Unable to administer Users in app - possible bug?

Hi, is it just me or is there a bug within the Users app? I’ve attached a screenshot of the Users app as it displays on my desktop. It also displays the same on my android phone too.

As you can see there is no way of administrating any new or existing users. In fact, it appears to have lost / forgotten all of my existing users.

Thinking this was a technical hitch I have made sure that the app is at the latest level and where that didn’t work, I tried uninstalling and then reinstalling to see if that made any difference Unfortunately it didn’t…

So, here’s a strange thing… If I access Nextcloud though the Syncloud portal or directly through a web page I can only see a fresh install of Nextcloud with no user files. But, if I use my Nextcloud Android app (using same address and user details) I can see all of my existing files and folders as if the Users app was working correctly.

Is this a known issue that is being worked on or is this something new that might cause a bit of a problem?

Is anyone else experiencing this issue or is it just me?

As I understood, due to some “technical” reason, you can not create or manage user “inside Nextcloud” with the “syncloud solution”…

You must use the “USERS APP” you will find in “App Center” in your Syncloud

You can find a better explanation in the Wiki:

Hi, thanks for the info. I learned that early on as I used to run Nextcloud on my service providers server until it got too big… I’ve attached a pic of the couple of apps I’ve got running and the Users app for info…

Defo not trying to do this within Nextcloud install… Using the Users app as per pic above… :slight_smile:

@soundcatcher are you sure you are logged in as a main device user? The one you activated your device with.

Yes. I’m the main user and administrator.

That is strange, as a workaround you van reactivate your device (to the same domain name) that will reset users to a single admin so you can add other users back again.

Ok , will give that a go and report back with hopefully good news?!

So reactivation gained me access to the user manager menu. Thanks

Only issue is that I now need to find a way to reinstate the lost users so that they can be linked up to their nextcloud files…

If they have exactly the same usernames they will see their existing nextcloud files.

If that were only so… The username manager sees an existing user in some database (I know not where) with the same name and then automatically adds digits after the username you enter to make it unique. And thus all you see is a fresh install without files! Almost need to be able to go into a database and edit user details to either wipe all user details allowing you to enter them as a new user which will link upto the existing data files in nextcloud. This is where the separate apps make it a little tricky… Feeling a little bit out of my depth on this one… Suggestions welcome folks! :blush:

Strange, reactivation should remove all user accounts.
Are you sure you cannot set usernames to what you want?
Like shown on this instruction: Users · syncloud/platform Wiki · GitHub

Strange indeed… I’ve now got 3 data files one with my original username which is full of my files and 2 more with my username with additional numbers to signify that there was already a filename in existence so a new filename had to be created… Similar to Windows calling a duplicate file ‘copy’

Oh and now neither my native nextcloud app nor the syncloud nextcloud app have access to my files!

There must be a workaround? I don’t get why the user manager does not pick up on the database of existing filenames?

This is when I feel very out of my depth. The only thing saving me from completely panicking is that the files are still all there… I just can’t access them in the way I need to… :cry:

You are not answering the question.

  1. Can you reactivate again.
  2. Login to users and show screenshot of existing users (should be empty).
  3. Create a second user and show a screenshot right before saving. Try enter all the fields exactly as you want them to be, do not repy on suggested names.

If that is all ok, maybe Nextcloud now remembers the old users and needs a reset, but lets see if Users app shows xorrect usernames first.

Apologies Boris… Answers Below…

  1. Yes I can, and just have reactivated again.

  2. Here’s the screenshot of existing users at first login - Just me… but a new version not linked to the correct nextcloud data folder.

  3. Here’s a screenshot of a second user I created before saving.

So I went a bit rogue at this point and saved the new user and got this error… Invalid syntax
sn: value #0 invalid per syntax …see the screenshot below

I realise that nothing stands still in this world, but the users app has been updated since I added all of my users originally and there are more fields now than there were when I created all of my users… So I don’t know the protocol of all of the fields and the do’s and dont’s. And at the time of writing this I’ve not been able to find a how to / guide… I am male of course and do often find it difficult to find things… Or so my wife tells me!

Oh and just in case it helps… A screen shot of the users app version…

Yes I am aware of the following info as per the screenshot below

And yes I understand that may be the reason for the original error message… But not sure why I get a * The account identifier (Username) is invalid. error when I have used the following details below?

So to give a few more details if this helps? When I use the file app and go to nextcloud to look at the data folders to see the username information. I have 2 users which just use first names and I have 4 users which their email addresses are there usernames. These accounts were created mid 2020 in an older version of the user management app and I’m wondering if there is an incompatability with info entered in an old app and the current restraints of the new app? I have no idea about this as I’m not a programmer and only have very basic skills…

Thanks for your help and understanding so far btw…

Ok, username canot be email now this is the problem I guess, but your existing users already have email usernames from old users app.
Is it critical for you to have email as username?
Idealy it is a separate email field, more like additional information.

So as a workaround you could create all users with simple (non email) usernames and then move their files in Nextcloud.

I can give you two commands to test, copy files on disk from one user (email based) to another (non email based) and tell Nextcloud that new files are available on disk.

I understand that Users app is a bit confusing, but we really need more premium subscriptions to be able to do more, than I could find developers and pay them.

OK. Cool. That makes sense… I did wonder if this was connected to an update and change of the way the system works to improve things. No worries.

Usernames are just usernames and one of them could be rumplestiltskin for all that it matters! Lol

So yes good plan… I will need some help with this as you’ve said give me some code to try… I’m up for that… Will need a how to from somewhere so I understand where and how to do please.

So in short… Yes please… Let’s create a new non email user name, move this existing users data to the new account and tell nextcloud where to find it. :blush::+1:

One bit of fun I guess will be sorting this for me as the superuser?

Once this is sorted will my user file area need tidying up to remove old redundant users or will that simply be a waste of time removing empty folders that won’t cause the system any issues now or in the future?

  1. Create all new users and login to them, so Nextcloud creates all the user dirs.
  2. Then check what users dirs you have:
ls -la /data/nextcloud
  1. Copy files from one user to another (replace [user1] and [user2] with real names from the above):
cp -r /data/nextcloud/[user1]/files/ /data/nextcloud/[user2]/files/ 
  1. Fix permissions
chown -R nextcloud. /data/nextcloud/[user2]
  1. Tell Nextcloud that new files are on filesystem for a [user]:
snap run nextcloud.occ files:scan [user]
  1. Login to Nextcloud under [user] to check if there are files visible.

Please can I have some help with this… Or point me to a guide / how to somewhere.

I can do number 1 and number 5… Absolutely no idea how to action 2, 3 or 4 I’m afraid…

Oh and sorry to question… But is the code/ description for number 3 correct… Looks like 2 actions with user 2 but no mention of user 1? As I said I don’t really understand this stuff so more questions than answers…

You need to use SSH terminal to run them, paste, edit with left/right/backspace keys and hit enter.