Wallpaper file picker does not allow directory navigation

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The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS x86_64
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • Server version: Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu)
      Server built: 2026-03-05T17:31:54
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • replace me
  • PHP version (e.g, 8.3):
    • PHP 8.3.6 (cli) (built: Mar 20 2026 02:32:55) (NTS)
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No):
    • Yes
  • When did this problem seem to first start?
    • Around 2 months ago
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • Installed it manually through Example installation on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • No

Summary of the issue you are facing:

When selecting a custom background image, the file picker only shows image files from the root directory and does not display folders, preventing navigation.

Expected behavior:

Directories should be visible
Users should be able to navigate into folders and select images

Actual behavior:

Only image files in the root are shown
All directories are hidden

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

  1. Log-in

  2. Navigate to theming and wallpaper settings

  3. Select the custom wallpaper button, when the file explorer starts, there’s no folder, only the loose image files on the root folder are displayed, if no image exists on the root folder, nothing shows up, not allowing me even to navigate between folders.

How I’ve solved it:

After finding a file containing the frontend config, more specifically for me:
/var/www/nextcloud/dist/theming-settings-personal.mjs

And on the line that says:
”.allowDirectories(!1).setFilter(l=>l.mime.startsWith(“image/”)).setMultiSelect(!1).addButton”

I’ve changed it to “.allowDirectories(!0).setMultiSelect(!1).addButton“

And, before anyone asks, no, just changing the allowdirectories to !0 wasn’t enough, if the image filter is there, nothing shows up.

Anyway, this solved it for me, but, probably would be reverted on the next update, so, if someone else is facing this, I think that it should be included on the next update.

2

Yep, same here. Looks like a bug or regression in Nextcloud 33, as it works on another instance running version 32.0.6.

I found the following bug report on GitHub. The error description is not exactly the same: the author of the report says that they cannot see the images, even though they are in the root directory. It is probably still related, though.