[BUG?] File disappeared from Nextcloud – no conflict, deletion, or trace

ℹ️ Support
1

Hi all,

We’re dealing with a serious issue on our self-hosted Nextcloud instance and would like to know if anyone has experienced something similar.

:puzzle_piece: What happened

An Excel file vanished completely from our shared folder structure. It does not appear:

  • In the desktop client (Windows)

  • In the web interface

  • In the trash or deleted files

  • And there is no log of deletion, conflict, or suspicious activity

The client shows status “All synced!”, no sync errors. The file was in normal use until the day before.

:desktop_computer: Technical environment

  • Nextcloud Server: v28.x

  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

  • Database: MariaDB

  • Cache: Redis

  • Client: Nextcloud Desktop 4.0.2 (Windows)

  • Virtual files (wincfapi) enabled

  • Cron: was set to AJAX at the time of the incident

We had to manually recreate the file, as it couldn’t be recovered from anywhere.

Has anyone faced this before?
This kind of silent, total disappearance seems too dangerous to ignore.

Any insights or shared experiences are welcome.

2

There are about a dozend threds about that issue. Just search the forum for “file disappeared”

What about the trashbin after login into browser?
Did you try to downgrade to a 3.x desktop software?

3

I’m encountering the same problem. My files mysteriously disappeared without me doing anything, and I can’t find any issues. Has anyone found the cause? My Nextcloud is the latest version deployed on a local server within the intranet. Is this system still safe to use? Isn’t the official team going to fix it? Is it really that serious?

4

You might want to check if files are vanishing · Issue #4146 · nextcloud/groupfolders · GitHub applies to your situation

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