# Nextcloud takes all of my RAM **URL:** \ **Category:** 📦 Appliances (Docker, Snappy, VM, NCP, AIO)\ **Tags:** docker, nc18-nextcloud-hub\ **Created:** [February 1, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896 "2020-02-01T21:37:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/1 "2020-02-01T21:37:32Z")
# System Information - Nextcloud version _(eg, 12.0.2)_: 18.0.0 (installed with Docker, see details below) - Host system: Linux raspberrypi 4.19.66-v7+ #1253 SMP Thu Aug 15 11:49:46 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux - Docker version: 19.03.5, build 633a0ea - docker-compose version: 1.24.1, build 4667896 - docker-compose file: ```auto version: '2' volumes: db: driver: local data: driver: local services: db: image: postgres:alpine mem_limit: 50m volumes: - db:/var/lib/postgresql/data env_file: - db.env networks: - internal app: image: nextcloud:apache mem_limit: 300m hostname: depends_on: - db env_file: - db.env - app.env networks: - web - internal ports: - 8080:80 labels: - traefik.enable=true - traefik.frontend.rule=Host: - traefik.port=80 - traefik.docker.network=web volumes: - data:/var/www/html networks: web: external: true internal: ``` # The issue you are facing: Sometimes, Nextcloud takes all of the available RAM and Swap memory. When it happens, I have no choice but to stop the container. I noticed that it happens when I switch from one tab to another. For instance, I first visit the “Activity” tab, then click on the “Files” tab, but instead of loading the tab, it will keep loading while the memory is being filled on my Raspberry. Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? _(Y/N)_: Y # Steps to replicate it: 1. Visit the Activity tab 2. Click on another tab Sorry, I cannot give more details for now, I don’t understand at all what is going on. Most of the time, it works fine. # The output of your Nextcloud log in **Admin \> Logging** : [https://pastebin.com/c0eaS6NF](https://pastebin.com/c0eaS6NF) # The output of your config.php file in `/path/to/nextcloud` (make sure you remove any identifiable information!): ```auto '/', 'memcache.local' => '\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu', 'apps_paths' => array ( 0 => array ( 'path' => '/var/www/html/apps', 'url' => '/apps', 'writable' => false, ), 1 => array ( 'path' => '/var/www/html/custom_apps', 'url' => '/custom_apps', 'writable' => true, ), ), 'passwordsalt' => 'W1ADxxD5S7ZesWZdRinlwPTly6Sujw', 'secret' => 'xvHTw1FrhQpo2kGTMGMFzLCpl9mzTBriijryuMaDKV+h5Um0', 'trusted_domains' => array ( 0 => 'localhost', 1 => '', ), 'datadirectory' => '/var/www/html/data', 'dbtype' => 'pgsql', 'version' => '18.0.0.10', 'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://localhost', 'overwriteprotocol' => 'https', 'dbname' => 'nextcloud', 'dbhost' => 'db', 'dbport' => '', 'dbtableprefix' => 'oc_', 'dbuser' => 'oc_admin', 'dbpassword' => '', 'installed' => true, 'instanceid' => 'oce7wys7ujj6', 'maintenance' => false, ); ``` ---
**Author:** ![Rello](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/rello/32/166_2.png) [@Rello](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/Rello)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 8:54am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/2 "2020-02-02T08:54:02Z")
Can you do an htop and sort by memory to see which process is causing this? - webserver - php - database ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 10:50am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/3 "2020-02-02T10:50:58Z")
Yes, I can see it is apache2. And I confirm that I am able to reproduce the issue by doing these steps: 1. Visiting the Activity tab 2. Clicking on the Files tab ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/4 "2020-02-02T12:48:38Z")
After googling a bit, I found several posts mentioning that Apache takes a lot of memory, in particular this one: [https://askubuntu.com/questions/558788/apache-eating-up-2gb-of-ram](https://askubuntu.com/questions/558788/apache-eating-up-2gb-of-ram) They suggest that MPM Configuration might not be adapted to the OP’s environment. So I searched for the configuration which is used in my case: ```auto root@nextcloud:/var/www/html# cat /etc/apache2/mods-available/mpm_prefork.conf # prefork MPM # StartServers: number of server processes to start # MinSpareServers: minimum number of server processes which are kept spare # MaxSpareServers: maximum number of server processes which are kept spare # MaxRequestWorkers: maximum number of server processes allowed to start # MaxConnectionsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves StartServers 5 MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers 10 MaxRequestWorkers 150 MaxConnectionsPerChild 0 # vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet ``` I am not an Apache expert but I wonder if `MaxRequestWorkers 150` is not too big considering I am on a Rapsberry. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/5 "2020-02-05T21:58:31Z")
I tried to decrease `MaxRequestWorkers` to 15 but it didn’t solve my problem. Does someone have another idea? ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/6 "2020-02-06T22:43:14Z")
In this thread, someone suggests to “calculate” the ideal value for `MaxRequestWorkers` like this: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40562135/apache-httpd-using-all-memory-till-server-down/41308833#41308833](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40562135/apache-httpd-using-all-memory-till-server-down/41308833#41308833) I might try this soon. But I am open to suggestions 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/dungta0321/32/16927_2.png) [@dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/dungta0321)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/7 "2020-02-09T00:23:13Z")
I got this problem on rpi 3 too. When i am on file tab then click on photo tab, apache eat all my ram and swap. i have to unplug power to restart server ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/8 "2020-02-09T11:59:11Z")
It seems really similar to my problem indeed. Which version of Nextcloud do you use? Did you install it with Docker? ---
**Author:** ![dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/dungta0321/32/16927_2.png) [@dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/dungta0321)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/9 "2020-02-10T00:36:52Z")
Yes Im using nextcloud 18 on docker. Latest tag ---
**Author:** ![esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/esbeeb/32/45555_2.png) [@esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/esbeeb)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 8:06am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/10 "2020-02-10T08:06:54Z")
Here is a fun way to watch all your RAM being gobbled up in real time. Before you visit the Files tab, in a terminal, run the following: `while true; do free -h; sleep 3s; echo; done` Let that command run for a while, **and watch the far right column, called “available”**. This lets you see how much RAM the server is idling at, before you place any demands on it. _Then_ visit the “Files” tab in Nextcloud, and watch the “available” RAM decrease. Here is the behaviour seen on my Nextcloud 16 install, running on a VPS with a mere 1GB of RAM, showing before, during, and after I load up “Files”: total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 346Mi 106Mi 16Mi 534Mi **465Mi** Swap: 255Mi 60Mi 195Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 346Mi 106Mi 16Mi 534Mi **465Mi** Swap: 255Mi 60Mi 195Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 364Mi 82Mi 19Mi 540Mi **444Mi** Swap: 255Mi 60Mi 195Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 373Mi 71Mi 19Mi 542Mi **435Mi** Swap: 255Mi 60Mi 195Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 377Mi 64Mi 19Mi 544Mi **430Mi** Swap: 255Mi 60Mi 195Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 387Mi 111Mi 22Mi 488Mi **419Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 387Mi 110Mi 22Mi 488Mi **418Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 387Mi 110Mi 22Mi 488Mi **418Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 387Mi 110Mi 22Mi 488Mi **418Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 373Mi 125Mi 22Mi 488Mi **433Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 356Mi 141Mi 22Mi 488Mi **449Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 987Mi 356Mi 142Mi 22Mi 488Mi **449Mi** Swap: 255Mi 61Mi 194Mi _Note: Press “Ctrl + C” to end this RAM monitoring._ Before opening “Files”, the server still had 465MB RAM free. During showing Files, this dropped to 418MB temporarily. But then after about 10 seconds, the free RAM raised back up to 449MB (and I was still looking at “Files”). **That “available” RAM must not slam down to zero, or else you very likely must reboot your Nextcloud server!!** Note: the little thumbnail previews shown for each file and folder icon can be very RAM-expensive to generate ( **especially the very first time** )! You would do well to have only a few files in your top-level folder in “Files”. Instead create folders, and store your files deeper inside those. ---
**Author:** ![esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/esbeeb/32/45555_2.png) [@esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/esbeeb)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 8:21am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/11 "2020-02-10T08:21:19Z")
A Raspberry Pi 3 is sure to only have 1GB of RAM. I think with the advent of Nextcloud 18, much more RAM is assumed to be in a server (especially with ONLYOFFICE, which is rumored to be very RAM hungry). If you want a (relatively) cheap, decent Nextcloud server, maybe buy (for example) a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad x220, x230, or x250 next time, and max out the RAM? ---
**Author:** ![dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/dungta0321/32/16927_2.png) [@dungta0321](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/dungta0321)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 9:09am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/12 "2020-02-10T09:09:02Z")
I think it was the problem of the software. I increased swap size to 2 Gb but Nextcloud eat it all. Why do you recommended thinkpad laptop instead of intel nuc or another chip U, cereon laptop. I just curious:D ---
**Author:** ![esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/esbeeb/32/45555_2.png) [@esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/esbeeb)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/13 "2020-02-10T12:00:41Z")
https://fireside.fm/s/WTrMvATU+YsvrU-3Y/twitter ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 12:03pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/14 "2020-02-10T12:03:25Z")
> [@esbeeb](#): > > A Raspberry Pi 3 is sure to only have 1GB of RAM. I think with the advent of Nextcloud 18, much more RAM is assumed to be in a server How much RAM would be necessary to run Nextcloud 18 in good conditions? > [@esbeeb](#): > > Note: the little thumbnail previews shown for each file and folder icon can be very RAM-expensive to generate ( **especially the very first time** )! You would do well to have only a few files in your top-level folder in “Files”. Instead create folders, and store your files deeper inside those. My top level directory (the one whose content is displayed when I open the Files tab) contains 10 elements. Also, I am able to open it sometimes. In my case, if I remember well, going to “Files” directly works but coming from another tab (like “Activity”) causes the problem. So I would say that displaying “Files” works most of the time. But for some reasons, when I come from another tab, it crashes. By the way, I encountered this problem first with the Audio Player app (which I thought was responsible for it) before finding out that the problem could also happen with Files. I’m just saying that this problem might not be related to a display problem of “Files” specifically. ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 12:06pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/15 "2020-02-10T12:06:08Z")
> [@dungta0321](#): > > I increased swap size to 2 Gb but Nextcloud eat it all. Yes I have the same problem. I wonder how much swap would be necessary to prevent it from crashing. Most of the time, Nextcloud takes very little RAM in comparison (~140 MB I would say). ---
**Author:** ![esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/esbeeb/32/45555_2.png) [@esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/esbeeb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/16 "2020-02-11T13:33:57Z")
> [@gcoter](#): > > How much RAM would be necessary to run Nextcloud 18 in good conditions? Yes, I too want to know that, because my VPS only has 1GB. 🙂 Maybe if we’re lucky, someone will write a Nextcloud App called “RAM miser” or something like that… ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/17 "2020-02-12T18:54:02Z")
From [System requirements — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation](https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/18/admin_manual/installation/system_requirements.html#memory) > Memory requirements for running a Nextcloud server are greatly variable, depending on the numbers of users, apps, files and volume of server activity. Nextcloud needs a minimum of 128MB RAM, and we recommend a minimum of 512MB. ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/18 "2020-02-12T18:58:32Z")
And it didn’t change between version 16 and version 18: - [https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/16/admin\_manual/installation/system\_requirements.html#memory](https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/16/admin_manual/installation/system_requirements.html#memory) - [https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/17/admin\_manual/installation/system\_requirements.html#memory](https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/17/admin_manual/installation/system_requirements.html#memory) ---
**Author:** ![esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/esbeeb/32/45555_2.png) [@esbeeb](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/esbeeb)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/19 "2020-02-12T22:12:12Z")
Well, I don’t think anyone (no offense) in this thread has yet to establish if this RAM exhaustion is the result of a bug, or the result of Nextcloud working properly, but now requiring more RAM (and maybe those docs stating the same RAM requirements as in older Nextcloud versions are out of date). ---
**Author:** ![gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/gcoter/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@gcoter](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/gcoter)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896/20 "2020-02-12T22:46:07Z")
What do you mean? Personally, I am still wondering if it is a bug or something normal. If I understand well (tell me if I am wrong 🙂) , you think that it is caused by the new version of Nextcloud. Maybe I should try to come back to a previous version (16 or 17)? Or do you think that running Nextcloud on a Raspberry Pi 3 (considering there is only 1 user) is not feasible, whatever the version? [Next page](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-takes-all-of-my-ram/69896.md?page=2)