Change client folder sync location

Hello,

This has probably been addressed many times but I just couldn’t figure out the appropriate search keywords to find the answer.

So, I have 3 computers syncing files with a nextcloud 12 server. One of them uses the old “$HOME/owncloud” folder instead of “$HOME/Nextcloud”.

I need to change thatso all 3 have the same path, but I would like to avoid re-starting the whole sync process from zero. Is there a way to do that ?

Thanks,
Mikael

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  1. remove user from client sync
  2. rename/move the folder to another location as you preffer
  3. register on client software and search the new location of the MAIN FOLDER
  4. select KEEP FILES and finish

The server compare files and update only the new files

3 Likes

Thanks Cesar !

No need to log the user out:

in the sync client, click the three dots on the right, select “remove folder synchronisation”,
move your data,
click “add folder synchronisation”.

3 Likes

unfortunately it doesn’t work does anyone have another solution?

What exactley does not work? Please describe in as much detail as possible what you are trying to achieve and what you already tried?

You can always delete the account from the app and remove or better rename the local folder and start from scratch. This may take longer, because all the files have to be downloaded from the server again, but on the plus side it works without potential sync conflicts, which in the worst case could lead to data loss…

I tried to move the already synchronized directory from one hard drive to another new hard drive without downloading all the data from the server from the beginning, so I followed step by step as described here and still there were a few directories that must be downloaded from the server from the start, and it took a long time

Hello,

How do you “remove user from client sync”?

It is not evident to me and there is no such option in the client settings interface.

Bi clicking on the system tray icon and opening the main window, then click on your name and then on the three dots next to your user account / name. There should be an option to delete or remove the account. Here’s a screenshot (in German)

Bildschirmfoto vom 2023-01-30 12-55-40

Thank you, that worked!

Now I am trying to figure out how to back up an additional existing folder on my Mac without having to move everything into the Nextcloud folder.

That depends on what you mean exactley when you use the term “backup”…

You can add additional folders to the synchronisation in the settings of the client. But note that synchronisation is not a backup. If you delete something on your Mac inside of one of these folders, it also gets deleted on your Nextcloud server and vice versa.

But it is of course also possible to use the Nextcloud as a storage backend for backups. You can use any backup software that supports WebDAV for that purpose. Unfortunately, I can’t make a specific recommendation, since I don’t use a Mac myself.

You are absolutely right - I am not looking to have a backup in case my files are deleted; rather I am looking to have a backup in case my own PC/Mac/Mobile device drive fails, so there is a perfect copy of specific folders on Nextcloud.

(Recently, my MicroSD on my phone died, taking thousands of pictures with it - I have them backed up on Google Drive, but at lower quality).

My understanding of how to sync a folder in Nextcloud that is not the “Nextcloud” folder is:

  1. Add folder sync connection
  2. Pick a local folder on your computer to sync (for example my Windows Documents folder)
  3. Select a destination folder on Nextcloud server (or create new, also called Documents)

However, at that stage I am getting a warning:

**Warning**: You are already syncing /, which is a parent folder of /Documents

At that stage, I am not sure whether to continue or not, in case I break something irrevocably.

You cannot add more folders to the synchronistaion because it already syncs everything on your Nextcloud to the Nextcloud folder on your computer. If you want to have diffrent synchronisation targets on your computer for diffrent folders on your Nextcloud, you should remove the already existing synchronisation of the root folder and then add every folder you want to sync one by one.

Thanks for your response!

Could I not create a new folder (separate to my “Nextcloud” folder) in my Nextcloud account on the server and sync it with another folder on my computer?

Only if you do not already syncing the root folder of your Nextcloud, which then would also include this newly created folder.

I don’t have the second menu with “status setzen, abmelden” and “Konto Löschen” there

It should show up if you click on the three dots next to your username / account.

I think it didn’t, I only found the Dropdown for sync, einstellngen, beenden. If i clicked on beenden it immedeately ended.

i deinstalled nextcloud-desktop, since I have the network-drive directly mounted now in nautilus, so I cannot debug this further

Not sure then… Btw. I replaced my screenshot in order to make it more obvious where to click.

I am interested in moving my Nextcloud folder to another hard drive on my computer. Would the following steps also work?

  1. Stop nextcloud client
  2. Move folder to hard drive perhaps using rsync to preserve time stamps etc.
  3. Create soft link to new location like ln -s /mnt/new/hard/drive/Nextcloud/ ~/Nextcloud
  4. Restart nextcloud client