Need help for disappearing files

The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
    • 32.0.0
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Rocky 8.10 on Linux Container LXC on Proxmox
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • Apache 2.4.37
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • n/a
  • 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?
    • two months ago
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • archive
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • mod_security

Summary of the issue you are facing:

Two months ago a user found that some files disappeared from a Team Folder.
I didn’t find any hint on what happened. The files disappeared from the WebUI and from the disk.

I then did this:

  • enabled audit log
  • enabled backup every 12 hours

15 days ago, another file disappeared. I didn’t find any clue again in the logs.
I did find these corruption related bugs, so updated all Desktop Clients to 4.0.1:

One week ago, another file was missing. It has been recovered by backup, but when I watched again the day later, I couldn’t find it again.

This time, I see from backups that it was present saturday night at 0:30 but not in the next backup at 12:30, so it should not be a client issue.

At this point, I have a big doubt: if the filesystem is corrupt and causes lost files, I expect that WebUI still shows the file and maybe gives an error if one tries to open it. The fact that the file is missing from both disk and web, makes me think to an NC problem.

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

  1. sorry, can’t replicate

Log entries

Nextcloud

The last access to the file is 2025-11-21 16:06.
The next backup at 00:30,  contains the file.
The successive backup at 12:30 does not contain the file, and I have no logs in the meantime 

audit-user-access.log
{"reqId":"aSCNxdSznLK6UVhBB@WExAAAAM0","level":1,"time":"2025-11-21T16:05:25+00:00","remoteAddr":"10.10.16.34","user":"E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6","app":"admin_audit","method":"GET","url":"/remote.php/dav/files/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione/Formazione%20Company%20Holding%20Srl%20Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls","message":"File with id \"577637\" accessed: \"/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/files/QHSE/_Company Holding/Formazione/Formazione Company Holding Srl Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls\"","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)","version":"32.0.0.13","clientReqId":"c208381f-c64e-4e94-8861-7ffc648ef47d","data":{"app":"admin_audit"}}
{"reqId":"aSCNzScL5Wfsv72ZQtxzsgAAABM","level":1,"time":"2025-11-21T16:05:33+00:00","remoteAddr":"10.10.16.31","user":"5F383AC9-28A7-4A86-B1E0-865AAEEECFE7","app":"admin_audit","method":"PUT","url":"/remote.php/dav/files/5F383AC9-28A7-4A86-B1E0-865AAEEECFE7/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione/Formazione%20Company%20Holding%20Srl%20Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls","message":"File with id \"577637\" written to: \"/5F383AC9-28A7-4A86-B1E0-865AAEEECFE7/files/QHSE/_Company Holding/Formazione/Formazione Company Holding Srl Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls\"","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)","version":"32.0.0.13","clientReqId":"60d65345-e665-4430-8438-374416ed3d9d","data":{"app":"admin_audit"}}
{"reqId":"aSCN4AD3KDa4W4hgs9E1ugAAAJg","level":1,"time":"2025-11-21T16:05:52+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.45.25","user":"CCE24ACF-9F81-4B92-B026-EED861BCFDBE","app":"admin_audit","method":"GET","url":"/remote.php/dav/files/CCE24ACF-9F81-4B92-B026-EED861BCFDBE/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione/Formazione%20Company%20Holding%20Srl%20Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls","message":"File with id \"577637\" accessed: \"/CCE24ACF-9F81-4B92-B026-EED861BCFDBE/files/QHSE/_Company Holding/Formazione/Formazione Company Holding Srl Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls\"","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)","version":"32.0.0.13","clientReqId":"6f1170c8-4e62-43d7-b2d6-72f8be6c01c6","data":{"app":"admin_audit"}}
{"reqId":"aSCOAdSznLK6UVhBB@WE8QAAAMw","level":1,"time":"2025-11-21T16:06:25+00:00","remoteAddr":"10.10.16.34","user":"E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6","app":"admin_audit","method":"GET","url":"/remote.php/dav/files/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione/Formazione%20Company%20Holding%20Srl%20Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls","message":"File with id \"577637\" accessed: \"/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/files/QHSE/_Company Holding/Formazione/Formazione Company Holding Srl Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls\"","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)","version":"32.0.0.13","clientReqId":"e083ffdc-4bfe-4a99-92c3-d67d483e7095","data":{"app":"admin_audit"}}

Web server / Reverse Proxy

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

access_log-20251123:10.10.16.31 - - [21/Nov/2025:16:06:17 +0000] "PROPFIND /remote.php/dav/files/5F383AC9-28A7-4A86-B1E0-865AAEEECFE7/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione HTTP/1.1" 207 916 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)"
access_log-20251123:10.10.16.34 - - [21/Nov/2025:16:06:25 +0000] "PROPFIND /remote.php/dav/files/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione HTTP/1.1" 207 916 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)"
access_log-20251123:10.10.16.34 - - [21/Nov/2025:16:06:25 +0000] "GET /remote.php/dav/files/E66E11B5-2DC2-4EC8-BF36-790D22B42ED6/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione/Formazione%20Company%20Holding%20Srl%20Rev.2_24.05.2024.xls HTTP/1.1" 200 68096 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)"
access_log-20251123:192.168.45.28 - - [21/Nov/2025:16:06:28 +0000] "PROPFIND /remote.php/dav/files/F36584A4-E2A5-4979-B682-7430AE37F8EF/QHSE/_Company%20Holding/Formazione HTTP/1.1" 207 914 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) mirall/4.0.1 (build 20251027) (Nextcloud, windows-10.0.22631 ClientArchitecture: x86_64 OsArchitecture: x86_64)"

Configuration

Nextcloud

The output of occ config:list system or similar is best, but, if not possible, the contents of your config.php file from /path/to/nextcloud is fine (make sure to remove any identifiable information!):

{
    "system": {
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "box.xxxxxxxxx.com"
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "32.0.0.13",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "http:\/\/box.xxxxxxxxx.com",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_send_plaintext_only": true,
        "mail_smtpauth": false,
        "mail_smtpsecure": "",
        "ldapIgnoreNamingRules": false,
        "ldapProviderFactory": "OCA\\User_LDAP\\LDAPProviderFactory",
        "debug": false,
        "maintenance": false,
        "theme": "",
        "loglevel": 1,
        "skeletondirectory": "",
        "default_phone_region": "IT",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "memcache.distributed": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "maintenance_window_start": 1,
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 6379
        },
        "app_install_overwrite": [
            "files_rightclick"
        ],
        "forbidden_filename_basenames": [
            "con",
            "prn",
            "aux",
            "nul",
            "com0",
            "com1",
            "com2",
            "com3",
            "com4",
            "com5",
            "com6",
            "com7",
            "com8",
            "com9",
            "com\u00b9",
            "com\u00b2",
            "com\u00b3",
            "lpt0",
            "lpt1",
            "lpt2",
            "lpt3",
            "lpt4",
            "lpt5",
            "lpt6",
            "lpt7",
            "lpt8",
            "lpt9",
            "lpt\u00b9",
            "lpt\u00b2",
            "lpt\u00b3"
        ],
        "forbidden_filename_characters": [
            "<",
            ">",
            ":",
            "\"",
            "|",
            "?",
            "*",
            "\\",
            "\/"
        ],
        "forbidden_filename_extensions": [
            " ",
            ".",
            ".filepart",
            ".part"
        ]
    }
}

Apps

The output of occ app:list (if possible).

Enabled:
  - activity: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - admin_audit: 1.22.0
  - app_api: 32.0.0
  - bruteforcesettings: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - circles: 32.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.16.0
  - comments: 1.22.0
  - contacts: 8.0.2
  - contactsinteraction: 1.13.1
  - dashboard: 7.12.0
  - dav: 1.34.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.22.0
  - federation: 1.22.0
  - files: 2.4.0
  - files_accesscontrol: 3.0.0
  - files_downloadlimit: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - files_external: 1.24.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - files_reminders: 1.5.0
  - files_sharing: 1.24.0
  - files_trashbin: 1.22.0
  - files_versions: 1.25.0
  - firstrunwizard: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - groupfolders: 20.1.1
  - impersonate: 3.0.0
  - logreader: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.20.0
  - notifications: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - oauth2: 1.20.0
  - password_policy: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - photos: 5.0.0-dev.1
  - privacy: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - profile: 1.1.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.22.0
  - recommendations: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - related_resources: 3.0.0-dev.0
  - richdocuments: 9.0.0
  - richdocumentscode: 25.4.504
  - serverinfo: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - settings: 1.15.1
  - sharebymail: 1.22.0
  - support: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - survey_client: 4.0.0-dev.0
  - systemtags: 1.22.0
  - text: 6.0.0-dev.0
  - theming: 2.7.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.21.0
  - twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 6.0.0-dev.0
  - twofactor_totp: 14.0.0
  - updatenotification: 1.22.0
  - user_ldap: 1.23.0
  - user_status: 1.12.0
  - viewer: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - weather_status: 1.12.0
  - webhook_listeners: 1.3.0
  - workflowengine: 2.14.0
Disabled:
  - encryption: 2.20.0
  - files_rightclick: 0.15.1 (installed 0.15.1)
  - nextcloud_announcements: 4.0.0-dev.0 (installed 1.8.0)
  - suspicious_login: 10.0.0-dev.0

Thanks for any help on troubleshooting this problem.

1 Like

I just found this post, which is probably the same:

1 Like