Changing data directory breaks backup possibility on snap installation

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1

Hi everyone.

After installing nextcloud via snap I configured the data directory to an external volume. This is great because I can resize this volume.

Now I also do automatic backups every day with nextcloud.export. This worked fine until I changed the data dir. Now I am getting the error:

Exporting database...
Exporting config...
Exporting data...
rsync: change_dir "/var/snap/nextcloud/common/nextcloud/data" failed: No such file or directory (2)
              0 100%    0.00kB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#0, to-chk=0/0)
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1196) [sender=3.1.2]
Unable to export data

The only thing I find online is that snap might not be able to handle this and that I should back up the data myself: https://github.com/nextcloud/nextcloud-snap/issues/929

That would be really cumbersome and I also think it’s not good practice to split the backups into two parts. Isn’t there another way? Can I not somehow tell snap to change the default path?

Thanks for any help. Very much appreciated.

1 Like
2

For future readers: Seems like there is no solution to this… had to back up my data with a shell script myself

3 Likes
3

Good evening!

Found solution:
We do NOT change the nexcloud settings - we leave them as standard
We mount the external device in mount . We connect at boot - in the file /etc/fstab
in place of the ‘datadirectory’ and /vsr/snap/*/backup directories, create a simlink to the directories of the external device
“OrangePi + snap nexcloud” + external HDD = month - normal flight :slight_smile:
standard backup procedures work

Linux experience - “regular user” :slight_smile:
Can this approach create problems?
sorry for my English

4

The snap of Nextcloud is known to be rather inflexible. It’s really only for very basic setups. If you modify it like this, expect to make some accommodations.