Lost Access due to php-Version

Hey All,

I was running a nextcloud on a third-party webhoster. Unfortunatelly I missed updating quite a while. Now the hoster shut down php7.3. My current Nextcloudversion isn’t running anymore:

“This version of Nextcloud is not compatible with > PHP 7.3.
You are currently running 7.4.25.”

I tried to install the latest Version after backick up my data locally, but I can’t figuer out how to migrate my Calender and Contact data to the new cloud.
I have access to my old Nextcloud via ftp only so far.

I usually install Nextcloud via a launcher provided by my Webhoster.

I have also tried to follow [this manual](https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/maintenance/manual_upgrade.html) but couldn’t find out a way to launch occ.

Does anyone have a solution?
My goal is only to get to the latest Nextcloudversion and somehow get my Calender & Contact Data back.
Other data, like files etc. I am ok with uploading later manually.

I think it is not a good idea to use a webhoster (without shell access) to host Nextcloud. And if you want host Nextcloud at a webhoster you must have actual file backups and database backups.

The problem is the fact that on the host the old nextcloud version with your old database data does not work. But perhaps the new nextcloud version has got new database structures. That also does not work.

Have you got a dump of your database with the old nextcloud version? Have you got a local linux pc? Perhaps you can install the old nextcloud version locally, include the database data, upgrade to newer version, dump the database and then upload again to your hoster.

Read backup and restore

If you use a webhoster you can also use a Managed Nextcloud. Search the internet for provider.

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Thank you devnull. I don’t have an local linux pc availbale. Neither a virtual drive atm. If possible I would like to avoid going there.

I have a backup of the nextcloud folder on my hard-drive.
Access to the database though webhoster myPhp loos like this:
grafik

I can ask them for a dump, so far I can’t find any option to download one.

Thanks as well for the hint with Managed Nextcloud. As far as I can tell my Webhoster provides that - but they claim that they don’t offer any support for it though. Does this make sense?

Perhaps you can install https://www.phpmyadmin.net and make a dump of your database. But the dump does not solve your problem.

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This is what they provide, yes. I found an option to download the database.

But as you say, this is not solving my problem (yet).

So I had all my data still locally on my phone and on my computer… Installed a new instance of the latest version and used export - import to get my data back online… This might be the most noobish workaround, but maybe one or another has something to giggle here now…

Thank you devnull for your support!!!

Yes. This is perhaps the best solutions if you have got all your data and settings locally on your phone and computer. But what about polls, forms, …?

Since Nextcloud 23 there is an app backup.

In the manual upgrade procedure, you could have opened a browser and it should have shown you the regular updater interface if I’m not mistaken. That would probably have been the easiest solution of all.

Are you still struggling with this?

I run Nextcloud on a shared server (on Dreamhost) and it can be a bit frustrating but not as frustrating as maintaining my own server!

I cannot run the upgrader from the browser, and I think many other users on shared web hosts have similar experiences. It has been so long now that I don’t remember the specific permissions issue, but a lot of web hosting providers have security settings that make it difficult to run an update entirely from the browser interface.

Are you able to SSH in to your web hosting account? Or are you only using FTP? You will need SSH to upgrade. The first thing to do is figure out whether your webhost provides at least command line PHP in depricated versions. On Dreamhost, I would use the command php-7.4 occ upgrade to make sure I was running PHP 7.4 if I need it. That is documented at:

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/214202238

You may have to connect with your webhost but I bet they have something similar.

The other brain bender (at least for me, as someone who has also gotten four or five major releases behind) is that you have to upgrade to the highest point release for the major release that you’re on, and then upgrade one major release at a time. So if you were at Version 19.0.4, you would need to update to 19.0.13 (the highest point release in V 19 – I just look at Index of /server/releases to see that), and then from 19.0.13 you can upgrade to 20.0.14 (the highest point release in v 20) and then to 22.2.10 → 23.0.x → 24.0.x → 25.0.x.

I typically copy my nextcloud directory over to something named for the version, and leave the last Zip in my home directory so I can orient myself easily. Currently it looks like this:

drwxr-xr-x 15 abh pg140705 4.0K Mar  9 17:38 nextcloud
drwxr-xr-x 15 abh pg140705 4.0K Feb 14 14:02 nextcloud-25.0.3
-rw-r--r--  1 abh pg140705 172M Feb 23 02:34 nextcloud-25.0.4.zip

So last time I updated, I turned maintenance mode on (by running php-8.0 occ maintenance:mode --on from within my nextcloud directory), moved the whole “nextcloud” folder to “nextcloud-25.0.3” and unzipped “nextcloud-25.0.4.zip” which created a new “nextcloud” folder. Then I followed the instructions for copying over my config.php and data files as well as the apps I need (You can use diff with grep "Only in" to get a list of apps that are in your old instance but not the new instance.)

Then I use php occ upgrade (or, if I need a specific version because the upgrader is balking, php-7.4 occ upgrade or php-8.0 upgrade) to upgrade.

It is a little exasperating to have to cycle through four or five upgrades to get current, but it can be done.