Nextcloud creates new folders

Cisco30 · August 30, 2025, 5:31am

Hi
Every 24 hours, two new folders appear in Nextcloud:
_Calendar-Backup
_Contacts-Backup
These folders remain empty because the backups for the Nextcloud Android app are in the following folders:
.Calendar-Backup
.Contacts-Backup
I was wondering if this was a known issue, because even if I delete these folders, they will come back the next time I backup my contacts and calendar from the Android app.
Thanks.

adelaar · August 30, 2025, 7:13am

Wich Android-App? The Nextcloud Android-Client or what are you using as Calendar-App?

I don’t use Nextcloud Android-Client but DAVx5 to integrate Nextcloud Calendar into the official Android-Calendar and Adress-Book instead of the Google-Calendar and Adress-Book. Within my Config are none of this folders at all. For the Backup of Calendar and and Adress-Book. i do use a shell-script as a cronjob and WebDAV.

Cisco30 · August 30, 2025, 8:27am

I use Android Nextcloud 3.32.3, and I also use DAVx5 to synchronize my contacts and calendar between my Samsung tablet (Samsung Active5 5G) and my Nextcloud server. Everything works very well, except for these 2 files that come back every time the Android app saves the contacts and calendar.

adelaar · August 31, 2025, 7:49am

Well it seems the problem will only caused by the Android-App i don’t use, but not the Server itself. So i don’t have a solution for you using the App.

But in general i don’t feel it’s clever to backup the Calender and Adressbook Datas on same device in same database as the original datas. If you have problem with database (PostgreSQL/MariaDB, etc.) or the SSD/HDD also the Backup is gone and of no value. Thats why i do use a shell-script as a cronjob and WebDAV and backup the Calender and Adressbook remote on a different hardware.

jtr · August 31, 2025, 9:34pm

That’s strange. The folder names are essentially hard coded:

github.com/nextcloud/android

app/src/main/res/values/setup.xml

448a5f817


      
          <bool name="share_via_link_feature">true</bool>
          <bool name="share_with_users_feature">true</bool>
          <bool name="show_external_links">true</bool>
          <bool name="show_outdated_server_warning">true</bool>
          <bool name="is_branded_client">false</bool>
          <bool name="is_branded_plus_client">false</bool>
          
          <!-- Calendar & Contacts backup -->
          <string name="contacts_backup_folder">/.Contacts-Backup</string>
          <integer name="contacts_backup_expire">-1</integer>
          <string name="calendar_backup_folder">/.Calendar-Backup</string>
          <!-- flag to enable/disable contact backup -->
          <bool name="show_calendar_backup">true</bool>
          
          <!-- What's new -->
          <bool name="show_whats_new">true</bool>
          <!-- To fill if you want to show webviews instead of regular welcome views -->
          <array name="whatsnew_urls"></array>
          
          <!-- Colors -->
          <color name="primary">#0082c9</color>

Are you perhaps using Windows Filename restrictions?

Cisco30 · September 1, 2025, 8:42am

Yes, I do use the “Windows Filename Restrictions” option. I’m going to disable it and wait 24 hours to see if the problem disappears.

bb77 · September 1, 2025, 9:35am

Maybe not super clever, but also not really the issue at hand here

Not an issue, because these backups are just .ics/.vcf files that would still be on the disk, even if your Nextcloud were completely broken. They could then be imported into a new installation.

Well, then of course they would be gone, along with all the other files, which is why you still need at least a proper backup of all your files. But in theory, if you have a very simple setup with only one or a few users only using files, calendars, and contacts, you could reinstall Nextcloud, restore all files, import calendars and contacts, and be up and running again. Of course, shares and other settings would still be lost, which is why this approach only really makes sense for a very simple setup