Downgrading Nextcloud Text App from Version 31.0.2 to Version 29.11

ℹ️ Support
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Why do this?
Since upgrading to Nextcloud 30.x, the Text app has become unstable. The main issue is with input methods for East Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. When using special symbols such as “: , ? .” etc., the app automatically inserts line breaks or the cursor disappears. This is highly disruptive and makes the app practically unusable. Additionally, every time a new line is added, a “holder” hint appears, which is quite annoying.

On the other hand, the Text app before version 29.11 seemed to work well, especially for work purposes where stability and efficiency are key.

So, here’s how you can downgrade:

Steps to Downgrade:

  1. First, go to your Nextcloud installation directory and locate the apps/text directory. Backup all the files in this directory or move the entire folder to another location. But don’t delete it just yet—some files will be needed later.

  2. Go to the official Nextcloud changelog at https://nextcloud.com/changelog/, and download version 29.11. Once downloaded, find the apps/text directory.

  3. In your Nextcloud installation directory, navigate to the apps folder and create a new text directory.

  4. Copy all files except the lib directory and appinfo/info.xml from the downloaded 29.11 version apps/text directory to the root directory of the online nextcloud installation directory apps/text
    location.

  5. Now, find the backup copy of the text directory from version 31.0.2 and copy the appinfo/info.xml file into your live Nextcloud instance’s apps/text/appinfo folder. Also, copy the lib directory and all its contents into the apps/text directory.

  6. If you’re using Nginx, restart PHP-FPM. If you’re using Apache, restart Apache. Then press Ctrl + F5 (Windows) or Cmd + R (Mac) to refresh your browser, and open any Text app document. Now, the Text app should be downgraded to version 29.11.

Explanation:

In fact, the whole operation is very simple, that is, the appinfo/info.xml and lib directories in the text directory use the original files that come with nextcloud 31.0.2 text, and the others replace the files in the 29.11 text directory. This may be easier to understand.

Important Notes:

  1. This process hasn’t been widely tested, and it’s based on my personal online testing. So far, I haven’t encountered any issues. However, it’s strongly recommended to back up your system before proceeding.

  2. I haven’t used any caching systems like Redis or Memcache, so if you’re using these, you may need to restart those services as well.

  3. I haven’t tested this on other versions. But in theory, it should work with both 30.x and 31.x. If you’re interested, feel free to try it out yourself. This downgrade was relatively easy because the communication method between the Text app and PHP hasn’t changed, only the API and communication between the Text app and Nextcloud have changed. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been this easy to downgrade.

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Report a known issue:
In the New menu, you cannot create a new text file, but you can create a new folder description to temporarily replace this option.

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