Did i loose my data by encrypting it? my admin user doesn't have any data after decrypting

The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
    • 31.0.9.1
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Debian GNU/Linux 12 (Bookworm),
      • Kernel 6.1.25+rpt-rpi-v8 (aarch64)
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • Apache/2.4.65 (Debian)
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • no
  • PHP version (e.g, 8.3):
    • 8.3
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No):
    • yes
  • When did this problem seem to first start?
    • after encrytion
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • NCP (v1.55.4)
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • no
  • Other potential relevant infos
    • SSD 228GB - Root Drive (rootfs)
    • data filesystem
      • HDD 3.6 TB - Data Storage (ext2)
      • HDD 3.6TB - Backup (ext3)
    • Settings
      • letsencrypt E2EE

Summary of the issue you are facing:

I encrypted the data somehow over the config interface and or the webUI. not sure when it acctually took place. before i used letsencrypt for end-to-end-encryption (E2EE). latest i let the default encrytion module run on the data at rest (i assume from the newly created data_enc folder and a new data directory) But now im unable to access my data.

Now i would roll it back to a previous status from the backup, which i assumed to be working of the dfata as well (ticked to box in the webUI admin interface for the backup ( include data in backup) but there seem to be not enough memory used for my data to be present there. so only an image of the server itself got created.

I’m affraid I got to confident with it. and my backup got corrupted during the encryption process ?by running out of memory? or other and is now lost.
After taking some tome reading into the documentation, it seems to be totally fine to leave my data unencrypted on the drives and only encrypting it on transfer. or to keep it save by access restrictions not by encrypting it locally, only for backup purposes in external online storages.

Its my personal data like pictures and documents. nothing company related or simmilar. But important not to lose.

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

  1. encypring the data on rest.

  2. decytrpting it

  3. → no data in admin user present

Log entries

Nextcloud

Please provide the log entries from your Nextcloud log that are generated during the time of problem (via the Copy raw option from Administration settings->Logging screen or from your nextcloud.log located in your data directory). Feel free to use a pastebin/gist service if necessary.

[notes] Error: Could not generate Content Etag for note 2233558
	GET /index.php/apps/notes/api/v1/notes?pruneBefore=1757793790
	from 87.143.100.92 by Markus at 15.09.2025, 11:46:52


Web server / Reverse Proxy

The output of your Apache/nginx/system log in /var/log/____:

$ sudo tail -n 20 /var/log/apache2/error.log:

[Mon Sep 15 00:00:08.555627 2025] [ssl:warn] [pid 2080:tid 2080] AH01909: localhost:4443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Mon Sep 15 00:00:08.557999 2025] [ssl:error] [pid 2080:tid 2080] AH02218: ssl_stapling_init_cert: no OCSP URI in certificate and no SSLStaplingForceURL set [subject: CN=bugginc.ddns.net / issuer: CN=E5,O=Lets Encrypt,C=US / serial: 0503D8021CEA6D935B81C4E2386816C70946 / notbefore: Jul 28 01:21:04 2025 GMT / notafter: Oct 26 01:21:03 2025 GMT]
[Mon Sep 15 00:00:08.558104 2025] [ssl:error] [pid 2080:tid 2080] AH02604: Unable to configure certificate localhost:4443:0 for stapling
[Mon Sep 15 00:00:08.593869 2025] [mpm_event:notice] [pid 2080:tid 2080] AH00489: Apache/2.4.65 (Debian) OpenSSL/3.0.17 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Mon Sep 15 00:00:08.593968 2025] [core:notice] [pid 2080:tid 2080] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'
[Mon Sep 15 03:33:38.499352 2025] [core:error] [pid 1695093:tid 1695143] [client 197.220.93.115:33692] AH10244: invalid URI path (/cgi-bin/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/bin/sh)
[Mon Sep 15 03:33:38.933317 2025] [core:error] [pid 1695093:tid 1695120] [client 197.220.93.115:33698] AH10244: invalid URI path (/cgi-bin/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/%%32%65%%32%65/bin/sh)

Configuration

Nextcloud

The output of occ config:list

{
    "system": {
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": {
            "0": "localhost",
            "1": "192.168.2.57",
            "2": "nextcloudpi.local",
            "3": "nextcloudpi",
            "11": "2003:c6:4734:e0b6:7d71:8bd1:ed6c:1c87",
            "14": "nextcloudpi",
            "15": "bugginc.ddns.net"
        },
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "31.0.9.1",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 0,
            "timeout": 0,
            "password": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
        },
        "tempdirectory": "\/mnt\/NCPHDD1\/ncdata\/data\/tmp",
        "mail_smtpmode": "sendmail",
        "mail_smtpauthtype": "LOGIN",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "preview_max_x": 512,
        "preview_max_y": 512,
        "jpeg_quality": 60,
        "overwriteprotocol": "https",
        "maintenance": false,
        "logfile": "\/mnt\/NCPHDD1\/ncdata\/data\/nextcloud.log",
        "trusted_proxies": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "forwarded_for_headers": {
            "50": "HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"
        },
        "loglevel": 0,
        "log_type": "file",
        "maintenance_window_start": 2,
        "default_phone_region": "+49",
        "forbidden_filename_characters": [
            "\\",
            "\/"
        ],
        "forbidden_filename_extensions": [
            ".filepart",
            ".part"
        ],
        "memories.exiftool": "\/var\/www\/nextcloud\/apps\/memories\/bin-ext\/exiftool-aarch64-glibc",
        "memories.vod.path": "\/var\/www\/nextcloud\/apps\/memories\/bin-ext\/go-vod-aarch64",
        "memories.vod.ffmpeg": "\/usr\/bin\/ffmpeg",
        "memories.vod.ffprobe": "\/usr\/bin\/ffprobe",
        "theme": "",
        "memories.db.triggers.fcu": true,
        "enabledPreviewProviders": [
            "OC\\Preview\\Image",
            "OC\\Preview\\Movie",
            "OC\\Preview\\TIFF",
            "OC\\Preview\\HEIC"
        ],
        "memories.gis_type": 1,
        "preview_max_memory": 1280,
        "preview_max_filesize_image": 128,
        "twofactor_enforced": "false",
        "twofactor_enforced_groups": [
            "admin",
            "backups",
            "Familie Migendt"
        ],
        "twofactor_enforced_excluded_groups": [],
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_smtpsecure": "ssl"
    },
    "apps": {
        "activity": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "admin_audit": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "announcementcenter": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "7.2.1",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "app_api": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "5.0.2",
            "types": ""
        },
        "assistant": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "2.3.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "backgroundjob": {
            "lastjob": "108780"
        },
        "bruteforcesettings": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "calendar": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "5.5.3",
            "types": ""
        },
        "checksum": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.2.5",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "circles": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "31.0.0",
            "loopback_tmp_path": "\/",
            "loopback_tmp_scheme": "https",
            "maintenance_run": "0",
            "maintenance_update": "{\"3\":1757930105,\"2\":1757931721,\"1\":1757931905}",
            "migration_22": "1",
            "migration_run": "0",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "cloud_federation_api": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.14.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "comments": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "contacts": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "7.3.0",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "contactsinteraction": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "1.12.0",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "cookbook": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "0.11.2",
            "types": ""
        },
        "core": {
            "backgroundjobs_mode": "cron",
            "default_encryption_module": "OC_DEFAULT_MODULE",
            "emailTestSuccessful": "1",
            "encryption_enabled": "no",
            "installedat": "1737211129.6667",
            "lastcron": 1757931906,
            "lastupdateResult": "[]",
            "lastupdatedat": 1757931179,
            "metadataGenerationDone": true,
            "moveavatarsdone": "yes",
            "previewsCleanedUp": "1",
            "public_files": "files_sharing\/public.php",
            "updater.secret.created": 1755286332,
            "vendor": "nextcloud",
            "files_metadata": {
                "photos-original_date_time": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "int",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": true,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "photos-exif": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "array",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "photos-ifd0": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "array",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "photos-size": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "array",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "blurhash": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "string",
                    "etag": "0123983c0ae7f80bf94852b17d6aaa31",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "photos-gps": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "array",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "photos-place": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "string",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": true,
                    "editPermission": 0
                },
                "files-live-photo": {
                    "value": null,
                    "type": "string",
                    "etag": "",
                    "indexed": false,
                    "editPermission": 1
                }
            },
            "oc.integritycheck.checker": []
        },
        "dashboard": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "7.10.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "dav": {
            "buildCalendarReminderIndex": "yes",
            "buildCalendarSearchIndex": "yes",
            "builtSocialSearchIndex": "yes",
            "chunks_migrated": "1",
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.33.0",
            "regeneratedBirthdayCalendarsForYearFix": "yes",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "deck": {
            "enabled": "[\"Familie Migendt\"]",
            "installed_version": "1.15.2",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "drawio": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "3.0.3",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "encryption": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "encryptHomeStorage": "0",
            "installed_version": "2.19.0",
            "masterKeyId": "master_dbbcc780",
            "publicShareKeyId": "pubShare_dbbcc780",
            "recoveryKeyId": "recoveryKey_dbbcc780",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "end_to_end_encryption": {
            "allowed_groups": "[]",
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.17.0",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "federatedfilesharing": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "federation": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.20.0",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "files": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.3.1",
            "mimetype_version": "31.0.9.1",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "files_antivirus": {
            "av_path": "\/usr\/bin\/clamscan",
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "5.6.1",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "files_downloadlimit": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "files_external": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.23.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "files_pdfviewer": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "files_reminders": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.3.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "files_sharing": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.23.1",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "files_trashbin": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "files_versions": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.24.0",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "firstrunwizard": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "groupfolders": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "19.1.3",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "integration_github": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "3.1.1",
            "types": ""
        },
        "logreader": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "shownLevels": "[1,2,3,4,0]",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "lookup_server_connector": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.19.0",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "mail": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "4.3.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "maps": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.5.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "memories": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "7.6.2",
            "last_index_job_duration": "115.4",
            "last_index_job_start": "1757931605",
            "last_index_job_status": "Indexing completed successfully",
            "last_index_job_status_type": "success",
            "types": ""
        },
        "music": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.3.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "news": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "26.1.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "nextcloud_announcements": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "pub_date": "Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0200",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "nextcloudpi": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "0.0.2",
            "types": ""
        },
        "notes": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.12.3",
            "types": ""
        },
        "notifications": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "notify_push": {
            "base_endpoint": "https:\/\/nextcloudpi\/push",
            "cookie": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.2.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "oauth2": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.19.1",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "onlyoffice": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "9.6.0",
            "types": "prevent_group_restriction"
        },
        "password_policy": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "passwords": {
            "SSEv1ServerKey": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "cron\/php\/version\/id": "80316",
            "cron\/php\/version\/string": "8.3.16",
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "2024.12.21",
            "passwords\/localdb\/type": "hibp",
            "types": "",
            "web\/php\/version\/id": "80316",
            "web\/php\/version\/string": "8.3.16"
        },
        "photos": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "lastPlaceMappedUser": "ncp",
            "lastPlaceMappingDone": "true",
            "types": "dav,authentication"
        },
        "preview": {
            "jpeg_quality": "60"
        },
        "previewgenerator": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "heightSizes": "256",
            "installed_version": "99.99.99",
            "squareSizes": "32 256",
            "types": "filesystem",
            "widthSizes": "256 384"
        },
        "privacy": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "fullDiskEncryptionEnabled": "0",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "readableLocation": "de",
            "types": ""
        },
        "profile": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "provisioning_api": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "prevent_group_restriction"
        },
        "quota_warning": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "initialised": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "recognize": {
            "clusterFaces.lastRun": "0",
            "concurrency.enabled": "false",
            "enabled": "no",
            "faces.batchSize": "50",
            "faces.enabled": "false",
            "imagenet.batchSize": "20",
            "imagenet.enabled": "false",
            "installed_version": "8.2.0",
            "landmarks.batchSize": "20",
            "landmarks.enabled": "false",
            "movinet.batchSize": "5",
            "movinet.enabled": "false",
            "musicnn.batchSize": "20",
            "musicnn.enabled": "false",
            "nice_binary": "\/usr\/bin\/nice",
            "nice_value": "0",
            "node_binary": "\/var\/www\/nextcloud\/apps\/recognize\/bin\/node",
            "tensorflow.cores": "0",
            "tensorflow.gpu": "false",
            "tensorflow.purejs": "false",
            "types": "filesystem,dav"
        },
        "recommendations": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "related_resources": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "2.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "richdocuments": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "8.5.3",
            "types": "prevent_group_restriction"
        },
        "serverinfo": {
            "cached_count_appdata_files": 428056,
            "cached_count_filecache": 996273,
            "cached_count_storages": 10,
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "size_appdata_storage": 32234,
            "types": ""
        },
        "settings": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.14.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "sharebymail": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "support": {
            "SwitchUpdaterServerHasRun": "yes",
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "2.0.0",
            "types": "session"
        },
        "survey_client": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "3.0.0",
            "last_sent": 1757705110,
            "types": "",
            "last_report": "{\"id\":\"oc6qbfyqfqsb\",\"items\":[[\"server\",\"version\",\"31.0.9.1\"],[\"server\",\"code\",\"other\"],[\"server\",\"enable_avatars\",\"yes\"],[\"server\",\"enable_previews\",\"yes\"],[\"server\",\"memcache.local\",\"\\\\OC\\\\Memcache\\\\Redis\"],[\"server\",\"memcache.distributed\",\"none\"],[\"server\",\"asset-pipeline.enabled\",\"no\"],[\"server\",\"filelocking.enabled\",\"yes\"],[\"server\",\"memcache.locking\",\"\\\\OC\\\\Memcache\\\\Redis\"],[\"server\",\"debug\",\"no\"],[\"server\",\"cron\",\"cron\"],[\"php\",\"version\",\"8.3.21\"],[\"php\",\"memory_limit\",-1],[\"php\",\"max_execution_time\",0],[\"php\",\"upload_max_filesize\",2097152],[\"database\",\"type\",\"mysql\"],[\"database\",\"version\",\"10.11.14\"],[\"database\",\"size\",1991557120],[\"apps\",\"activity\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"admin_audit\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"announcementcenter\",\"7.2.1\"],[\"apps\",\"app_api\",\"5.0.2\"],[\"apps\",\"assistant\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"bruteforcesettings\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"calendar\",\"5.5.3\"],[\"apps\",\"checksum\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"circles\",\"31.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"cloud_federation_api\",\"1.14.0\"],[\"apps\",\"comments\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"contacts\",\"7.3.0\"],[\"apps\",\"contactsinteraction\",\"1.12.0\"],[\"apps\",\"cookbook\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"dashboard\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"dav\",\"1.33.0\"],[\"apps\",\"deck\",\"1.15.2\"],[\"apps\",\"drawio\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"encryption\",\"2.19.0\"],[\"apps\",\"end_to_end_encryption\",\"1.17.0\"],[\"apps\",\"federatedfilesharing\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"federation\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"files\",\"2.3.1\"],[\"apps\",\"files_antivirus\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"files_downloadlimit\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"files_external\",\"1.23.0\"],[\"apps\",\"files_pdfviewer\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"files_reminders\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"files_sharing\",\"1.23.1\"],[\"apps\",\"files_trashbin\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"files_versions\",\"1.24.0\"],[\"apps\",\"firstrunwizard\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"groupfolders\",\"19.1.3\"],[\"apps\",\"integration_github\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"logreader\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"lookup_server_connector\",\"1.19.0\"],[\"apps\",\"mail\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"maps\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"memories\",\"7.6.2\"],[\"apps\",\"music\",\"2.3.0\"],[\"apps\",\"news\",\"26.1.0\"],[\"apps\",\"nextcloud_announcements\",\"3.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"nextcloudpi\",\"0.0.2\"],[\"apps\",\"notes\",\"4.12.3\"],[\"apps\",\"notifications\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"notify_push\",\"1.2.0\"],[\"apps\",\"oauth2\",\"1.19.1\"],[\"apps\",\"onlyoffice\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"password_policy\",\"3.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"passwords\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"photos\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"previewgenerator\",\"99.99.99\"],[\"apps\",\"privacy\",\"3.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"profile\",\"1.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"provisioning_api\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"quota_warning\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"recognize\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"recommendations\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"related_resources\",\"2.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"richdocuments\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"serverinfo\",\"3.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"settings\",\"1.14.0\"],[\"apps\",\"sharebymail\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"support\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"survey_client\",\"3.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"suspicious_login\",\"9.0.1\"],[\"apps\",\"systemtags\",\"1.21.1\"],[\"apps\",\"tasks\",\"0.16.1\"],[\"apps\",\"text\",\"5.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"theming\",\"2.6.1\"],[\"apps\",\"twofactor_backupcodes\",\"1.20.0\"],[\"apps\",\"twofactor_nextcloud_notification\",\"5.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"twofactor_totp\",\"13.0.0-dev.0\"],[\"apps\",\"twofactor_webauthn\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"updatenotification\",\"1.21.0\"],[\"apps\",\"user_saml\",\"7.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"user_status\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"viewer\",\"4.0.0\"],[\"apps\",\"weather_status\",\"1.11.0\"],[\"apps\",\"webhook_listeners\",\"1.2.0\"],[\"apps\",\"whiteboard\",\"disabled\"],[\"apps\",\"workflowengine\",\"2.13.0\"],[\"stats\",\"num_files\",504415],[\"stats\",\"num_users\",6],[\"stats\",\"num_storages\",9],[\"stats\",\"num_storages_local\",3],[\"stats\",\"num_storages_home\",6],[\"stats\",\"num_storages_other\",0],[\"stats\",\"num_comments\",1],[\"stats\",\"num_comment_markers\",0],[\"stats\",\"num_systemtags\",0],[\"stats\",\"num_systemtags_mappings\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_shares\",1],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_shares_user\",1],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_shares_groups\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_shares_link\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_shares_link_no_password\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_fed_shares_sent\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"num_fed_shares_received\",0],[\"files_sharing\",\"permissions_0_31\",1],[\"encryption\",\"enabled\",\"yes\"]]}"
        },
        "suspicious_login": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "9.0.1",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "systemtags": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.21.1",
            "types": "logging"
        },
        "tasks": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "0.16.1",
            "types": ""
        },
        "text": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "5.0.0",
            "types": "dav"
        },
        "theming": {
            "backgroundMime": "image\/png",
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.6.1",
            "logoDimensions": "500x500",
            "logoMime": "image\/svg+xml",
            "name": "NextCloudPi",
            "slogan": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "types": "logging",
            "url": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
        },
        "twofactor_backupcodes": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.20.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "twofactor_nextcloud_notification": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "5.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "twofactor_totp": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "13.0.0-dev.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "twofactor_webauthn": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "2.1.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "updatenotification": {
            "announcementcenter": "7.1.2",
            "calendar": "5.5.3",
            "contacts": "7.3.0",
            "core": "31.0.9.1",
            "deck": "1.15.1",
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "groupfolders": "19.1.4",
            "installed_version": "1.21.0",
            "mail": "4.2.6",
            "memories": "7.6.2",
            "music": "2.3.0",
            "news": "26.0.1",
            "notes": "4.12.2",
            "notify_push": "1.2.0",
            "types": "",
            "update_check_errors": 0
        },
        "user_saml": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "7.0.0",
            "localGroupsCheckForMigration": "{\"dropAfter\":1747996870,\"groups\":{\"0\":\"BuggiButze\",\"2\":\"backups\"}}",
            "types": "authentication"
        },
        "user_status": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.10.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "viewer": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "weather_status": {
            "enabled": "[\"admin\"]",
            "installed_version": "1.11.0",
            "types": ""
        },
        "webhook_listeners": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "1.2.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        },
        "whiteboard": {
            "enabled": "no",
            "installed_version": "1.0.5",
            "types": ""
        },
        "workflowengine": {
            "enabled": "yes",
            "installed_version": "2.13.0",
            "types": "filesystem"
        }
    }
}
Zusammenfassung
  • first I want to make sure i get full access to my decrypted data again and understand what went wrong.
  • When this hopefully works out, Then Ill go and make sure Im having a proper backup of the data and not only of the NCP instance.
  • afterward ill be willing to start over again with the ncp to make sure i understand whats happenig before im running my data management on my own server. (and generate locally independet, and encrypted backups)

Hello @Mantarochen, welcome to the Nextcloud community! :handshake:

If unsure what happend it’s definitely recommended not to change anything to avoid further trouble. as long you have proper backup of your data and config but can not restore for some reason you can restore your files using GitHub - nextcloud/encryption-recovery-tools: This project contains tools to recover files that have been encrypted with the Nextcloud End-to-End Encryption or Nextcloud Server-Side Encryption. as last resort

I’m having hard time to follow what steps you performed and in which state you are now. you mix different unrelated things in your description

LE and e2ee are completely different technologies. TLS (letsencrypt) is used to encrypt data “in transit”, while E2EE protects “data at rest

again data encryption and backup are completely unrelated to each other.

Please try to describe what is the problem and what you did before so we could help you.

1 Like

Hello @wwe,

thanks for the fast reply! and the clarification of the encryption metods.

I understood E2EE (end-to-end-encrytion) to be the transmission encryption to beginn with.
But you’re saying that the E2EE is then the encryption that also stores the data encrypted to beginn with.

Did i activate it with the nc default encrytion module?

I guess i need some help to figure out what happened. and if my data is still there to be recovered.

any tips on how to make myself a better overview?

I have ssh access with sudo rights and can run occ commands but i need to still fgure out what options there are.

How to retrieve the correct log infos might be usefull to beginn with recollect whats been happening.

my Data diretory looks like this right now:

drwxr-x---  9 www-data www-data 4096 Sep 14 22:10 data
drwxr-x--- 15 www-data www-data 4096 Sep 13 19:16 nc-data-crypt.tHxbhb
drwxr-xr-x  5 root     root     4096 Aug 29 10:43 ncdata_enc

folder: nc-data-crypt.tHxbhb

  • seems to have encrypted data in the original folder structure of all users but not for my admin user where my now lost data was stored.

folder: data

  • originally my data was stored there. now there are only users with logs from times when i was trying to undo the encrytion

folder: data_enc

  • completely encryted data?
  • i guess keys are stored there?
  • doesnt seem to be big enough to contain the data.
  • default server encryption runs on the server and encrypts data on the storage, server (admin) has full access to data
  • e2ee runs on the client and encrypts contents of specific folders client-side and only uploads encrypted data to the server - activation and management is almost completely on the client, server (admin) has no access to data
  • how did it happen? did you delete admin data or was all the data stored in admin’s folder and shared with users?

So far I understand you tried to enable server-side encryption, so please review Server-side encryption configuration — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation to better understand how it works and what you possible can do.

1 Like

its an User account with admin rights. all other users where test users. some folders where shared, some where only accessible by users.

But most importantly the data owned my User (the admin user i mean) can’t be found anymore.

only changed it to encrypt and i might have run out of storage, if it needed the same space of memory again.
So i might have had 2.1TB of Data and only had 3.6TB in total. could that have caused the data loss ?

otherwise im still in the dark.

again. my database is still referencing to the data but cant find it.

  • if i try to access/download any file in the WebUI i get the detailed message:
Virtual File downloading failed with code "403", status "503" and error message "Error transfering https://MyDomain/remote.php/.../XXX.pdf - Service Unavailable"

  • Listenelement
  • if i try to access/download any file in the WebUI i get no message but it endlessly loads displaying the files name.

This doesn’t look like either of Nextcloud’s encryption methods (SSE and E2EE).

I did some digging around: This looks like NCP’s drive encryption where it prompts you for the password at every boot up. It’s provisioned in the code base via ncp-encrypt and/or via the NCP Web UI.

It looks like it uses gocryptfs underneath. I’m not at all familiar with it.

It’s part of NextcloudPi only. It’s not part of Nextcloud Server.

1 Like

@jtr you where right with gocryptfs.
the “ncdata_enc” directory is where my data was encrypted to.
(file names as well as folder names where cryptic)

Cant recall how got to this state. i thought i only had used NC modules.
Anyways, im glad my data is not lost. (gladly I figured out which password i used…)

I’ve read a bit about it here
https://www.baeldung.com/linux/gocryptfs-encrypt-decrypt-dirs

from what i understood now (in short) is the following

  • I encrypted the data in forward Mode (data at rest is encrypted)
  • to access the data / decrypt it a directory needs to be mounted for which a password is needed.
  • once an !empty! directory is mounted. its still protected from all users but root.
  • so with sudo i was able to copy the data unencrypted to my current data directory
  • change the ownership correctly made it accessable for the server again

Now some question i had:
what I was not sure about / im trying out to do, is how to make the data accessable in encrypted form by the server i.e. decrypting it on demand.

I guess i could change the data directory to be the mounting point. but some .ncdata file and other important files where some issue thus far.

For my usecase (Im the owner of the NCPi Server as well as the data) I don’t really need my data resting in an encrypted state. Only for my backup (local and external) I would encrypt it.

Now my issue is solved. But if thats of interest i would gather my infos about the lessons i’ve learned and summarize it better once i’ve finished setting it up.

I would be happy for any comments, corrections, critics and other helpful answers in the meantime.

Thanks for the replies already.

:grin:

Try disabling encryption (occ encryption:disable) and run occ encryption:decrypt-all. Check your old data folder and backup to see if files are still there. If the backup missed data, you may need to restore from the original folder.

thanks for you reply.
I tried it with the occ encryption functions as you mentioned before. but the gocryptfs data didnt got encrypted.

what i worked on was:

but the data I was missing, was encrypted with gocryptfs, is in this folder:

I’ve played around a bit by changing the data directory in the config file back and forth to these folders, turning encryption on and off in the settings…
So I can’t really tell anymore if “playing aroung” with the settings got anything to do with the decrypting process not working.

$ occ encryption:status 
  - enabled: false
  - defaultModule: OC_DEFAULT_MODULE

and reference to the default module is also just found in the folder nc-data-crypt.tHxbhb here the files are in an encrypted state but the folder structures/names is kept in original.

while in ncdata_enc even the folder names are cryptic.

as @jtr mentioned, its the ncp function for data at rest encryption which I enable and disabled via the webUI and broke it with the playing around.

can you tell me where you found this info. on github ?

having a hard time finding any relevant infos about this implemenation with an online search.

This topic was automatically closed 8 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.