I’ve also got Seafile, Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive on my PC and none of them require closing Windows Explorer but then also a restart. What’s different about the Nextcloud client?
They said it normally isn’t required when you use the MSI installer:
However there are still reports that there are issues with the update:
Since this is recent and some versions it was messed up, it is important to check which version you have and which installation source you use, before reporting issues.
It’s happened for my client and me on every single update for the year or so they’ve been running Nextcloud. On every computer AFAIK. Mine own PC has gone from W10 to W11 (clean install) and still does it. Good to see that it’s reported.
This is getting a bit annoying now esp. as there have been several new clients releases over the past few months. Now it’s great that they’re fixing bugs but this restart of Explorer and then the complete computer is really OTT. I recently rebuilt my PC with the MSI installer. Same problem.
I had the problem as well (if I don’t restart, it kills explorer.exe, desktop and explorer disappear, you can restart somehow via task manager, but in the end you have to restart. It won’t force you immediately, but not a good experience either).
I now wait for Windows update day, then I have to do a restart, I update the NC client as well and restart again.
Indeed very annoying! Why? Other syncApplications like Dropbox and GoogleDrive don’t need a system reboot. Why does Nextcloud (which I started using because it’s less spammy) now suddenly need a system restart?
You can give it a thumbs up on the original post to show that you are affected as well. Just write a new comment if you have data/information to share about this bug.
I’ve just had a remote session with a client and I asked why he hadn’t updated the Nextcloud client. He said he wasn’t able to because he doesn’t have admin rights. Which is of course increasingly common! Many smaller companies don’t have the infrastructure for automated software updates BUT have removed local admin rights quite rightly because of security concerns.
They have to engage with IT or disclose the local admin username/password. Which isn’t ideal either…
So the frequency of updates to the Nextcloud client is also a cause for concern. It feels like we’ve been getting one update a week recently!
Whilst not a big fan of OneDrive, it updates itself in the background without any special intervention of the user. Nextcloud could do with adopting this very useful function.
Seems like you’re residing between a rock and a hard place
Seriously, disabling automatic updates is probably the lesser of the two evils, at least until maybe someday, admin permissions and reboots are no longer needed. Until then, the development of the app takes place on GitHub. If you want to contribute, even if it’s just a feature request, you can do so here: GitHub - nextcloud/desktop: 💻 Desktop sync client for Nextcloud
But please search for open issues before you open a new one, because at least the “reboot issue” has already been discussed back and forth and back again…
The Seafile SeaDrive client also requires Windows Explorer to close during update but it re-opens it afterwards and doesn’t require a reboot. I’d love to have the time to get involved (I miss developing software) but can’t right now.
I do have a background task to investigate cost-effective software deployment tools. I can see Cyber Essentials accreditation going down the route of banning all users from installing software by not letting them have a (secondary) admin account.
