Known major issues with some features and workarounds

Disclaimer

I don’t want to offend anybody with this list but I think it makes sense to list some well known major issues of Nextcloud features in one place. To add some value to this, I note down possible workarounds to each point.

Please note that this is meant for my own documentation and only reflects my own opinion, but I will try to link Github issues going forward.


The list

  • External Storage App:
    • SMB breaks regularly (e.g. server#26457)
      Workaround: mount SMB shares via the OS and use local external storage to mount it to Nextcloud
    • SFTP breaks regularly (e.g. server#20979)
      Workaround: mount SFTP storage via the OS and use local external storage to mount it to Nextcloud
  • Built-in OnlyOffice Documentserver:
  • Built-in Collabora Documentserver:
    • causes significant slowdown/timeout (e.g. richdocumentscode#1282)
      Workaround: use the offical Collabora Online Docker Documentserver for this
  • Server side encryption:
    • isn’t reliable (e.g. server#24240)
      Workaround: use Encryption from the OS or FS
  • Desktop client:
    • VFS (Virtual File System) has some initial bugs (see this list)
      Workaround: wait until those initial issues are resolved or disable VFS
  • Android client:
    • crashes a lot (see this list)
      Workaround for now: live with it.
    • Built-in Video Player doens’t work (see this list)
      Workaround: Download the video before playing it
    • Media Tab doesn’t work (e.g. android#7245)
      Workaround for now: don’t use the Media Tab but the normal file view.
  • Photos app:
    • timeline view doesn’t work with external storage and groupfolders (e.g. photos#154 and photos#575)
      Workaround: Use the Your folders view of the Photos app
  • Text app:
    • destroys markdown files (e.g. text#593 and text#145)
      Workaround: Disable the text app and use the Markdown Editor App instead.
  • Web updater:
    • is unreliable (see this list)
      Workaround: don’t use the web updater and run the update via CLI or script instead
  • Maps:
    • Background scanning of pictures produces a lot of issues (e.g. maps#362)
      Workaround: never schedule any scanning background job for the maps app
  • Fulltextsearch:
    • has often issues especially after major updates (e.g. fulltextsearch#588)
      Workaround: don’t use the fulltextsearch app
  • User management:
    • spaces in UserIDs aren’t supported (e.g. server#21313)
      Workaround: don’t create users with spaces in the UserID

Last updated on 20.04.2021


Feedback

If you found any feature that didn’t work for you and that isn’t already on the list, I would love to hear about it down below. Please provide a link to a Github issue in any case.
If you don’t aggree with a point on the list, I would love to hear about it, too!

5 Likes

My workaround: Stream to VLC

Thanks for the feedback! This is unfortunatley not working in all cases. See the 'Stream with" option on video files doesn't work with the popular VLC for Android app · Issue #5221 · nextcloud/android · GitHub