Setup overview

A complete installation of Nextcloud comprises (at least) the following components:

A web server paired with an application server on which runs Nextcloud (i.e. the PHP code) using a database.

This article will cover MariaDB/MySQL and PostgreSQL as databases and the following combinations of web server and application server:

- nginx → uWSGI (plus uwsgi-plugin-php)
- nginx → FPM,
- Apache HTTP server (using mod_proxy_uwsgi) → uWSGI (plus uwsgi-plugin-php)
- Apache HTTP server (using mod_proxy_fcgi) → FPM

The Nextcloud package complies with the web application package guidelines. Among other things this mandates that the web application be run with a dedicated user - in this case `nextcloud`. This is one of the reasons why the application server comes into play here. For the very same reason it is not possible anymore to execute Nextcloud's PHP code directly in the Apache process by means of php-apache.

## Installation

Install the nextcloud package. This will pull in quite a few dependent packages. Most of the required PHP extensions will be taken care of this way.

It is recommended to also install the packages

- php-legacy-sodium for the argon2 hashing algorithm and
- php-legacy-imagick and librsvg for preview generation

(preferrably as dependent package). Other optional dependencies will be covered later depending on your concrete setup (e.g. what database you choose).

Mind that some modules (namely bcmath, exif, gmp, intl and sysvsem) come with php-legacy. So no explicit installation is required for those.

## Configuration

### PHP

This guide does not tamper with PHP's central configuration file `/etc/php-legacy/php.ini` but instead puts Nextcloud specific PHP configuration in places where it does not potentially interfere with settings for other PHP based applications. These places are:

- A dedicated copy of `php.ini` in `/etc/webapps/nextcloud` (for the `occ` command line tool and the background job). This is literally a copy of the original `php.ini` as provided by the php-legacy package with some Nextcloud specific additions / modifications.

- Corresponding settings in the configuration of the application server. These will be covered in the section about application servers.

Make a copy of `/etc/php-legacy/php.ini` to `/etc/webapps/nextcloud` (or even better, extract `php.ini` from the php-legacy package tarball below `/var/cache/pacman/pkg`). Although not strictly necessary, change ownership of the copy:

    # cp /etc/php-legacy/php.ini /etc/webapps/nextcloud
    # chown nextcloud:nextcloud /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

Most of the required PHP modules listed in Nextcloud's documentation are already enabled in the just copied bare PHP installation configuration file. Additionally enable the following extensions:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    extension=exif
    extension=gd
    extension=iconv
    extension=intl
    extension=sysvsem
    ; bcmath and gmp for passwordless login
    extension=bcmath
    extension=gmp
    ; sodium for the argon2 hashing algorithm
    extension=sodium
    ; in case you installed php-legacy-imagick (as recommended)
    extension=imagick

Depending on the database you are going to use enable the corresponding `pdo_xxxx` module. See Database below.

Set `date.timezone` to your preferred timezone, e.g.:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    date.timezone = Europe/Berlin

Raise PHP's memory limit to at least 512MiB:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    memory_limit = 512M

Optional: For additional security configure `open_basedir`. This limits the locations where Nextcloud's PHP code can read and write files. Proven settings are

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    open_basedir=/var/lib/nextcloud:/tmp:/usr/share/webapps/nextcloud:/etc/webapps/nextcloud:/dev/urandom:/usr/lib/php-legacy/modules:/var/log/nextcloud:/proc/meminfo:/proc/cpuinfo

Depending on what additional extensions you configure you may need to extend this list, e.g. `/run/valkey` in case you opt for Redis.

It is not necessary to configure opcache here as this `php.ini` is only used by the `occ` command line tool and the background job, i.e. by short running PHP processes.

### Nextcloud

Add the following entries to Nextcloud's configuration file:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    'trusted_domains' =>
      array (
        0 => 'localhost',
        1 => 'cloud.mysite.com',
      ),
    'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://cloud.mysite.com/',
    'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/',

Adapt the given example hostname `cloud.mysite.com`. In case your Nextcloud installation will be reachable via a subfolder (e.g. `https://www.mysite.com/nextcloud`) `overwrite.cli.url` and `htaccess.RewriteBase` have to be modified accordingly.

### System and environment

To make sure the Nextcloud specific `php.ini` is used by the `occ` tool set the environment variable `NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG`:

    $ export NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG=/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

Also add this line to your `.bashrc` (or `.bash_profile` ) to make this setting permanent.

As a privacy and security precaution create the dedicated directory for session data:

    # install --owner=nextcloud --group=nextcloud --mode=700 -d /var/lib/nextcloud/sessions

## Database

MariaDB/MySQL is the canonical choice for Nextcloud.

  The MySQL or MariaDB databases are the recommended database engines.[1]

Most information concerning databases with Nextcloud deals with MariaDB/MySQL. The Nextcloud developers admit to have less detailed expertise with other databases.

PostgreSQL is said to deliver better performance and overall has fewer quirks compared to MariaDB/MySQL. SQLite is mainly supported for test / development installations and not recommended for production. The list of supported databases also contains Oracle database. This product will not be covered here.

### MariaDB / MySQL

Since MariaDB has been the default MySQL implementation in Arch Linux since 2013[2] this text only mentions MariaDB.

In case you want to run your database on the same host as Nextcloud install, configure and start mariadb (if you have not done so already). See the corresponding article for details. Do not forget to initialize MariaDB with `mariadb-install-db`. It is recommended for additional security to configure MariaDB to only listen on a local Unix socket:

    /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

    [mysqld]
    skip_networking

Nextcloud's own documentation recommends to set the transaction isolation level to READ-COMMITTED. This is especially important when you expect high load with many concurrent transactions.

    /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

    [mysqld]
    transaction_isolation=READ-COMMITTED

The other recommendation to set `binlog_format=ROW` is obsolete. The default `MIXED` in recent MariaDB versions is at least as good as the recommended `ROW`. In any case the setting is only relevant when replication is applied.

Start the CLI tool `mysql` with database user root. (Default password is empty, but hopefully you change it as soon as possible.)

    $ mysql -u root -p

Create the user and database for Nextcloud with

    CREATE USER 'nextcloud'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'db-password';
    CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on nextcloud.* to 'nextcloud'@'localhost';
    FLUSH privileges;

(`db-password` is a placeholder for the actual password of DB user nextcloud you must choose.) Quit the tool with `\q`.

Note: MariaDB has a flawed understanding of what UTF8 means resulting in the inability to store any characters with codepoints 0x10000 and above (e.g. emojis). They 'fixed' this issue with version 5.5 by introducing a new encoding called utf8mb4. Bottom line: Never ever use MariaDB's utf8, always use utf8mb4. In case you need to migrate see [3].

So that you have decided to use MariaDB as the database of your Nextcloud installation you have to enable the corresponding PHP extension:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    extension=pdo_mysql

Further configuration (related to MariaDB) is not required (contrary to the information given in Nextcloud's admin manual).

Now setup Nextcloud's database schema with:

    $ occ maintenance:install \
        --database=mysql \
        --database-name=nextcloud \
        --database-host=localhost:/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock \
        --database-user=nextcloud \
        --database-pass=db-password \
        --admin-pass=admin-password \
        --admin-email=admin-email \
        --data-dir=/var/lib/nextcloud/data

Mind the placeholders (e.g. `db-password`) and replace them with appropriate values. This command assumes that you run your database on the same host as Nextcloud. Enter `occ help maintenance:install` and see Nextcloud's documentation for other options. See Using the "occ" command line tool for Arch-specific details about this tool.

### PostgreSQL

Consult the corresponding article for detailed information about PostgreSQL. In case you want to run your database on the same host as Nextcloud install, configure and start postgresql (if you have not done so already). For additional security in this scenario it is recommended to configure PostgreSQL to only listen on a local UNIX socket:

    /var/lib/postgres/data/postgresql.conf

    listen_addresses = ''

Especially do not forget to initialize your database with `initdb`. After having done so start PostgreSQL's CLI tool psql and create the database user `nextcloud` and the database of the same name

    [postgres]$ psql

    CREATE USER nextcloud WITH PASSWORD 'db-password';
    CREATE DATABASE nextcloud TEMPLATE template0 ENCODING 'UNICODE';
    ALTER DATABASE nextcloud OWNER TO nextcloud;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nextcloud TO nextcloud;
    \q

(`db-password` is a placeholder for the password of database user nextcloud that you have to choose.)

Install the additional package php-legacy-pgsql as dependency (pacman option `--asdeps`) and enable the corresponding PHP extension in `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini`:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    extension=pdo_pgsql

Now setup Nextcloud's database schema with:

    $ occ maintenance:install \
        --database=pgsql \
        --database-name=nextcloud \
        --database-host=/run/postgresql \
        --database-user=nextcloud \
        --database-pass=db-password \
        --admin-pass=admin-password \
        --admin-email=admin-email \
        --data-dir=/var/lib/nextcloud/data

Mind the placeholders (e.g. `db-password`) and replace them with appropriate values. This command assumes that you run your database on the same host as Nextcloud. Enter `occ help maintenance:install` and see Nextcloud's documentation for other options. See Using the "occ" command line tool for Arch-specific details about this tool.

## Application server

There are two prevalent application servers that can be used to process PHP code: uWSGI or FPM. FPM is specialized on PHP. The protocol used between the web server and FPM is fastcgi. The tool's documentation leaves room for improvement. uWSGI on the other hand can serve code written in a handful of languages by means of language specific plugins. The protocol used is uwsgi (lowercase). The tool is extensively documented - albeit the sheer amount of documentation can become confusing and unwieldy.

### uWSGI

uWSGI has its own article. A lot of useful information can be found there. Install uwsgi and the plugin uwsgi-plugin-php-legacy - preferrably as dependencies, i.e. with `--asdeps`. To run Nextcloud's code with (or in) uWSGI you have to configure one uWSGI specific configuration file (`nextcloud.ini`) and define one systemd service.

Warning: It has to be mentioned that maintenance of uWSGI and especially of its PHP plugin has been sparse lately[4]. This has already caused issues that could only be solved by patching uWSGI code by the maintainers of Arch Linux packages, i.e. not upstream.

#### nextcloud.ini

The nextcloud package includes a sample configuration file already in the right place `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini`. In almost any case you will have to adapt this file to your requirements and setup. Find a version with lots of commented changes (compared to the package's version). It assumes a no-frills Nextcloud installation for private use (i.e. with moderate load).

In general keep the enabled extensions, extension specific settings and `open_basedir` in sync with `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` (with the exception of opcache).

Tip: The changes to `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini` can become extensive. A file named `nextcloud.ini.pacnew` will be created during package update in case there are changes in the original file provided by the package nextcloud. In order to better track changes in this latter file and apply them to `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini` the following approach can be applied:

- Make a copy of the file as provided by the package (e.g. by extracting from the package) and store it as `nextcloud.ini.package`.
- In case an update of package nextcloud produces a `nextcloud.ini.pacnew` you can identify the changes with `diff nextcloud.ini.package nextcloud.ini.pacnew`.
- Selectively apply the changes to your `nextcloud.ini` depending on whether they make sense with your version or not.
- Move `nextcloud.ini.pacnew` over `nextcloud.ini.package`.

#### uWSGI service

The package uwsgi provides a template unit file (`uwsgi@.service`). The instance ID (here nextcloud) is used to pick up the right configuration file. Enable and start `uwsgi@nextcloud.service`.

In case you have more than a few (e.g. 2) services started like this and get the impression this is a waste of resource you might consider using emperor mode.

### FPM

In case you opt to use FPM as your application server install php-legacy-fpm - preferrably as a dependent package (`--asdeps`).

Configuration consists of a copy of `php.ini` relevant for all applications served by FPM and a so-called pool file specific for the application (here Nextcloud). Finally you have to tweak the systemd service file.

#### php-fpm.ini

As stated earlier this article avoids modifications of PHP's central configuration in `/etc/php-legacy/php.ini`. Instead create a FPM specific copy.

    # cp /etc/php-legacy/php.ini /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.ini

Make sure it is owned and only writeable by root (`-rw-r--r-- 1 root root ... php-fpm.ini`). Enable the op-cache, i.e. uncomment the line

    /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.ini

    zend_extension=opcache

and put the following parameters below the existing line `[opcache]`:

    /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.ini

    opcache.enable = 1
    opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 16
    opcache.max_accelerated_files = 10000
    opcache.memory_consumption = 128
    opcache.save_comments = 1
    opcache.revalidate_freq = 1

Warning: Do not try to put these settings in the pool file by means of `php_value[...]` and `php_flag[...]`. Your FPM processes will consistently crash with the very first request.

#### nextcloud.conf

Next you have to create a so called pool file for FPM. It is responsible for spawning dedicated FPM processes for the Nextcloud application. Create a file `/etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf` - you may use this functional version as a starting point.

Again make sure this pool file is owned and only writeable by root (i.e. `-rw-r--r-- 1 root root ... nextcloud.conf`). Depending on whether access log is configured (it is with above sample `nextcloud.conf`) you may need to create the corresponding directory (here `/var/log/php-fpm-legacy/access`). Adapt or add settings (especially `pm...`, `php_value[...]` and `php_flag[...]`) to your liking. The settings `php_value[...]` and `php_flag[..]` must be consistent with the corresponding settings in `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` (but not `/etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.ini`).

The settings done by means of `php_value[...]` and `php_flag[...]` could instead be specified in `php-fpm.ini`. But mind that settings in `php-fpm.ini` apply for all applications served by FPM.

Tip: The package php-legacy-fpm comes with its own pool file `www.conf` that is of little use here. A good approach to get rid of it is to rename it to `www.conf.package` and create a file `www.conf` with only comment lines (lines starting with a semicolon). This way `www.conf` becomes a no-op. It is also not overwritten during installation of a new version of php-legacy-fpm. Instead a file `www.conf.pacnew` is created. You can compare this against `www.conf.package` to see if anything significant has changed in the pool file that you may have to reproduce in `nextcloud.conf`. Do not forget to rename `www.conf.pacnew` to `www.conf.package` at the end of this procedure.

#### Systemd service

FPM is run as a systemd service. You have to modify the service configuration to be able to run Nextcloud. This is best achieved by means of a drop-in file:

    /etc/systemd/system/php-fpm-legacy.service.d/override.conf

    [Service]
    ExecStart=
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/php-fpm-legacy --nodaemonize --fpm-config /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.conf --php-ini /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.ini
    ReadWritePaths=/var/lib/nextcloud
    ReadWritePaths=/etc/webapps/nextcloud/config

- It replaces the `ExecStart` line by a start command that uses the `php-fpm.ini` covered in the previous section.
- The directories `/var/lib/nextcloud` and `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/config` (and everything below) are made writable. The `ProtectSystem=full` in the original service definition causes `/usr`, `/boot` and `/etc` to be mounted read-only for the FPM processes.
- If you want to use hardware transcoding (e.g. in the memories app) you need to explicitly allow access to your graphics device as `PrivateDevices=true` hides any devices from the FPM processes. For example adding `BindPaths=/dev/dri/renderD128` and `DeviceAllow=/dev/dri/renderD128 rw` to the drop-in file allows usage of a properly configured Intel iGpu.

Do not forget to enable and start the service php-fpm-legacy.

#### Keep /etc tidy

The Nextcloud package unconditionally creates the uWSGI configuration file `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini`. Of course it is of no use when you run FPM instead of uWSGI (and it does no harm whatsoever). In case you nevertheless want to get rid of it, just add the following NoExtract line to `/etc/pacman.conf`:

    /etc/pacman.conf

    # uWSGI configuration that comes with Nextcloud is not needed
    NoExtract = etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini

## Web server

There is an abundance of web servers you can choose from. Whatever option you finally pick you have to keep in mind that the Nextcloud application needs to be run with its own system user nextcloud. So you will need to forward your requests to one of the above mentioned application servers.

### nginx

Configuration of nginx is way beyond the scope of this article. See the relevant article for further information. Also consult Nextcloud's documentation for an elaborated configuration. It is up to you how to include this snippet into your nginx' configuration. One common approach is to use directories `/etc/nginx/sites-available` and `/etc/nginx/sites-enabled` to separate configurations for various servers (aka virtual hosts). See Nginx#Managing server entries for details.

If using the example nginx config from the Nextcloud documentation linked above, the root directory should be changed to:

    cloud.mysite.com.conf

      root /usr/share/webapps/nextcloud;

The usage of the block `upstream php-handler { ... }` is not necessary. Just specify `fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm-legacy/nextcloud.sock;` in the `location` block that deals with forwarding request with PHP URIs to the application server. When using uWSGI instead of FPM replace this `location` block with:

    cloud.mysite.com.conf

    location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {
        include uwsgi_params;
        uwsgi_modifier1 14;
        # Avoid duplicate headers confusing OC checks
        uwsgi_hide_header X-Frame-Options;
        uwsgi_hide_header X-XSS-Protection;
        uwsgi_hide_header X-Content-Type-Options;
        uwsgi_hide_header X-Robots-Tag;
        uwsgi_hide_header X-Download-Options;
        uwsgi_hide_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies;
        uwsgi_pass unix:/run/uwsgi/nextcloud.sock;
    }

Things you might have to adapt (not exhaustive):

- Your server name (`server_name` clauses 2x), i.e. the server part of the URL your Nextcloud installation will be reachable with.
- The name of the certificate and key you use for SSL / TLS.
- If and where you want an access log written to.
- The location where Certbot (or any other ACME client) will put the domain verification challenges. Usage of `alias` instead of `try_files` is probably more adequate here.
- The path used to reach your Nextcloud installation. (The part right to the server name & port section in the URL.)
- What application server (uWSGI or FPM) you are using, i.e. how and where nginx will pass requests that need to trigger some PHP code. (See above.)
- Configure OCSP stapling. (Note that Let's Encrypt does not support OCSP anymore, so if you're using a Let's Encrypt certificate, there's no need for this.)

There is no need to install any additional modules since nginx natively supports both protocols FastCGI and uwsgi.

### Apache HTTP server

Find lots of useful information in the article about the Apache HTTP Server. Nextcloud's documentation has some sample configuration that can also be found in `/usr/share/doc/nextcloud/apache.example.conf`. Both implicitly rely on mod_php that cannot be used anymore. mod_proxy_fcgi or mod_proxy_uwsgi need to be applied.

Information about how to integrate Apache with FPM can be found here in this wiki. uWSGI's documentation has some information about how to integrate Apache with PHP by means of uWSGI and mod_proxy_uwsgi. Mind that the Apache package comes with both modules mod_proxy_fcgi and mod_proxy_uwsgi. They need to be loaded as required.

The following Apache modules are required to run Nextcloud:

    /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

    # these are already loaded in a standard Apache installation
    LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
    LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
    LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
    LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
    LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so

    # these need to be uncommented explicitly
    LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
    LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
    LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
    LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

    # either this one in case you use FPM
    LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
    # or this one in case you opt for uWSGI
    LoadModule proxy_uwsgi_module modules/mod_proxy_uwsgi.so

Also uncomment the following directive to pull in TLS configuration parameters:

    /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

    Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

Consult Mozilla's SSL configurator for details about how to optimize your TLS configuration.

Refer to the following two sample configuration files depending on how you want to access your Nextcloud installation:

- In case your Nextcloud installation is accessed via a dedicated host name (e.g. `https://cloud.mysite.com/`) put this fragment into `/etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf`.

- In case your Nextcloud installation is located in a subfolder of your web site (e.g. `https://www.mysite.com/nextcloud/`) put this fragment in your `/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf`.

Of course you must adapt these sample configuration files to your concrete setup. Replace the `SetHandler` directive by `SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/uwsgi/nextcloud.sock|uwsgi://nextcloud/"` when you use uWSGI.

The Nextcloud package comes with a `.htaccess` that already takes care of a lot of rewriting and header stuff. Run `occ maintenance:update:htaccess` to adapt this file. Parameter `htaccess.RewriteBase` in `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php` is vital for this.

## Background jobs

Nextcloud requires certain tasks to be run on a scheduled basis. See Nextcloud's documentation for some details. The easiest (and most reliable) way to set up these background jobs is to use the systemd service and timer units that are already installed by nextcloud. The service unit needs some tweaking so that the job uses the correct PHP ini-file (and not the global `php.ini`). Create a drop-in file and add:

    /etc/systemd/system/nextcloud-cron.service.d/override.conf

    [Service]
    ExecStart=
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/php-legacy -c /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini -f /usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/cron.php

After that enable and start `nextcloud-cron.timer` (not the service).

As recommended by the documentation add the parameter

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    ....
    'maintenance_window_start' => 0,
    ....

to Nextcloud's configuration file. The value is the hour of the day in UTC defining the start of a 4 hours window. Time consuming jobs that need to be run only once a day will be scheduled in this time frame, i.e. outside working hours.

Warning: Do not try to install and use nextcloud-systemd-timersAUR. It is outdated and unmaintained.

## In-memory caching

Nextcloud's documentation recommends to apply some kind of in-memory object cache to significantly improve performance.

Note: Mind that push notify (the Nextcloud service that replaces client polling by notification by the server thus drastically reducing sync latency) depends on Valkey.

### APCu

Install php-legacy-apcu (as dependency `--asdeps`). Enable the extension in the relevant configuration files. These are

- `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` used by the `occ` command and the background jobs and
- depending on the application server you use either
  - `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini` in case of uWSGI or
  - `/etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf` in case of FPM.

In `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` add the lines

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    extension=apcu
    apc.ttl=7200
    apc.enable_cli = 1

(preferably somewhere below `Module Settings`).

For the other two files the setting to activate APCu is already in place and only needs to be uncommented. Two other configuration parameters related to APCu are also already there. No need to touch `/etc/php-legacy/php.ini` or `/etc/php-legacy/conf.d/apcu.ini`.

Restart your application server (not the web server as Nextcloud's documentation claims). Add the following line to your Nextcloud configuration file:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\APCu',

### Valkey (Redis)

Valkey was forked from Redis version 7.2.4 in March 2024 due to license issues. Nextcloud's documentation still only mentions Redis. However, one year later Valkey can still be considered a drop-in replacement for Redis. (Future will show how long this will stand.)

Install php-legacy-igbinary and php-legacy-redis (as dependency `--asdeps`) in case you run this component locally (i.e. on the same host as Nextcloud). Alternatively the Valkey server can be run on a different machine. For more information see Nextcloud's documentation.

Note: Using Valkey does not exclude using APCu in parallel as a local cache. In fact, Nextcloud's documentation recommends this setup.

Enable the required extensions `igbinary` and `redis` in the relevant configuration files. These are:

- `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` used by the `occ` command and the background jobs and
- depending on the application server you use either
  - `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini` in case of uWSGI or
  - `/etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf` in case of FPM.

Locate the existing sections where other extensions are enabled and add two additional lines corresponding to `igbinary` and `redis`.

Note: It is important to load `extension=igbinary` before `extension=redis`. Otherwise `occ` will report an error (/usr/lib/php-legacy/modules/redis.so: undefined symbol: igbinary_serialize).

In case you have specified the `open_basedir` option in the above configuration files and use Valkey locally with a local Unix socket, you have to extend the list of directories where PHP is allowed to read and write files. Locate the relevant lines in the files specified above and add the directory containing the local Unix socket created by Valkey, e.g. `/run/valkey`.

Note: The sample configuration files nextcloud.ini and nextcloud.conf mentionend in the #Application server section already have `open_basedir` enabled. So in case you use a copy of one of these files you have to adapt it.

Extend your Nextcloud configuration as follows:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\APCu',
    'memcache.distributed' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
    'memcache.locking' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
    'redis' => [
         'host'     => '/run/valkey/valkey.sock',
         'port'     => 0,
         'dbindex'  => 0,
         'password' => '',
         'timeout'  => 1.5,
    ],

Again, adapt `/run/valkey/valkey.sock` as required. `dbindex`, `password` and `timeout` are optional.

In case Valkey runs on a different machine:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\APCu',
    'memcache.distributed' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
    'memcache.locking' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
    'redis' => [
         'host' => 'valkey-host.mysite.com',
         'port' => 6379,
    ],

`valkey-host.mysite.com` is just a placeholder. Adapt to your actual setup.

## Security Hardening

See the Nextcloud documentation and Security. Nextcloud additionally provides a Security scanner.

## Synchronization

Tip: It is recommended not to use your personal password but so-called app tokens for all software automatically authenticating against your Nextcloud server. This way in case you suspect credentials in one of the programs may have leaked you just need to revoke this one affected app token - instead of having to change your personal password and propagating this change to all places where it has been stored. You can generate a new app token in Nextcloud's web GUI in Settings > Security in the Devices & Sessions section.

### Desktop

The official client can be installed with the nextcloud-client package. Alternative versions are available in the AUR: nextcloud-client-gitAUR. Please keep in mind that using owncloud-client with Nextcloud is not supported.

The desktop client basically syncs one or more directories of your desktop computer with corresponding folders in your Nextcloud's file service. It integrates nicely with your desktop's file manager (Dolphin in KDE Plasma, Nautilus in Gnome) displaying overlays representing synchronization and share status. The context menu of each file gets an additional entry Nextcloud to manage sharing of this file and getting the public or internal share link. Nextcloud's documentation has a volume exclusively about the desktop client.

In case the integration does not work as described consult the optional dependencies of package nextcloud-client. E.g. Nautilus requires nautilus-python. Install as dependent package.

Note: The desktop client provides a system tray icon that indicates sync status[5], but GNOME does not provide a system tray icon API out-of-the-box[6]. If this is a desired feature, one possible solution is to install and enable gnome-shell-extension-appindicator. See GNOME#Extensions for more info.

### Thunderbird

Since version 102 Thunderbird fully supports CalDAV and CardDAV - even with auto detection (i.e. you do not have to provide long URLs to access your calendars and address books). See Nextcloud's documentation for details.

### Mounting files with davfs2

If you want to mount your Nextcloud using WebDAV, install davfs2AUR (as described in davfs2).

To mount your Nextcloud, use:

    # mount -t davfs https://cloud.mysite.com/remote.php/dav/files/username/ /path/to/mount

You can also create an entry for this in `/etc/fstab`:

    /etc/fstab

    https://cloud.mysite.com/remote.php/dav/files/username/ /path/to/mount davfs rw,user,noauto 0 0

Tip: In order to allow automount you can also store your username (and password if you like) in a file as described in davfs2#Storing credentials.
Note: If creating/copying files is not possible, while the same operations work on directories, see davfs2#Creating/copying files not possible and/or freezes.

### Mounting files in GNOME Files (Nautilus)

You can access the files directly in Nautilus ('+ Other Locations') via the WebDAV protocol. Use the link as shown in your Nextcloud installation Web GUI (e.g. `https://cloud.mysite.com/remote.php/webdav/`) but replace the protocol name `https` by `davs`. Nautilus will ask for user name and password when trying to connect.

Note: Make sure you have installed gvfs-dnssd, otherwise you may get an error 'Location is not mountable'.

### Android

Download the official Nextcloud app from Google Play or F-Droid.

To enable contacts and calendar sync (Android 4+):

1. Download DAVx5 (Play Store, F-Droid).
2. Create a new DAVdroid account in the Account settings and specify your server URL (e.g. `https://cloud.mysite.com`) and login / password pair.

Note: There is no need for the `/remote.php/{carddav,webdav}` part if you configured your web server with the proper redirections, as illustrated in the above section Web server. DAVdroid will find itself the right URLs.

### iOS

Download the official Nextcloud app from the App Store.

## Tips and tricks

### Using the "occ" command line tool

A useful tool for server administration is `occ`. Refer to Nextcloud's documentation for details. You can perform many common server operations with `occ`, such as managing users and configuring apps.

A convenience wrapper around the original `/usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/occ` is provided with `/usr/bin/occ` which automatically runs as the default user (nextcloud), using the default PHP executable and PHP configuration file. The environment variables `NEXTCLOUD_USER`, `NEXTCLOUD_PHP` and `NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG` can be used to specify a non-default user, PHP executable and PHP configuration file (respectively). Especially the latter (using `NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG`) is necessary when Nextcloud was setup in a way as described in the sections Configuration and Application server, i.e. using a PHP configuration specific to Nextcloud. In this case put `export NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG=/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini` in your `.bashrc`.

When using package php instead of the recommended package php-legacy you also have to set `NEXTCLOUD_PHP`, i.e. `export NEXTCLOUD_PHP=/usr/bin/php`.

Warning: When using php-legacy-apcu for caching, make sure to set `apc.enable_cli=1` in `/etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini`. Otherwise the `occ` command will complain about APCu not being configured properly.

### Pacman hook

The nextcloud package comes with a pacman hook that takes care of automatically upgrading the Nextcloud database after the package has been updated. Take a look `/usr/share/doc/nextcloud/nextcloud.hook`.

Unfortunately, this hook unconditionally uses the global `php.ini` when running `occ upgrade`, i.e. it does not take into account the value of environment variable `NEXTCLOUD_PHP_CONFIG` as mentioned above in Using the "occ" command line tool.

As a possible workaround make a copy of the delivered hook file in the appropriate location:

    # mkdir -vp /etc/pacman.d/hooks
    # cp -a /usr/share/doc/nextcloud/nextcloud.hook /etc/pacman.d/hooks/10-nextcloud.hook

and change the line starting with `Exec` to:

    /etc/pacman.d/hooks/10-nextcloud.hook

    Exec = /usr/bin/runuser -u nextcloud -- /usr/bin/php-legacy --php-ini /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini /usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/occ upgrade

### Running Nextcloud in a subdirectory

The instructions in section Web server will result in a setup where your Nextcloud installation is reachable via a dedicated server name, e.g. `cloud.mysite.com`. If you would like to have Nextcloud located in a subdirectory. e.g. `www.mysite.com/nextcloud`, then:

- For nginx refer to the section in Nextcloud's documentation that explicitly covers this topic.

- For apache edit the `/etc/httpd/conf/extra/nextcloud.conf` you included and comment out the `<VirtualHost *:80> ... </VirtualHost>` part of the include file.

Note: Do not forget to configure the `.well-known` URLs for service discovery. For more information please see Service discovery in Nextcloud's documentation.

### Docker

See the Nextcloud repository on Docker Hub for running Nextcloud in Docker.

### Office integration

There are currently three different solutions for office integration:

- Collabora Online
- ONLYOFFICE
- MS Office Online Server

All three have in common that a dedicated server is required and your web server needs to be adapted to forward certain requests to the office service. The actual integration with Nextcloud is then accomplished by means of a Nextcloud app specific for one of the above products.

Mind that all three products are aimed at businesses, i.e. you will have to pay for the office service. Only Collabora offers a developers plan (CODE) for free. ONLYOFFICE offers a Home Server plan for a reasonable price.

For installation, setup instructions and integration with Nextcloud consult:

- Collabora online, app
- ONLYOFFICE, app
- MS Office Online Server, app

### Disabling app recommendations

By default, Nextcloud recommends apps to new clients, which can result in a lot of notifications. To disable this, disable the recommendations app using `occ app:disable recommendations`.

### Backup calendars and address books with calcardbackup

The calcardbackupAUR package can be installed and configured to provide regular backups of the calendar and/or address book databases. Edit `/etc/calcardbackup/calcardbackup.conf` to your liking and then start and enable `calcardbackup.timer`.

## Troubleshooting

### Reading the log

By default, the logs of the web application are available in `/var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log`. The entries (lines) are in JSON format and can be very long. Readability can be greatly improved by using jq:

    # jq . </var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log | less

### Work around "is_file(): open_basedir restriction in effect"

With Nextcloud v28.0.4 a regression was introduced that manifests in error messages containing

    is_file(): open_basedir restriction in effect

in the log file `/var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log`. The file path given after this messages is missing one slash at one position, whereas at another position there is one too many, e.g.

    File (/usr/share/webapps/nextcloudapps//dav/l10n/de.js)

This is a known bug that has already been fixed and backported to v28.0.5. For v28.0.4 you may apply the following work-around:

- Add a symbolic link `/usr/share/webapps/nextcloudapps` pointing to `/usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/apps`

    # cd /usr/share/webapps
    # ln -sf nextcloud/apps nextcloudapps

- Add the path of this symbolic link to the `open_basedir` settings relevant for your Nextcloud installation. These are:

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/php.ini

    open_basedir=...:/usr/share/webapps/nextcloudapps:...

and depending on the application server you use either (FPM)

    /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf

    php_value[open_basedir] = ...:/usr/share/webapps/nextcloudapps:...

or (uWSGI)

    /etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini

    php-set = open_basedir=...:/usr/share/webapps/nextcloudapps:...

With v28.0.5 you should be able to roll back this work-around again.

### Weird behavior of one or more apps

There are two locations where folders with files of Nextcloud's apps can be found:

- `/usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/apps` (aka read-only apps directory). This is where the nextcloud package and the app packages (e.g. nextcloud-app-contacts) put the folders with files comprising Nextcloud apps.

- `/var/lib/nextcloud/apps` (aka writeable apps directory). This is where you find folders with files of apps installed via GUI or via the `occ app:install` command.

When files of an app can be found in both directories (especially in different versions) all kind of strange things can happen. In a concrete case the contacts app could be found in both the read-only apps directory and the writeable apps directory. As a result the page with contacts in the GUI did not display. It remained blank white. The browser's Javascript console showed an error message:

    Uncaught Error: Could not find initial state contactsinteraction of contacts

Check for apps to be found in both locations. To find out whether to delete the app folder in the read-only directory or in the writeable directory determine whether the app is part of a package. Run

    # cd /usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/apps
    # pacman -Qo * >/dev/null

All folders reported with

    error: No package owns ....

(and that can also be found in the writeable apps directory) can be safely deleted from `/usr/share/webapps/nextcloud/apps`. Other double installed apps (i.e. those belonging to a package) should be removed from `/var/lib/nextcloud/apps`.

### InnoDB refuses to write tables with ROW_FORMAT=COMPRESSED

MariaDB versions >= 10.6 and < 10.6.6 were not compatible with Nextcloud as the database enforced read-only for compressed InnoDB tables and Nextcloud has been (and still is) using these kind of tables:

  From MariaDB 10.6.0 until MariaDB 10.6.5, tables that are of the COMPRESSED row format are read-only by default. This was intended to be the first step towards removing write support and deprecating the feature.
  This plan has been scrapped, and from MariaDB 10.6.6, COMPRESSED tables are no longer read-only by default.

Additionally the issue has already been addressed by Nextcloud. Starting with Nextcloud v24 new installations of Nextcloud do not use row format COMPRESSED anymore. It has to be noted that existing (pre v24) installations are not migrated away from row format COMPRESSED automatically.

Bottom line: Probably you are not affected since Arch Linux has been shipping MariaDB v10.6.6 or later since 2022-02-10.

In the unlikely case that you are affected by this issue there are several possible remedies:

- Adapt your MariaDB configuration:

    /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

    [mariadb-10.6]
      innodb_read_only_compressed=OFF

- Migrate your MariaDB tables from row format COMPRESSED to DYNAMIC as suggested by some comments for the corresponding Nextcloud issue. Mind that as long as you stay with Nextcloud < v24 new tables will again use row format COMPRESSED - so will need to be migrated in the same way.

- Replace MariaDB by PostgreSQL and migrate the data of your Nextcloud instance with `occ db:convert-type`. See Nextcloud's documentation for details.

### Login loop without any clue in access.log, error.log, nor nextcloud.log

As mentioned in a post in the forum, this issue can be fixed by setting correct permissions on the sessions directory. (See Nextcloud's documentation for details.) It is also possible that the sessions directory is missing altogether. The creation of this directory is documented in System and environment.

`/var/lib/nextcloud` should look like this:

    drwxr-xr-x  6 nextcloud nextcloud 4096 17. Apr 00:56 ./
    drwxr-xr-x 21 root      root      4096 17. Apr 00:53 ../
    drwxr-xr-x  2 nextcloud nextcloud 4096 16. Feb 00:21 apps/
    drwxrwx--- 10 nextcloud nextcloud 4096 16. Apr 13:46 data/
    drwx------  2 nextcloud nextcloud 4096 17. Apr 01:04 sessions/

Also, this can be caused by a full system-partition caused by an extensive size of nextcloud.log because of this bug. In this case, truncating the log-file and disabling the preview-generator or setting the log-level to 4 in config.php and restarting Nextcloud helps.

### Environment variables not available

Depending on what application server you use custom environment variables can be provided to Nextcloud's PHP code.

#### FPM

Add one or more lines in `/etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf` as per Nextcloud's documentation, e.g.:

    /etc/php-legacy/php-fpm.d/nextcloud.conf

    env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

#### uWSGI

Add one or more lines in `/etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini`, e.g.:

    /etc/uwsgi/nextcloud.ini

    env = PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Mind there must not be any blanks around the second `=`.

### You are accessing your instance over a secure connection, however your instance is generating insecure URLs

If you get the following message in your administration settings:

  You are accessing your instance over a secure connection, however your instance is generating insecure URLs. This most likely means that you are behind a reverse proxy and the overwrite config variables are not set correctly. Please read the documentation page about this.

Add the following in your configuration file: [7]

    /etc/webapps/nextcloud/config/config.php

    'trusted_proxies' => ['192.168.1.0'],
    'overwriteprotocol' => 'https',

Replace `192.168.1.0` with your public IP.

### Nextcloud reports corrupted index (MariaDB)

If Nextcloud reports corrupted indices (e.g. during `occ db:` commands or in Administration > Logging) you can repair your database by executing:

    $ mysqlcheck --check --auto-repair nextcloud -u nextcloud -p

If the command fails, it still will point out the table `TABLE` containing a corrupted index. Repair it by logging into mariadb:

    $ mysql -u nextcloud -p
    mysql> use nextcloud;
    mysql> check table TABLE;
    mysql> optimize table TABLE;
    mysql> exit;

Replace `TABLE` to match your findings.

### Failed to fetch the Collabora capabilities endpoint

In case you get responses with:

  Failed to fetch the Collabora capabilities endpoint: Client error: `GET http://localhost/wapps/richdocumentscode/proxy.php?req=/hosting/capabilities` resulted in a `404 Not Found` response

double-check your `config.php` that entry `overwrite.cli.url` has been set as described in section Configuration / Nextcloud.

## See also

- Nextcloud Documentation Overview
- Nextcloud Admin Manual

Categories:

- File sharing
- Web applications