Update Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit with Nextcloud instance installed 25.0.0

Hi all,
I updated my running Nexcloud instance to the latest stable version. In the Admin Settings, I get the organge text info that my php is running on 32 bit and that 64 bit will be needed. My Nextcloud instance is running on a Raspberry Pi 4 that had been running on Raspberry Pi OS 10 (32 bit). I upgraded from Raspberry Pi OS 10 to the latest version 11 and I activated the 64 bit kernel. However, php 8.1 is still running at 32 bit. I read that upgrading from Raspberry Pi OS 10 32 bit to version 11 will only allow running the 64 bit kernel in an otherwise 32 bit context.

I have a few main questions now:

  1. Is there any way to “update” the php from 32 bit to 64 bit?
  2. If that does not work, what would be the best solution to install a fresh Raspberry Pi OS 11 (64 bit) without losing the current Nextcloud instance?

Any suggestions/hints are appreciated!
Thanks!

  1. Backup nextcloud.
  2. Install arm64 image.
  3. Restore Nextcloud.

Search the forum or internet for methods and ideas.

Here is a guide for ncp users.

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Only the 64bit Kernel will not do the job, the rest of your software stays on 32bit. And that is what causes the incompatibility. I had exactly the same problem and decided to give my Raspberry Pi4 a complete 64bit refresh, while at the same time eliminating old software installs.

The Pi4 runs like a charm now. I would really suggest a complete OS upgrade. Maybe you have the possibility to backup your 32bit OS from the SD card to some connected harddrive, then it is a lot less work and you can get the most needed configs out of your old /etc directory.

I case you do not want to stick with your Debian 11 Bullseye, get the Raspberry 64bit version here:

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions! The whole issue is now clear. However, since I had a lot of trouble getting my NextcloudPi correctly set up for external access, I am really skeptical about the fresh install. @flow-axel Can you recommend any website/tutorial that may help recovering some of the previous settings (sounds like you did that). Any suggestion is highly appreciated. Cheers!

Well, I had a rather simple approach here. I backed up the /root, /etc, /var/www/nextcloud and the /home directories directly to the Pi-attached USB drive with rsync. Then just used the Pi Imager to install a fresh 64bit debian bullseye install to the Rapsberry’s SD card and installed everything from scratch. This had the advantage that I got every program in the latest version and I got rid of unused programs and tons of space wasting log files and old installations.

Whatever files of all users were needed were still in the /home directories or in my old /root, which were copied to the USB drive, so I just moved everything back to the new /root and /home.
Whenever I had to find old configurations, I found them in the old /etc directory.
And I actually have a lot of services on my Pi: nextcloud with 250k pictures and facerecognition, motion with 2 cameras on motion detection recording, PiHole, webserver, some own servers and backup solutions. But basically, everything runs fine in parallel.

Excellent! Thanks!

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