[Bug]: After upgrade from 4.x to 33.0, two instances of dekstop run at the same time and interfere with each other

[MauroFoti]

⚠️ Before submitting, please verify the following: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github (I've searched it).
• Nextcloud Server and Desktop Client are up to date. See Server Maintenance and Release Schedule and Desktop Releases for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct

Bug description

After upgrading (and after a reboot), two instances of Desktop were running at the same time, spamming notifications about a folder being modified while it was synched. When I killed one of the two instances, the other one resynched my entire account folder, including some folders that where unchecked from sync. Two instances appeared after every reboot after this.

What I did to fix it is:

1. killed both instances
2. started Desktop from the Cinnamon app menu
3. waited for all the files to be resynched
4. disabled nextcloud desktop from the Cinnamon "Startup applications" menu, which is where Desktop puts itself when you tell it to start at system boot
5. unchecked and checked "start at system boot" option
6. rebooted. Desktop launched itself even if it was disabled in "Startup applications" (has the mechanism to start at boot changed? I don't see any mention to it in the changelogs)

Steps to reproduce

1. Upgrade from 4.x to 33.0. 4.x client must be configured to start at system boot
2. Wait

Expected behavior

Two instances should not run, and even if they did, it should not cause the entire folder to be resynched.

Which files are affected by this bug

"Create debug archive" button is disabled, so I cannot generate any log

Operating system

Linux

Which version of the operating system you are running.

Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon

Package

Official PPA

Nextcloud Server version

31.0.13

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

33.0.0daily

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Updated to a major version (ex. 3.16.3 to 3.17.0)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

Are you using an external user-backend?

• Default internal user-backend
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Nextcloud Server logs

Additional info

No response

[mgallien]

I can confirm.
We need to make sure we properly lock the database for unique access when opening it.

[MauroFoti]

Today it resynched again the entire account even if there was only one instance running. I'm going to downgrade since it's quite unusable at this state.

[mneiger]

Same here. It's not even possible to find the previous deb packages to downgrade !
(any place to find the previous 4.0.8 for ubuntu/mint/debian would be welcome)

[Go-rom]

Same here. It's not even possible to find the previous deb packages to downgrade ! (any place to find the previous 4.0.8 for ubuntu/mint/debian would be welcome)

Hi

i found the .deb packages here : https://launchpad.net/~nextcloud-devs/+archive/ubuntu/client/+build/32717005 but i'm not sure how to properly downgrade.

edit :
i reverted back to 4.0.8

sudo apt purge nextcloud-desktop
sudo apt remove libnextcloudsync0

then i've downloaded and installed :
nextcloud-desktop_4.0.8-20260325.155855.485a8c7234-1.0~noble1_amd64.deb
nemo-nextcloud_4.0.8-20260325.155855.485a8c7234-1.0~noble1_all.deb
libnextcloudsync0_4.0.8-20260325.155855.485a8c7234-1.0~noble1_amd64.deb

No need to set account again.

[nilsding]

I would be really curious if you have more than just one entry for Nextcloud inside ~/.config/autostart -- if that's the case it would be useful for us to verify its contents (perhaps one of those entries starts an older AppImage instead of the version from the repo?)

[Go-rom]

@nilsding

(with 33.0.1)

$ ls .config/autostart/
bitwarden.desktop    Nextcloud.desktop
Cryptomator.desktop  remmina-applet.desktop

$ cat .config/autostart/Nextcloud.desktop 
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Nextcloud
GenericName=File Synchronizer
Exec="/usr/bin/nextcloud" --background
Terminal=false
Icon=Nextcloud
Categories=Network
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay=10

[strandguth]

I can confirm this on Mint 22.3 after an update to 33.0.1. Startup Applications (Cinnamon) shows 2 identical Nextcloud entries.

ls .config/autostart/ gives

• Nextcloud.desktop
• com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.desktop

and both look exactly like @Go-rom already mentioned.
If I remove both entries, Nextcloud still starts at start-up (with a single instance).
Within Nextcloud "Launch on System Startup" is ticked under "General settings". If I also untick this, Nextcloud still starts a single instance (the setting stays unticked). Weird...

[Kurgan-]

I have the same issue on nc 33.0.1. and Linux Mint 21.3 with Cinnamon. I removed the only file I had under ".config/autostart" that mentioned nextcloud, then I removed the tick from the "autostart" box inside nextcloud config, and a logout/login action does not start nextcloud anymore (not once, not twice). I have not tried a complete reboot of the pc.

I actually don't know where is the "autostart" setting saved, I'm a Linux sysadmin but not very much into the whole desktop ecosystem. Did it move to user session in systemd? Why does it start twice?

EDIT: If I actually reboot (and not logout/login) nextcloud starts up ONLY ONCE.

Found it in systemd, as I expected:

` systemctl status --user com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.service
● com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.service - Nextcloud desktop user service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2026-04-01 11:28:25 CEST; 3min 24s ago
   Main PID: 2658 (nextcloud)
      Tasks: 27 (limit: 37961)
     Memory: 298.3M
        CPU: 2.873s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.service
             ├─2658 /usr/bin/nextcloud --background
             ├─2873 sh -c "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libproxy/0.4.17/pxgsettings org.gnome.system.proxy org.gnome.system.proxy.http org.gnome.system.proxy.ht>
             └─2874 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libproxy/0.4.17/pxgsettings org.gnome.system.proxy org.gnome.system.proxy.http org.gnome.system.proxy.https org>

Apr 01 11:28:25 ghisa systemd[2181]: Started Nextcloud desktop user service.
Apr 01 11:28:28 ghisa nextcloud[2658]: nextcloud.gui.application: Migrating old config from "/home/kurgan/.local/share/Nextcloud" to "/home/kurgan/.config/Ne>
Apr 01 11:28:28 ghisa nextcloud[2658]: nextcloud.gui.application: Failed to move the old config directory to its new location ( "/home/kurgan/.local/share/Ne>
Apr 01 11:28:28 ghisa nextcloud[2658]: nextcloud.gui.application: Will move the individual files QList("Nextcloud_sync.log")
Apr 01 11:28:28 ghisa nextcloud[2658]: nextcloud.gui.application: Fallback move of  "Nextcloud_sync.log" also failed

Ok, so:

• WHY IS IT THERE?
• And why is it enabled even if I untick the "start at boot" option?

The whole mess can be fixed by disabling and masking the user service and then using the old startup method, which will give you back control over the startup configuration.

[melroy89]

Both autostart and systemd is used. Why does nextcloud desktop ships systemd start up with the package? Since you already leverage autostart.