Upgrade Nextcloud From Packages

Note

Starting with Nextcloud 8.2 the Linux package repositories have changed, and you must configure your system to use these new repositories to install or upgrade Nextcloud 8.2+. The new repositories are at our `Open Build Service`_.

Upgrade Quickstart

The best method for keeping Nextcloud current on Linux servers is by configuring your system to use Nextcloud’s `Open Build Service`_ repository. Then stay current by using your Linux package manager to install fresh Nextcloud packages. After installing upgraded packages you must run a few more steps to complete the upgrade. These are the basic steps to upgrading Nextcloud:

Upgrade Tips

Upgrading Nextcloud from our `Open Build Service`_ repository is just like any normal Linux upgrade. For example, on Debian or Ubuntu Linux this is the standard system upgrade command:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Or you can upgrade just Nextcloud with this command:

apt-get update && apt-get install nextcloud

On Fedora, CentOS, and Red Hat Linux use yum to see all available updates:

yum check-update

You can apply all available updates with this command:

yum update

Or update only Nextcloud:

yum update nextcloud

Your Linux package manager only downloads the current Nextcloud packages. Then your Nextcloud server is immediately put into maintenance mode. You may not see this until you refresh your Nextcloud page.

Nextcloud status screen informing users that it is in maintenance mode.

Then use occ to complete the upgrade. You must run occ as your HTTP user. This example is for Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade

This example is for CentOS/RHEL/Fedora:

sudo -u apache php occ upgrade

Migration Test

Before completing the upgrade, Nextcloud first runs a simulation by copying all database tables to new tables, and then performs the upgrade on them, to ensure that the upgrade will complete correctly. The copied tables are deleted after the upgrade. This takes twice as much time, which on large installations can be many hours, so you can omit this step with the --skip-migration-test option, like this example on CentOS:

$ sudo -u apache php occ upgrade --skip-migration-test

Setting Strong Directory Permissions

After upgrading, verify that your Nextcloud directory permissions are set according to Setting Strong Directory Permissions.

If the upgrade fails, then you must try a manual upgrade.

Upgrading Across Skipped Releases

It is best to update your Nextcloud installation with every new point release, and to never skip any major releases. If you have skipped any major releases you can bring your Nextcloud current with these steps:

  1. Add the repository of your current version
  2. Upgrade your current version to the latest point release
  3. Add the repo of the next major release
  4. Upgrade your current version to the next major release
  5. Run upgrade routine
  6. Repeat from step 3 until you reach the last available major release

You’ll find previous Nextcloud releases in the Nextcloud Server Changelog.

If upgrading via your package manager fails, then you must perform a Manual Nextcloud Upgrade.