Can't delete user

ℹ️ Support
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1

The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
    • 32.0.3
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Docker
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • 2.4.65
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • Traefik 3.6.5
  • PHP version (e.g, 8.3):
    • 8.3.28
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No):
    • Yes
  • When did this problem seem to first start?
    • N/A
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • Docker
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • Yes, Crowdsec

Summary of the issue you are facing:

I want to delete a user but I can’t.

The System has LDAP set up. I logged in with the user and everything works fine.

Then I want to to delete the user in Nextcloud, the User should stay in Ldap.

I go to the User menu and try to delete the user, I get a error message saying the request failed

Manually trying to delete the user does not work

./occ user:delete “82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad”

The specified user could not be deleted. Please check the logs.

I included the relevant logs below, but I don’t see any obvious error

Steps to replicate it (hint: details matter!):

  1. Create User using LDAP

  2. Delete User in Nextcloud

  3. See Error

Log entries

Nextcloud

{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_connect with parameters [\"ldap://lldap:3890\"]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_set_option with parameters [\"(resource)\",17,3]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_set_option with parameters [\"(resource)\",8,0]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_set_option with parameters [\"(resource)\",20485,\"15\"]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_bind with parameters [\"(resource)\",\"uid=service,ou=people,redacted\",\"***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***\"]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_read with parameters [\"(resource)\",\"uid=bernd,ou=people,redacted\",\"(&(objectclass=person)(memberOf=cn=files,ou=groups,redacted))\",[\"\"],0,-1]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_count_entries with parameters [\"(resource)\",\"(resource)\"]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"readAttribute: uid=bernd,ou=people,redacted found","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":1,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"User 82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad is not marked as deleted, not cleaning up.","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}
{"reqId":"6s5GiNVaUP3bc6tIQoFD","level":0,"time":"2025-12-18T12:06:27+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.178.202","user":"nextcloud_admin","app":"user_ldap","method":"DELETE","url":"/ocs/v2.php/cloud/users/82364944-943a-3d6e-9d2e-7295e4cecaad","message":"Calling LDAP function ldap_unbind with parameters [\"(resource)\"]","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/143.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.3.2","data":{"app":"user_ldap"}}

Web Browser

400 - {"ocs":{"meta":{"status":"failure","statuscode":101,"message":""},"data":[]}}

Configuration

Nextcloud

{
    "system": {
        "htaccess.RewriteBase": "\/",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "apps_paths": [
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/apps",
                "url": "\/apps",
                "writable": false
            },
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/custom_apps",
                "url": "\/custom_apps",
                "writable": true
            }
        ],
        "memcache.distributed": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "password": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 6379
        },
        "overwritehost": "nextcloud.redacted",
        "overwriteprotocol": "https",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/nextcloud.redacted",
        "trusted_proxies": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "upgrade.disable-web": true,
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "nextcloud.redacted"
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "32.0.3.2",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "logfile": "\/var\/log\/nextcloud\/nextcloud.log",
        "loglevel": 0,
        "maintenance": false,
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_smtpport": "587",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpauth": true,
        "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "defaultapp": "dashboard",
        "maintenance_window_start": 1,
        "ldapProviderFactory": "OCA\\User_LDAP\\LDAPProviderFactory"
    }
}

Apps

Enabled:
  - activity: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - app_api: 32.0.0
  - bruteforcesettings: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - circles: 32.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.16.0
  - comments: 1.22.0
  - contactsinteraction: 1.13.1
  - dashboard: 7.12.0
  - dav: 1.34.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.22.0
  - federation: 1.22.0
  - files: 2.4.0
  - files_downloadlimit: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - files_reminders: 1.5.0
  - files_sharing: 1.24.1
  - files_trashbin: 1.22.0
  - files_versions: 1.25.0
  - firstrunwizard: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - logreader: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.20.0
  - nextcloud_announcements: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - notifications: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - oauth2: 1.20.0
  - password_policy: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - photos: 5.0.0-dev.1
  - privacy: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - profile: 1.1.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.22.0
  - recommendations: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - related_resources: 3.0.0-dev.0
  - richdocuments: 9.0.2
  - serverinfo: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - settings: 1.15.1
  - sharebymail: 1.22.0
  - support: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - survey_client: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - systemtags: 1.22.0
  - text: 6.0.1
  - theming: 2.7.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.21.0
  - updatenotification: 1.22.0
  - user_ldap: 1.23.0
  - user_status: 1.12.0
  - viewer: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - weather_status: 1.12.0
  - webhook_listeners: 1.3.0
  - workflowengine: 2.14.0
Disabled:
  - admin_audit: 1.22.0
  - encryption: 2.20.0
  - files_external: 1.24.0
  - suspicious_login: 10.0.0-dev.0
  - twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 6.0.0-dev.0
  - twofactor_totp: 14.0.0
2

Did a complete reinstall and can confirm the issue still persists

3

looks like an LDAP issue on the AD host…

@kaaax0815 does that user exist at all?

<PATH>occ user:list

if user exists

<PATH>occ user:info <username>

then enable the user if disabled

<PATH>occ user:enable <username>

then delete user

<PATH>occ user:delete <username>

with LDAP users, you will have to delete that user in you AD user management console and force cleanup;

<PATH>occ ldap:show-remnants

or skripted (:warning: NEVER copy & paste, always double check!)

sudo <PATH>occ ldap:show-remnants | awk 'FNR > 3 {print $2}' | sed '$d' | xargs -L1 <PATH>occ user:delete
4

I want to delete the user from Nextcloud without deleting it from Ldap. I am using Lldap not AD