Nextcloud Client: Meaning of "Show Server Notifications" (or "Show Desktop Notifications")

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1

Hi folks,

I don’t find any useful information about the option “Show Server Notifications”. In the Nextcloud manual it’s even called “Show Desktop Notifications” instead :upside_down_face:

https://docs.nextcloud.com/desktop/latest/navigating.html#general-window

Can someone explain what this option does? How does a “Server/Desktop Notification” look like? How gets such a notification triggered?

1 Like
2

Really no one?

3

I would love to know more about the meaning of the “Show Server Notifications” option as well.

4

What does this option do?

In general, this option disables Windows notifications for messages that the client receives from the server.

Examples where a notification is displayed:

  • Sync error
    • Invalid Filename: For example, a file with the name ::: could be created remote, this will trigger a notification on windows systems, since this file cannot be created locally.
    • A Local rename with a concurrent remote delete on the same file → Notification is displayed.
    • Not all sync errors trigger a notification (e.g., Name Clash (same filename, but different capitalization), since this is usually detected locally), but there are still some that do.
  • Different errors in the context of “local editing” from the web
    • Example: A file FolderA/A.csv exists remotely, but FolderA is deselected in selective sync. If you choose Edit locally on A.csv remotely → Notification is displayed.
    • There are other cases where a notification could appear, but I don’t have exact reproductions for them.
  • From the Talk context:
    • Notifications that come “from the server.” The client has a routine that regularly fetches notifications from the server. I can’t say exactly what falls under this, but I assume these notifications do not come from the file sync context but rather from other client functionalities (chat, call, room).
5

Thank you for all those detailed explanations. I’m still not sure if it is useful for the majority of non-IT users :wink:
Most frequent issue in our case is that there is a sync conflict due to identical file names (client <> server) but with different time stamp or size etc. That is probably what you mentioned as “NameClash”.

All in all, I’m still not sure if those server notifications are helpful for users or confusing. Nevertheless, thank you very much!