Target folder does not exist anymore

[vincewebb]

Can anybody help me understand why I’m unable to upload files to my installation of Nextcloud.

A similar issue was described in November 2023, for this person it only related to files less than 8KB.

Cannot upload binary files <8KB - 'Target folder "<dir>" does not exist any more'

Nextcloud version (eg, 20.0.5): 27.1.3 Operating system and version (eg, Ubuntu 20.04): Linux 2.6.32-954.3.5.lve1.4.92.el6.x86_64 x86_64 Apache or nginx version (eg, Apache 2.4.25): Apache 2.4.58 PHP version (eg, 7.4): 8.1.25 Windows 10 Pro / Google Chrome 119.0.6045.160 Nextcloud Android app version: 3.26.0 Uploads of binary files (PNG, DOCX, etc…) less than 8192 bytes fail with UI error message Target folder "<dir>" does not exist any more. This occurs using both drag-and-drop and + Ne…

I’ve been seeing it with files of 200KB, 800KB and 4MB

I have just installed Nextcloud 29.0.5 using cPanel’s Installatron.

My default installation is responding OK, I can see the 9 pre-loaded photos but so far I have been unable to upload any of my own photos.

I have tried 5 different methods:

1. drag and drop from Linux “Files” app to “Photos” area in Nextcloud
2. drag and drop from Linux “Files” app to “Files” All files > Photos > my_test_directory in Nextcloud
3. Point browser at a new and empty photo album, click Add->New select a smallish locally held photo, click Open
4. In Nextcloud Android app, click Photos (see the 9 pre-loaded photos), click +, click Upload from Camera
5. In Nextcloud Android app, click Photos (see the 9 pre-loaded photos), click +, Upload files, select a photo

Of these 5 only the drag and drop methods give any sort of error message, they both say: “target folder does not exist anymore”

I searched Internet for “nextcloud target folder does not exist anymore” and found someone asking a similar question:

The destination folder "/Documents" no longer exists

Hello, everyone, I have a problem, since when I create a folder and then upload a file I get the following error: The destination folder “/Documents” no longer exists How can I fix this and where?

Someone suggested the first step would be to determine if the target folder exists or not, a reasonable question to which I don’t know the answer. All the above methods involve a GUI and thus the actual target directory is guesswork on my part.

“Files” tells me I have a directory which it identifies as:
All files > Photos > test_photo_drag
so I guess that exists.

I also have two empty albums which I’ve tried to use as a target but I’ve no idea what their directory names are or if they even have their own directories.

My phone runs Android 10
My computer runs Ubuntu 22.04

[vincewebb]

My web hosting company appear to have resolved the problem I was having.

I contacted them, NOT about NextCloud but because my email access was repeatedly failing with a firewall issue of some sort.

They responded to me with the following:

/////////////////
Looking through the logs I see that this [firewall blocking] was the cause of your issue. NextCloud doesn’t work well with mod_security - this is a ‘Web Application Firewall’ which helps to keep any PHP-based application secure, but due to it having to try and work with a lot of different applications doesn’t work with everything. This is quite well documented within the NextCloud community.

Some actions on NextCloud trigger an alert, and when this happens a specific number of times in a short period it triggers a firewall block to protect your account.

Due to the incompatibility, I’ve disabled this on your account and I don’t think you’ll have any further issues.
/////////////////

So as I understand it NextCloud doesn’t play well with ModSecurity, between them they manage to cause grief all round.

The solution my web hosting company found was to remove a layer of security. This resolved the issue but it’s not difficult to imagine the downside.