App (2.17.5) crashes with auto-sync and lots of files in default Photos folder

I recently tried to sync my iPhone’s camera roll onto my nextcloud server using the iOS app v2.17.5.

I selected all the options for auto-upload, including running in background, WIFI only, filename mask, year/month folders, and to upload my whole camera roll. I had 8000+ photos and videos.

Although the background upload feature was questionable, as it needed me to frequently check the app to get a new batch of files to upload (e.g. every 100-200 photos), my issue here is actually that the app is no longer working for me.

The app just became unresponsive then crashed out to my home screen. Every time I start the app, it would show the nextcloud splash screen then crash out. I can’t get it to run anymore or sync anything from my phone to the server.

I tried:

  • Restart iPhone. Same problem.
  • Delete and re-install the app:
    This asked me to input server/user/pw and it connected OK initially but felt a bit slow. It showed all my files on the server. Annoyingly, it lost the position from my previous sync, which had only 207 files remaining (mostly mov and mp4 video files). But I can repeat that or find another way so not the end of the world.
  • I tested if the app would do auto-upload. I took a photo and went back to the nextcloud app which then became unresponsive again and crashed out. I didn’t ask it to sync my whole camera roll this time. So basically, my nextcloud app won’t run anymore - any ideas what I can (or shouldn’t) do?

Been playing around a bit more.

I think the app could be slow because I have a lot of data:

  • iPhone 8000+ photos/videos (about 40GB).
  • server: 500,000 files and about 220GB.

After re-installing the app and logging in, rather than changing anything I just gave it time to do stuff. The status bar (which shows storage usage) was visibly updating and creeping to the right. When that stopped, I looked at my files. I found my test photo from a few hours ago had uploaded but then the app got progressively slower and unresponsive as I tried to click on the navigation buttons at the top.

Now it’s back to crashing out to the home screen :frowning:

Anything I can adjust on my iPhone or server?

I think I made some progress:

  • Login to NC via desktop browser. Move all 200GB of photos/videos inside the default Photos folder to another folder on the user’s root (i.e. not under Photos)
  • Reinstall NC app, configure and test

It is now auto-syncing new photos normally and the app can run without crashing.

For now, I will use the photos folder as a temporary sync area and sort them in a separate folder/album.

For existing photos on my iPhone, I will have to manually copy it over via my Mac’s photos.

My observations: The app crashes when:

  1. Auto-sync is switched on, and
  2. There is a LOT of data in the default photos folder

Does anyone know if there are any file or size limits for the iOS app?

I have a similar problem with +7000 pictures on my iPhone and after syncing 16 pictures it just stopped and didn’t sync anymore.

I tried re-syncing, but nothing happens.

I found out that my iPhone is haveing a few “greyed out” videos from 2011-2013 and iCloud is completely empty that period in time. The 16 pictures was from 2010.

I manually deleted the “greyed out” videos and NC started to say “Upload File: Error Photo/video not found, remove from upload” as many times as there was a greyed out video. (50 or so).

After that, everything started syncing again.

Sincerely
Max