Update app constantly stalls, happening for years

I have problems with the updater every time I upgrade. I wonder if no one else has this problem and why it is still an issue. same situation as above, the app stalls at a certain point and I need to do some kind of manual fix to delete a file or other. I have tried increasing time outs where possible, but I am on a shared host so it is not always possible. Why can there not be a simpler solution? just download the new version, put it in a directory and go. I dont need a backup, can skip the version checks on the new version .zip. I just need it to update without taking 2 days to finally luck on to a final step. this time it kaks at extracting, done it 3 times. it has made 6 backups so my storage is full and need to delete with filezilla. really at my end with this. Is there a better way? If need to do manual, what is the point in a update app?

There are manually upgrades (https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/21/admin_manual/maintenance/manual_upgrade.html), however there is always the need to run an update procedure to update the database. On shared hosts, performance limits can make this task impossible to run. I’d try first, perhaps without the fully integrated procedure in the updater app, it is possible to run. Alternative, migrate your setup to a local setup (e.g. in a virtual machine), do the upgrade and migrate back on the shared host. This approach is not very handy. Keep in mind, if your setup grows over a certain limit of the shared host’s performance, it’s easier to move to a more suited environment…

thank you for the reply, but this was not the point I was trying to make. I have done manual updates have spent the time to update the database. I run other apps on shared hosting that update without any of the problems of this next cloud. They update the database fully without leaving indexes, keys etc to be manually added by the user. They also don’t stall multiple times during download, or verification, or extraction or other steps along the way. I appreciate the effort that all the developers have put into this app. But if you want to attract more users, there needs to be a look at the updater performance and effort put toward fixing the problems that many people seem to have encountered with it. If I had the skills to do I, I would. This has been the major problem with the app since I started using it and has made me abandon updates because they are so tedious and frustrating to perform. Thank you again for your reply on this subject.

It is happening for years

But I don’t think this is the updater app to blame… It’s the limited bandwidth…

Here is Jos’ post from February

It says:
By now the 1GB connection really isn’t enough…

Leaving aside the illiteracy of measuring a connecting in GB, I believe this means 1Gbps.
Meaning, it can probably handle no more than 100 downloads at the same time.
That’s all you should really know…

Use the CLI updater during European night hours.

And no, they don’t need more “free” users…:slight_smile:

I used to have some problems with the updater, which came down to execution time during the backup phase. After upgrading to SSD, the problem completely went away.

I’d say that the issue comes down to the host’s performance. Find a better service provider. Nextcloud will be more of an ordeal to update than other products simply do the the size and complexity, both of the software itself, as well as (and more importantly) of the data.

Please check your logfiles for more information. Perhaps there are some real issues that you are missing. Regarding the database, it was just a guess based on other’s experience. It certainly depends on the size of the database, if you have a gigantic table, it can take a lot of time to run some operations. We had cases, where some tables were blown up to several GB in size due to a bug in the external storage function. Therefore, we ask to use the issue template that makes you check the logs!

If it’s related to your database, perhaps share a rough number of files/folders you have and the size of the largest tables.

thank you for the reply. the updater app stalling has nothing to do with database or other. we are running a very small instance. these stalls happen BEFORE the actual update even starts; during download, or during extract; or during verification. The update has not started. This is a problem with the updater and seems many people have this problem. I have tried to download the update file, put the .zip in the update folder and use that. The updater ignores that file and downloads again. Unzip it and same happens, the update ignores it and starts the process again. This has not happened once, it has happened every time I update this thing, and I have been a user since version 11. I attempted to update to version 20 something last week from 20.08, what a nightmare. I got 6 different zip versions downloaded to my update folder because it crashes, then restarts and downloads another file. Eventually my host blacklisted me for suspicious activity and I had to go to customer service to get the IP unblocked. Seriously, I really appreciate the work put into nextcloud, but for me it is wasted if I can not get a smooth update. What I want to do is manually download the update file, unzip it, put it in the update folder on the server, run the installer and let the update complete. should be a simple thing. unfortunately, this is never the case. I run many other apps in that account without any problems updating those so can not understand why nextcloud should have so many different problems every time. thank you again for your reply.

Then put a feature request to manually update the zip-file. It could be that some modules, like for extraction of the zip file are missing or there is no extraction folder, permission problems, … etc.

For setups on servers, this usually runs correctly and these are often hosting environment. These setups depend on the hoster’s configuration and the people using such services are usually less experienced…

well yeah, could be an experience problem and if I decided to setup a local server with all the related issues that brings I could maybe not face these problems. but that would be me and not the other users that constantly have problems with the same. quite easy to blame the user environment and their experience and avoid the problems with the app itself. I am trying to point out a frustrating and re-occuring problem with the app that may deter many inexperienced users from keeping it running. blame my environment or my experience, but the problem is still there. I have run it for 3 or 4 years (since it forked from owncloud) now and the same thing is always happening. if the community does not think the issue is a problem, then submitting a feature request will not do much good, if it is a problem, the leaders in the group will get the feature implemented. thank you for your reply

How do you know that it is the same problem?

What should we do if these people complain and don’t provide more information, so others can’t reproduce this? So you can just guess what might happen at certain steps (here downloading and unzipping a file). I don’t say it’s easy, if you want to get logfiles and change the loglevel, it depends a lot on the hoster where they give you that tool (via config-interface, config-files, …) or perhaps it’s just not possible. Sometimes you have quite active communities around certain hosters where users share specific information…

There are plenty of different reasons for your problem. It’s like you say your car doesn’t start. It could be the battery, the motor, missing petrol … (and if others have the same problem, one could have a low battery level and the over not enough petrol)…
Enough of analogies, but for that reason uploading your own zip file could help to single down the problem if there is a problem with the download (provider might block downloads, the link between the provider and Nextcloud’s provider could be slow, …).

Other option is to have a dedicated Nextcloud hoster, so they run an manage Nextcloud. Some might let you get full backups, so one day you decide to host on your own, you can migrate if wanted one day.

thank you again for your reply. that is exactly my point. there are many many reasons why the updater kaks. it may be different for every user. So, my suggestion is to put some options in the update process that allows the user to by-pass many of the pain points. allow the user to chose to download the update version, unzip it and upload it to the server. the updater would check if the file is present and proceed with the update. I understand there are many reasons why the update is failing and pinning those down is a long process. years ago when I first started updating the app, it would kak because there were some bad files in the directories. these were installed by the installer during first setup, and later these caused the updater to fail.
anyway, thank you for your replies on this topic, I appreciate the work done on the app so far even if I am not able to get to the functionality of the latest versions.

And therefore you need to put a feature request: Issues · nextcloud/updater · GitHub

thank you again for your reply, I have checked the nextcloud page looking for the link to submit a feature request. Lots of getting involved info, but I missed the link to submit a feature request. is it possible you can pass that link to me. sorry for the trouble and thank you again for the time you have spent to discuss this issue with me. appreciated