[Bug]: upload server grows very large when user is out of quota

[daladim]

⚠️ This issue respects the following points: ⚠️

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

Bug description

When a user is out of quota, its uploads/ folder grows very large.

Well, at least I think that's the reason.
On my server, I have three users. Two of them have unlimited quota and empty uploads folder. One of them has a quota (60 GB) and has reached it. Its uploads/ folder has reached 70 GB, despite having been manually cleared one month ago.

Not sure if that's a server bug or a (Windows) client bug.

It is similar to #39533, which was supposed to be fixed in 26.0.5, but I have 28.0.5

Steps to reproduce

1. Setup a user with a 60 GB quota
2. Fill this quota
3. Keep the Windows client running

Observed behaviour:

• As expected, the "previous file versions" are removed to leave space for the "current "files
• I don't know what the client is trying to do, but my uploads folder grows very large. Given it has only "random" file names, it is hard to scrutinize what it's trying to do.

Expected behavior

• the client stops trying to upload new files, possibly showing a warning to the user

Installation method

Community Manual installation with Archive

Nextcloud Server version

28

Operating system

Debian/Ubuntu

PHP engine version

PHP 8.0

Web server

Apache (supported)

Database engine version

PostgreSQL

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

Updated from a MINOR version (ex. 22.1 to 22.2)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

What user-backends are you using?

• Default user-backend (database)
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Configuration report

{
    "system": {
        "updatechecker": false,
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "cloud.froissart.eu"
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/cloud.froissart.eu\/",
        "htaccess.RewriteBase": "\/",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "memcache.distributed": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "filelocking.enabled": true,
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 0
        },
        "dbtype": "pgsql",
        "version": "28.0.5.1",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "logtimezone": "UTC",
        "installed": true,
        "preview_max_x": 1024,
        "preview_max_y": 1024,
        "theme": "",
        "loglevel": 0,
        "maintenance": false,
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_sendmailmode": "pipe",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpauthtype": "LOGIN",
        "mail_smtpauth": 1,
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpport": "587",
        "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpsecure": "tls",
        "app_install_overwrite": [
            "sharerenamer"
        ]
    }
}

List of activated Apps

Enabled:
  - activity: 2.20.0
  - admin_audit: 1.18.0
  - calendar: 4.7.6
  - circles: 28.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.11.0
  - comments: 1.18.0
  - contacts: 5.5.3
  - contactsinteraction: 1.9.0
  - dashboard: 7.8.0
  - dav: 1.29.1
  - deck: 1.12.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.18.0
  - federation: 1.18.0
  - files: 2.0.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 2.9.0
  - files_reminders: 1.1.0
  - files_sharing: 1.20.0
  - files_trashbin: 1.18.0
  - files_versions: 1.21.0
  - firstrunwizard: 2.17.0
  - logreader: 2.13.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.16.0
  - nextcloud_announcements: 1.17.0
  - notes: 4.10.0
  - notifications: 2.16.0
  - notify_push: 0.6.12
  - oauth2: 1.16.3
  - password_policy: 1.18.0
  - photos: 2.4.0
  - privacy: 1.12.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.18.0
  - recommendations: 2.0.0
  - related_resources: 1.3.0
  - serverinfo: 1.18.0
  - settings: 1.10.1
  - sharebymail: 1.18.0
  - support: 1.11.1
  - survey_client: 1.16.0
  - systemtags: 1.18.0
  - tasks: 0.16.0
  - text: 3.9.1
  - theming: 2.3.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.17.0
  - user_status: 1.8.1
  - viewer: 2.2.0
  - weather_status: 1.8.0
  - workflowengine: 2.10.0
Disabled:
  - bruteforcesettings: 2.8.0 (installed 2.8.0)
  - encryption: 2.16.0
  - files_external: 1.20.0 (installed 1.20.0)
  - suspicious_login: 6.0.0
  - twofactor_totp: 10.0.0-beta.2
  - updatenotification: 1.18.0 (installed 1.18.0)
  - user_ldap: 1.19.0

Nextcloud Signing status

No errors have been found.

Nextcloud Logs

My `nextcloud.log` is 50M (even being rotated), and it's cluttered with personal info. I'd rather cherry pick the lines you'll instruct me to do so if needed.

Additional info

Server is running on Raspbian.
It was imported from ownCloud long ago.
It is manually installed as a bare-metal setup (using "system-wide" apache, php, etc.)
Not sure how long this issue has been here for.

Thanks 🙏
And kudos for this awesome piece of software I've been using flawlessly for years!

[daladim]

As a side-effect, my backup solution keeps backuping this ever-changing uploads/ folder and wastes quite a lot of space 😓

[joshtrichards]

See #47208

The root cause likely whatever is causing one of your client devices to re-upload. Focus your efforts there.

The server itself cleans out these files every 24 hours (unless you find evidence that there are files there > 24 hours old... in which case that would be either a bug here in server or a problem with your cron setup).

[nextcloud-command]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity and seems to be missing some essential information. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.