Unable to Add External Remote Storage to directly connected USB HDD

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When adding Remote external local or smb USB HDD from within the admin account, I receive " Confirm your password”
"This action requires authentication”

I have tried all passwords that I have set whilst installing Nextcloud with no results ie Nextcloud admin
Nextcloud user
samba password
MySQL root password

all fail authentication

Please can anyone offer any advice….

Thanks

Some or all of the below information will be requested if it isn’t supplied; for fastest response please provide as much as you can. :heart:

The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
    • 30.0.4
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Raspberry pi lite 64bit Bookworm
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • Apache/2.4.62 (Debian)
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • replace me
  • PHP version (e.g, 8.3):
    • 8.3
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No):
    • yes
  • When did this problem seem to first start?
    • immediately after new installation
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • replace me
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • `no

Summary of the issue you are facing:

[…]

Steps to replicate it (hint: details matter!):

  1. log in as admin
  2. select administrative settings
  3. external storage
  4. set Folder Name
  5. set external storage type smb/cifs
  6. set Hostname
  7. set samba share name
  8. set remote folder
  9. set samba username and password
  10. Tick available to all people
  11. click on save
    12 Confirm password now pops up and fails all known passwords

Log entries

Nextcloud

Please provide the log entries from your Nextcloud log that are generated during the time of problem (via the Copy raw option from Administration settings->Logging screen or from your nextcloud.log located in your data directory). Feel free to use a pastebin/gist service if necessary.

{"reqId":"YH7fRQaB90f2M5vBjJJ8","level":2,"time":"2025-01-07T09:41:45+00:00","remoteAddr":"192.168.1.4","user":"--","app":"core","method":"GET","url":"/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/admin/Joplin/info.json","message":"Login failed: 'admin' (Remote IP: '192.168.1.4')","userAgent":"Joplin/1.0","version":"30.0.4.1","data":{"app":"core"},"id":”677d7e25dbd68”}

Web Browser

If the problem is related to the Web interface, open your browser inspector Console and Network tabs while refreshing (reloading) and reproducing the problem. Provide any relevant output/errors here that appear.

PASTE

Web server / Reverse Proxy

The output of your Apache/nginx/system log in /var/log/____:

sudo cat error.log
[Tue Jan 07 00:00:07.527721 2025] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 19931:tid 19931] AH00163: Apache/2.4.62 (Debian) configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Jan 07 00:00:07.527808 2025] [core:notice] [pid 19931:tid 19931] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2’
[Tue Jan 07 12:09:44.576821 2025] [access_compat:error] [pid 39421:tid 39421] [client 192.168.1.1:52694] AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /var/www/nextcloud/data/.ncdata
[Tue Jan 07 17:54:20.507422 2025] [access_compat:error] [pid 44135:tid 44135] [client 192.168.1.1:43710] AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /var/www/nextcloud/data/.ncdata

Configuration

Nextcloud

The output of occ config:list system or similar is best, but, if not possible, the contents of your config.php file from /path/to/nextcloud is fine (make sure to remove any identifiable information!):

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
  'instanceid' => ‘xxxxxxxxxxxxw’,
  'passwordsalt' => ‘xxxxxxxxxxxx’,
  'secret' => ‘xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx’,
  'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
    0 => ‘192.168.1.1’,
  ),
  'datadirectory' => '/var/www/nextcloud/data’,
  'dbtype' => ‘mysql’,
  'version' => ’30.0.4.1’,
  'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://192.168.1.1/nextcloud’,
  'dbname' => ‘nextclouddb’,
  'dbhost' => ‘localhost’,
  'dbport' => ‘’,
  'dbtableprefix' => ‘oc_’,
  'mysql.utf8mb4' => true,
  'dbuser' => ‘nextclouduser’,
  'dbpassword' => ‘123x’,
  'installed' => true,
);

Apps

The output of occ app:list (if possible).

Enabled:

  • activity: 3.0.0
  • app_api: 4.0.3
  • bruteforcesettings: 3.0.0
  • calendar: 5.0.8
  • circles: 30.0.0
  • cloud_federation_api: 1.13.0
  • comments: 1.20.1
  • contacts: 6.1.2
  • contactsinteraction: 1.11.0
  • dashboard: 7.10.0
  • dav: 1.31.1
  • federatedfilesharing: 1.20.0
  • federation: 1.20.0
  • files: 2.2.0
  • files_downloadlimit: 3.0.0
  • files_external: 1.22.0
  • files_pdfviewer: 3.0.0
  • files_reminders: 1.3.0
  • files_sharing: 1.22.0
  • files_trashbin: 1.20.1
  • files_versions: 1.23.0
  • firstrunwizard: 3.0.0
  • logreader: 3.0.0
  • lookup_server_connector: 1.18.0
  • mail: 4.1.1
  • nextcloud_announcements: 2.0.0
  • notes: 4.11.0
  • notifications: 3.0.0
  • oauth2: 1.18.1
  • password_policy: 2.0.0
  • photos: 3.0.2
  • privacy: 2.0.0
  • provisioning_api: 1.20.0
  • recommendations: 3.0.0
  • related_resources: 1.5.0
  • richdocuments: 8.5.3
  • serverinfo: 2.0.0
  • settings: 1.13.0
  • sharebymail: 1.20.0
  • spreed: 20.1.1
  • support: 2.0.0
  • survey_client: 2.0.0
  • systemtags: 1.20.0
  • text: 4.1.0
  • theming: 2.5.0
  • twofactor_backupcodes: 1.19.0
  • updatenotification: 1.20.0
  • user_status: 1.10.0
  • viewer: 3.0.0
  • weather_status: 1.10.0
  • webhook_listeners: 1.1.0-dev
  • workflowengine: 2.12.0
    Disabled:
  • admin_audit: 1.20.0
  • encryption: 2.18.0
  • suspicious_login: 8.0.0
  • twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 4.0.0
  • twofactor_totp: 12.0.0-dev
  • user_ldap: 1.21.0

Tips for increasing the likelihood of a response

  • Use the preformatted text formatting option in the editor for all log entries and configuration output.
  • If screenshots are useful, feel free to include them.
    • If possible, also include key error output in text form so it can be searched for.
  • Try to edit log output only minimally (if at all) so that it can be ran through analyzers / formatters by those trying to help you.
2

Sounds like Add external storage failed at "action needs authentication failed - wrong password"

3

Even the admin password will not satisfy the
Request.I am using the correct admin password as I can log back in as admin after logging out.I guess it is the admin password that is required here?

4

Same problem here…

I have given some thought to what could be the reason… One thing is certain, the error has not been occurring for long. Why not with everything?.. I have activated “totp”… that could cause a problem. And indeed, after deactivating with “sudo -u www-data php occ twofactorauth:disable admin totp” the password was accepted!

5

Thanks very much Lutz.I will try the fix you suggested and let you know😀