Cannot free up local space from small files (1kB or less) in Windows 10

Support intro

Sorry to hear you’re facing problems :slightly_frowning_face:

help.nextcloud.com is for home/non-enterprise users. If you’re running a business, paid support can be accessed via portal.nextcloud.com where we can ensure your business keeps running smoothly.

In order to help you as quickly as possible, before clicking Create Topic please provide as much of the below as you can. Feel free to use a pastebin service for logs, otherwise either indent short log examples with four spaces:

example

Or for longer, use three backticks above and below the code snippet:

longer
example
here

Some or all of the below information will be requested if it isn’t supplied; for fastest response please provide as much as you can :heart:

Nextcloud version (eg, 20.0.5): 23.0.2
Operating system and version (eg, Ubuntu 20.04): Debian Buster
Apache or nginx version (eg, Apache 2.4.25): nginx 1.20.2
PHP version (eg, 7.4): 7.4.26

The issue you are facing:

There seems to be a problem with the 3.5 version of the Windows desktop client. I am unable to free up local space for small files (around 1kB or smaller). The client keeps synchonizing the same file over and over, but the file is never “freed up” from the local filesystem.

This does not happen if the same file is slightly larger (e.g. 5kB). Doesn’t seem to depend on the file extension. It’s easy to replicate with just a text file, and adding random text until the problem disappears.

Editing and deleting these files also works just fine.

Trying with exactly the same files in a Linux computer (Ubuntu 22.04), the problem does not appear. It seems to be exclusive to the windows desktop client.

On the server side, I don’t see any reference to that file in the logs. Apparently, it’s an issue entirely confined to the desktop client.

Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Y/N): Y

Steps to replicate it:

  1. Create text file, with some content under 1kB
  2. Wait until nextcloud finishes syncing.
  3. Right click on the file, Free up local space.
  4. Observe how the desktop client will try to free up the space indefinitely, syncing the same file every few seconds. If the file is marked to Always keep in this device, the sync completes successfully.

You are talking about the virtual file system feature?
Did you have the same issue with previous client versions?

Yes, when using the virtual filesystem. And I had not experienced that issue before, so I believe it’s something related to the 3.5 version of the client.

The bug tracker is probably a better place, and you already created a report: