Trying to understand usernames and Webdav

ℹ️ Support 📄 Collabora
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1

Hi,

I’m a total newcomer to Nextcloud. I think it rocks. So far I have used Nextcloud as an end user, accessing from Android a Nextcloud instance provided by my ISP.

So far, so good. Both web access to my file storage (using a url like https://server32.myisp.com) and using the Nextcloud client from Play Store work fine (I had to select “custom server”, enter server32(dot) myisp(dot) com as server name and the user name and password that I type when accessing through the web browser) .

But now I want to see if I can access these files over webdav.

This is where things get confusing.

The web documentation speaks about a webdav://username@hostname.com/nextcloud/… url format.

On the contrary the Android apps I have tried for webdav access ask just for url, protocol, and port number, defaulting to port 443

One of these, webdav explorer, asks just for “hostname” and has “http” as pre filled protocol.

Another one I tried, the Solid Explorer file manager for Android, failed miserably to connect. That makes me think the webdav user name might be different from the one I’m trying to enter. See below as to why I ask this…

To confuse me even more, when I access my Nextcloud instance from the web at https://server52.myisp.com I must enter as username my email address, say user@isp.com, and my custom chosen password as password.

But when I do get connected with the Nextcloud android app, if I click on the icon next to my user name, I get a long username that looks like a hashed version of my username, something like
Ab2F05abba223300ad2320@server52.myisp.com

So which should I enter as username for webdav access? The “normal” username I enter on the web access login page, or this long username in the format displayed?

TIA for any hints…

2

hey @Aissacf and welcome to the userforum of NC.

It’s not fully clear to me what you want to acchieve? Just connecting your Android NC-app to your instance (because you filed that thread under Collabora).

Usually your NC-would ask for your https://URL …
at a later point in the login-process you need to decide about logging in with a QR-code, A username/toke or a username/password where the username is the one you gave yourself (and could be find on your personal settings page) - I think it’s case-sensitive.

I hope that helps for the moment… if not feel free to take some screenshots to document the way you went (try to blur your URL and username) and where you got stuck

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Thanks for the prompt reply.

My ISP’s nextcloud instance doesn’t use QR codes at all, just username and password that I can enter on a browser by pointing it at server52.myisp.com

If I use the Android Nextcloud client all is fine, I just configured it to use server52.myisp.com, and the same user name (my email address) and my nextcloud password.

The questions are actually two, to clarify:

  1. If I go to the Android nextcloud app, while logged in to my NC instance, I see an icon with my name/account. If I click there I see a different username, a long username that looks like hexadecimal. What is this? I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that this was an internal user ID that I should use when accessing my NC instance using the webdav protocol.

  2. What I want to do is see if I can gain access to my online NC files using the popular Solid Explorer App. Solid Explorer supports GDrive accounts, Microsoft Onedrive, Box. Net, and “others”. If you click on others you can define a web storage that uses any of the following protocols: FTP, SFTP, SSH, and webdav. Of all the above I think Nextcloud uses webdav.

If my ISP has configured webdav access, I don’t know. They aren’t very friendly about using anything other than the provided branded nextcloud app.

Which brings the point: doesn’t the NC android app use webdav internally?

Thanks in advance for helping get the “big picture”.

4

ummm… let’s try to get it solved step by step.

I just tried to reach your server by just browsing there… and I couldn’t … I do see a site with sponsored links… but nothing more.
THAT might turn out being a general problem with that isp.

maybe your ISP has given you that ID. I dunno. I don’t have such IDs and never saw any. Anyways: try the complex username… just to be sure.

btw: there was a time when emailadresses fpr logging in weren’t featured officially… I am unsure if that changed, could have changed though.
for question 2 you should open a new thread since it’s about Solid Explorer App with NC. A new problem.