PHP Status Error

poster2 · February 24, 2024, 4:56am

Nextcloud has became inaccessible. I had previously accessed the cloud service via the iPhone application without issue. After a period of months, any attempt to access the cloud service from a number of different devices has resulted in failure.

Attempts to access the cloud service from the browser returns:

This version of Nextcloud is not compatible with > PHP 8.0.
You are currently running 8.1.27.

Attempts to access the cloud service from the local AppImage app returns:

Failed to connect to Nextcloud at https://notmyusername.myusa.cloud: Server replied "500 Internal Server Error" to "GET https://notmyusername.myusa.cloud/status.php"

It isn’t clear whether my system is running a version of PHP that is too new to access Nextcloud, and that Nextcloud requires an older version of PHP to function properly - in which case I may rollback versions - or whether this is an error specific to my cloud server.

Please advise.

Dennis1993 · February 24, 2024, 7:19am

Hey,

please fill out the support template. It is important to know how you installed Nextcloud.
If you have your own Ubuntu server you can set the PHP version to 8.0. after that an Nextcloud update is recommended

poster2 · February 24, 2024, 6:49pm

Thank you for responding.

Nextcloud version 21.0.4.1
Operating system and version Arch Linux Kernel 6.7.5
PHP version PHP 8.3.3 (cli)

The issue you are facing:

PHP Version Error

This version of Nextcloud is not compatible with > PHP 8.0.
You are currently running 8.1.27.

Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (N):

Steps to replicate it:

Point the browser @ username.myusa.cloud
Error

The output of config.php file in /path/to/nextcloud sans pid

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
  'instanceid' => 'ocuen6dkcchp',
  'passwordsalt' => 'secret',
  'secret' => 'secret',
  'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
    0 => 'username.myusa.cloud',
  ),
  'datadirectory' => '/home/userstring/nextclouddata',
  'dbtype' => 'mysql',
  'version' => '21.0.4.1',
  'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://username.myusa.cloud',
  'dbname' => 'userstring_next556',
  'dbhost' => 'localhost',
  'dbport' => '',
  'dbtableprefix' => 'oc_',
  'dbuser' => 'userstring_next556',
  'dbpassword' => 'secret',
  'installed' => true,
  'updater.secret' => 'secret',
  'maintenance' => false,
  'theme' => '',
  'loglevel' => 2,
);

On looking through the cPanel file manager, I see all my files, and can up/download accordingly. This offers a fallback access option. Though a fix is preferable.

Thank you for your assistance so far.

poster2 · February 25, 2024, 2:43am

After poking around the file manager via cPanel, it’s obvious that cloudamo is running the current version of PHP. However, the versioncheck.php script returns an error that the PHP version is too new. The versioncheck script also prevents logging in with a PHP version older than 7.3. Seeing as the system is on the newer side of these parameters, I wonder if it’s advisable to simply comment out the versioncheck script, or otherwise modify it to accept the newer version.

I don’t know what doing so might break, however.

Is this a common problem?

Dennis1993 · February 25, 2024, 7:12am

Hey,

thanks for your posting!
You are right! PHP 8.3 is only supported for the latest NextCloud version 28.
You are running a very outdated version 21!

What can you do?

simplest way: is check in cPanel the available PHP versions. Is PHP 8.0 available? Then you can activate it. 8.0 is the min version for NextCloud 21
(Maybe you can use another PHP version via CLI. Try an NextCloud update via CLI and PHP8.0).
create a temporary VM on your system with PHP 8.0 and move your cloud to it. Do an upgrade to NextCloud 28 and bring all back to your production server
safe your files via cPanel and install a new cloud based on version 28 and sync your data back

Is there an option for you in my list?
I think the first point is possible. PHP downgrade is the simplest way to bring NextCloud to the latest version. After that you can use PHP8.3

Your idea to comment out the version check is not a good idea. You can try it but I think it is not working correctly. Maybe you can do it to start the upgrade process.

I hope I can help you!

poster2 · February 26, 2024, 2:32am

Thanks for replying!

Of course, NextCloud is out of date. That should have been the first thing to check!

I don’t understand why the version is so old. Is this a security issue?

From your list, option 1 is giving me trouble.

The problem is that I’m unable to access the server website to update. This rules out running the built-in updater.

Manual updating is technically out of my wheelhouse. Even reading directly from the admin manual, I’m not able to run occ. Therefore I’m not sure how to access the server remotely.

Commenting out versioncheck.php only yielded more errors, so that’s out of the picture.

Given the roadblocks, I’m going to go with option 3. The only issue there is that I don’t see a way to bulk download files from the cPanel File Manager. The File Manager only supports individual file downloads, which means I’d have to click literally thousands of times to pull all my files off the server.

What might be the most efficient way to pull all my files from the server?

Thanks for your help!

poster2 · February 26, 2024, 8:52pm

Thanks again for your help.

As it turns out, cloudamo supports updating via the web terminal. There is an update script stored on the server, and it is easy enough to point to the correct file location and then run the script.

However, just as before, there returns and error:
This version of Nextcloud is not compatible with > PHP 8.0.<br/>You are currently running 8.1.27.

Of course, this is the problem that I’m trying to correct by upgrading.

Looking for a workaround.

Dennis1993 · February 26, 2024, 9:31pm

Can you try php8.0?

Here an example:
sudo -u www-data php8.0 --define apc.enable_cli=1 /var/www/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar

Instead of php use php8.0
Maybe it is available and you can do an upgrade

poster2 · February 27, 2024, 6:38pm

Thanks for all your input, friend.

I opened a help ticket and an admin worked some magic.

NextCloud is working, now.

Lesson learned; some problems are best handled by dedicated support.

Thanks again!

Dennis1993 · February 27, 2024, 6:56pm

Thanks for your answer!

Are you running PHP 8.0 now?
The best way is to update your NextCloud to the latest version. Then you can update your PHP version to the latest (8.3) and you should have no problems for the next years

Don’t forget backups before you upgrade

poster2 · February 27, 2024, 8:41pm

By the looks of it, the cloud server was running different php versions at the same time.

php --version
Yields 8.3, but the frontend shows 8.0

An obscure problem, anyway, it’s fixed.

Thanks again!