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The Basics
-
Nextcloud Server version:
- NextCloud 30.0.1.2
-
Operating system and version:
- NextCloudPi v1.55.4
- Armbian-unofficial 24.8.2 Bookworm \l . 6.6.45-current-bcm2711 (aarch64)
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Web server and version:
- Apache/2.4.65 (Debian)
-
Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
- N/A
PHP version:
- PHP 8.3.12 (cli)
-
Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar?
- No
Summary of the issue you are facing:
First of all, I am new to Linux and Nextcloud, and I am slower than a disgruntled DMV employee. Talk to me like I am 5.
Moving on: I am testing Nextcloud restoration processes. Scenario: Data is stable and stored in an external hard drive connected directly to my Pi via USB, but the NextCloudPi OS crashes and I need to do a fresh install. What is the simplest way to tell my new Nextcloud installation to use the existing database and data on my external hard drive?
Steps to replicate it:
-
Built NextCloudPi on micro SD card Alpha. Booted pi with mirco SD Alpha to fresh NectCloudPi installation, and activated Nextcloud.
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Mounted to sda1: /media/USB-HDD
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Mounted to sda2: /media/USB-Backups
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Used nc-datadir to move the data directory to /media/USB-HDD/ncdata
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Used nc-database to move the database to /media/USB-HDD/ncdatabase
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Created Nextcloud user “Hardvark” and uploaded like 10 GB of test data.
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Exported NextCloudPi configs to /media/USB-Backups using nc-export-ncp
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Used nc-backup with “Include data” checked, and stored the backup in /media/USB-Backups/ncp-backups
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Shut down the pi, and yoinked mirco SD Alpha.
-
Built NextCloudPi on micro SD card Beta. Booted pi with mirco SD Beta to fresh NectCloudPi installation, and activated Nextcloud.
-
Mounted to sda1: /media/USB-HDD
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Mounted to sda2: /media/USB-Backups
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Used nc-import-ncp to restore configurations. While importing configurations, I get an error that my database is invalid, and to make sure that .ncdata is in the root of my data folder.
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Attempt to log into “Hardvark,” but cannot. But I can log into the default ncp user of the new installation on Beta.
I see this error reported in the forums here and there, but I am not finding a real solution or explanation. I think the leading hypothesis is a permissions issue with the /media/USB-HDD/ncdata/data folder.
My understanding of nc-restore is that we are wanting to restore a broken database or corrupted data etc., unpacking our .tar backup to the directory that our Nextcloud instance is currently using. However, there is nothing wrong with my data or database. I don’t want to make a new copy of it. I just want to point my new Nextcloud install to existing data.
If the issue is a permissions issue, I am unsure how to go about resetting ownership properly. Running
$ ls -a -l /media/USB-HDD/ncdata/data
I get
drwxr-x--- 1 www-data www-data 182 Nov 1 23:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8 Nov 1 16:08 ..
drwxrwxr-x 1 www-data www-data 60 Nov 9 2024 appdata_ocut2g9g78ea
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 542 Nov 1 15:54 .htaccess
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 Nov 1 15:54 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 52 Nov 1 15:54 .ncdata
drwxr-xr-x 1 www-data www-data 20 Nov 9 2024 ncp
drwxr-xr-x 1 www-data www-data 94 Nov 1 15:55 ncp-update-backups
-rw-r----- 1 www-data www-data 351970 Nov 1 23:59 nextcloud.log
drwxrwxr-x 1 www-data www-data 64 Nov 8 2024 .opcache
drwxrwxr-x 1 www-data www-data 0 Nov 1 15:55 tmp
So .ncdata exists, and www-data is listed as the owner. (Ignore the weird dates, I had some timesync issues before.)
Logs
The following is an excerpt of the notable error that was output during nc-import-ncp in step 13.
Running nc-datadir
INFO: /media/USB-HDD/ncdata is not empty. Creating backup /media/USB-HDD/ncdata-11-01-25.1762031302
Maintenance mode enabled
moving data directory from /opt/ncdata/data to /media/USB-HDD/ncdata/data...
BTRFS filesystem detected
Create subvolume '/media/USB-HDD/ncdata'
{"reqId":"eXNzgGpxbwWiG2M6JoKu","level":2,"time":"2025-11-01T21:08:28+00:00","remoteAddr":"","user":"--","app":"no app in context","method":"","url":"--","message":"Temporary directory /opt/ncdata/data/tmp is not present or writable","userAgent":"--","version":"30.0.1.2","data":[]}
Nextcloud is in maintenance mode, no apps are loaded.
Commands provided by apps are unavailable.
Your data directory is invalid.
Ensure there is a file called ".ncdata" in the root of the data directory. It should have the content: "# Nextcloud data directory"
Cannot create "data" directory.
This can usually be fixed by giving the web server write access to the root directory. See https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/30/go.php?to=admin-dir_permissions
An unhandled exception has been thrown:
Exception: Environment not properly prepared. in /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Console/Application.php:137
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/nextcloud/console.php(81): OC\Console\Application->loadCommands()
#1 /var/www/nextcloud/occ(33): require_once('...')
#2 {main}Nextcloud is in maintenance mode, no apps are loaded.
Commands provided by apps are unavailable.
System config value logfile set to string /media/USB-HDD/ncdata/data/nextcloud.log
Nextcloud is in maintenance mode, no apps are loaded.
Commands provided by apps are unavailable.
System config value tempdirectory set to string /media/USB-HDD/ncdata/data/tmp
Installing template 'php/opcache.ini.sh'...
Maintenance mode disabled
Installing template 'ncp-metrics.cfg.sh'...
The NC data directory has been moved successfully.
There is surely something really simple that I am missing here.
Thank you for the feedback.