Upgrade LinuxServer/Nextcloud Container Manually

Apr 26, 2022
Jul 15, 2022

This guide will show you how to manually upgrade linuxserver/nextcloud Docker container.

Normally, Nextcloud upgrades are done by pressing and Update button in the settings page, but for me, it did not work. Because, I was running my Nextcloud 16 with a path prefix e.g. example.com/nextcloud. Automatic updates do not work with path prefixes (they only work with domains or subdomains).

Each heading will guide you through steps needed to upgrade from one major version to the next major version. Plan ahead, because Nextcloud downtime is expected.

General Prerequisites

  • This guide assumes you are using docker-compose.yml files for managing your Nextcloud instance.
    • If not, you will need to stop your database manually after you stop your container
  • Access to the host's shell (not the docker container shell).
  • Access to the config/ folder as mounted on the host.
  • wget installed on the host.
  • Name (or hash) of the upgraded container (in my case nextcloud).
    • Run docker ps -a | grep nextcloud to see the name and hash.

Sections below Upgrading to version X to X+1 are almost identical. Each major version heading, has subheadings for fixing database issues that occur after the upgrade.

Upgrade one major version at a time. Do not do something stupid like upgrading from Nextcloud 17 to 19. Skipping major versions, can break your Nextcloud installation permanently.

Upgrading from version 16 to 17

first stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory on host:

cd <your nextcloud dir>/www/nextcloud

move old configuration to old folder:

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-16
wget -O nextcloud-17.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-17.0.10.zip
unzip nextcloud-17.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-17/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-17/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-17/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

143ed40ec0fe967362464c8c88ae8f03.png

Attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

Convert to big int source:

sudo -u abc php occ db:convert-filecache-bigint

(Optional) After the command completes exit the container:

exit

Continue to Issue Verification

Upgrading from version 17 to 18

first stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory on host:

cd <your nextcloud dir>/www/nextcloud

move old configuration to old folder (in my case old version was 17)

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-17
wget -O nextcloud-18.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-18.0.14.zip
unzip nextcloud-18.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-17/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-17/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-17/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

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attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices:

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices

convert to big int:

sudo -u abc php occ db:convert-filecache-bigint

Continue to Issue Verification

Upgrading from version 18 to 19

First stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory (on host):

cd <your nextcloud dir>/www

move old configuration to old folder (in my case old version was 18)

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-18
wget -O nextcloud-19.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-19.0.13.zip
unzip nextcloud-19.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-18/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-18/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-18/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

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attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices:

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices

add optional columns:

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-columns

Continue to Issue Verification

Upgrading from version 19 to 20

First stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory (on host):

cd <your nextcloud config dir>/config/www

move old configuration to old folder (in my case old version was 18)

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-19
wget -O nextcloud-20.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-20.0.11.zip
unzip nextcloud-20.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-19/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-19/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-19/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

ada39ebde620f04251e527ba0bfb38a1.png

attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices:

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices

add missing primary keys:

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-primary-keys

do big int conversion

sudo -u abc php occ db:convert-filecache-bigint

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

Upgrading from version 20 to 21

First stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory (on host):

cd <your nextcloud config dir>/config/www

move old configuration to old folder

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-20
wget -O nextcloud-21.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-21.0.9.zip
unzip nextcloud-21.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-20/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-20/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-20/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

start the container again:

docker-compose start

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices (in the container):

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices
exit

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

Upgrading from version 21 to 22

First stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory (on host):

cd <your nextcloud config dir>/config/www

move old configuration to old folder

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-21
wget -O nextcloud-22.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-22.2.9.zip
unzip nextcloud-22.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-21/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-21/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-21/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

start the container again:

docker-compose start

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices (in the container):

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices
exit

Upgrading from version 22 to 23

First stop current compose containers:

docker-compose stop

go to Nextcloud configuration directory (on host):

cd config/www

move old configuration to old folder

mv nextcloud nextcloud-old-22
wget -O nextcloud-23.zip https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-23.0.6.zip
unzip nextcloud-23.zip

move old used files:

cp nextcloud-old-22/config/* nextcloud/config/
cp -r nextcloud-old-22/data nextcloud/data/
cp -r nextcloud-old-22/apps/ nextcloud/apps/

start the container again:

docker-compose start

Continue to Completing the Upgrade

During the upgrade I noticed that Nextcloud complained about some environment variables were not set I ignored this message and my upgrade was still successful.

WARNING: The MEDIA_NEXTCLOUD_ROOT variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
WARNING: The PROXY_NETWORK variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
WARNING: The NETWORK_DB_GLOBAL variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.

attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

add missing indices (in the container):

sudo -u abc php occ db:add-missing-indices
exit

Completing the Upgrade

This section is based on the official guide and is adapted for linuxserver/nextcloud containers

start compose containers:

cd <compose file dir>
docker-compose up -d

docker exec -it nextcloud bash

At this point you have two options how to upgrade your installation:

  • Option 1 (easy), you rely on Nextcloud auto-update from the browser.
  • Option 2 (harder), you use Nextcloud CLI inside the docker container.

Completion Option 1 (easy)

Go to your Nextcloud instance (example.com/nextcloud) and follow the instruction on the web in order to complete the installation (I only tested this when upgrading from versions 21 up to 23).

auto-upgrade

Completion Option 2 (harder)

Attach to your container:

docker exec -it nextcloud bash
cd /config/www/nextcloud

change file permissions inside the container:

cd /config/www/
chown -R abc:abc nextcloud
find nextcloud/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
find nextcloud/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

call the actual upgrade command:

cd /config/www/nextcloud
sudo -u abc php occ upgrade

after update is complete exit:

exit

restart the containers:

docker-compose restart

Continue to Issue Verification

Issue Verification

Almost done, open your Nextcloud URL example.com/nextcloud/settings/admin/overview in the browser and verify that it is still running.

Verify the Nextcloud version Settings → Overview → Version

If under Settings → Overview → Security & Setup you see a message like

“There are some errors regarding your setup.”

issue example

Continue to related guides to fix the issues (if needed)

You may also want to consider upgrading your Nextcloud docker container to match the version your new Nextcloud installation, so that environment has all the dependencies needed. Nextcloud is quite forgiving if you do not upgrade them, but you will definitely need to do this when you reach version 23.

In my case I only upgraded my Docker image when I reached version 23 and verified, that Nextcloud was running beforehand.