# ownCloud Server Administration Manual

# Issues and Troubleshooting

If you have trouble installing, configuring or maintaining ownCloud, please refer to our community support channels:

- The ownCloud Forums

Note

The ownCloud forums have a FAQ page where each topic corresponds to typical mistakes or frequently occurring issues

- The ownCloud User mailing list
- The ownCloud IRC chat channel `irc://#owncloud@freenode.net` on freenode.net, also accessible via webchat

Please understand that all these channels essentially consist of users like you helping each other out. Consider helping others out where you can, to contribute back for the help you get. This is the only way to keep a community like ownCloud healthy and sustainable!

If you are using ownCloud in a business or otherwise large scale deployment, note that ownCloud Inc. offers the Enterprise Edition with commercial support options.

## Bugs

If you think you have found a bug in ownCloud, please:

- Search for a solution (see the options above)
- Double check your configuration

If you can’t find a solution, please use our bugtracker.

## General Troubleshooting

### ownCloud Logfiles

In a standard ownCloud installation the log level is set to `Normal`. To find any issues you need to raise the log level to `All` from the Admin page. Please see Logging Configuration for more informations on this log levels.

Some logging - for example JavaScript console logging - needs manually editing the configuration file. Edit `config/config.php` and add `define('DEBUG', true);`:

    <?php
    define('DEBUG',true);
    $CONFIG = array (
        ... configuration goes here ...
    );

For JavaScript issues you will also need to view the javascript console. All major browsers have decent developer tools for viewing the console, and you usually access them by pressing F-12. For Firefox it is recommended to install the Firebug extension.

Note

The logfile of ownCloud is located in the datadirectory `/var/www/owncloud/data/owncloud.log`.

### phpinfo

You will need to know your PHP version and configurations. To do this, create a plain-text file named phpinfo.php and place it in your Web root, for example `/var/www/html/phpinfo.php`. (Your Web root may be in a different location; your Linux distribution documentation will tell you where.) This file contains just this line:

    <?php phpinfo(); ?>

Open this file in a Web browser. Your PHP version is at the top, and the rest of the page contains abundant system information such as active modules, active .ini files, and much more. When you are finished reviewing your information you must delete `phpinfo.php`, or move it outside of your Web directory, because it is a security risk to expose such sensitive data.

### Debugging Sync-Issues

Note

The data directory on the server is exclusive to ownCloud and must not be modified manually.

Disregarding this can lead to unwanted behaviours like:

- Problems with sync clients
- Undetected changes due to caching in the database

If you need to directly upload files from the same server please use a WebDAV command line client like `cadaver` to upload files to the WebDAV interface at:

> https://example.org/owncloud/remote.php/webdav

### Common problems / error messages

Some common problems / error messages found in your logfiles as described above:

- `SQLSTATE[HY000] [1040] Too many connections` -> You need to increase the connection limit of your database, please refer to the manual of your database for more informations.
- `SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 5 database is locked` -> You’re using `SQLite` which can’t handle a lot of parallel requests. Please consider converting to another database like described in Converting Database Type.
- `SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away` -> The database request takes too long and therefore the MySQL server times out. Its also possible that the server is dropping a too large packet. Please refer to the manual of your database how to raise the config options `wait_timeout` and/or `max_allowed_packet`.
- `SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory` -> There is a problem accessing your SQLite database file in your datadirectory (`data/owncloud.db`). Please check the permissions of this folder/file or if it exists at all. If you’re using MySQL please start your database.

## Troubleshooting Webserver and PHP problems

### Logfiles

When having issues the first step is to check the logfiles provided by PHP, the Webserver and ownCloud itself.

Note

In the following the paths to the logfiles of a default Debian installation running Apache2 with mod_php is assumed. On other webservers, linux distros or operating systems they can differ.

- The logfile of Apache2 is located in `/var/log/apache2/error.log`.
- The logfile of PHP can be configured in your `/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini`. You need to set the directive `log_errors` to `On` and choose the path to store the logfile in the `error_log` directive. After those changes you need to restart your Webserver.
- The logfile of ownCloud is located in the datadirectory `/var/www/owncloud/data/owncloud.log`.

### Webserver and PHP modules

There are some Webserver or PHP modules which are known to cause various problems like broken up-/downloads. The following shows a draft overview over this modules:

1. Apache

- mod_pagespeed
- mod_evasive
- mod_security
- mod_reqtimeout
- mod_deflate
- libapache2-mod-php5filter (use libapache2-mod-php5 instead)
- mod_spdy together with libapache2-mod-php5 / mod_php (use fcgi or php-fpm instead)
- mod_dav
- mod_xsendfile / X-Sendfile (causing broken downloads if not configured correctly)

2. NginX

- ngx_pagespeed
- HttpDavModule
- X-Sendfile (causing broken downloads if not configured correctly)

3. Mac OS X server

- mod_auth_apple
- com.apple.webapp.webdavsharing

4. LigHTTPd

- ModWebDAV
- X-Sendfile2 (causing broken downloads if not configured correctly)

5. PHP

- eAccelerator

## Troubleshooting WebDAV

ownCloud uses SabreDAV, and the SabreDAV documentation is comprehensive and helpful. See:

- SabreDAV FAQ
- Webservers (Lists lighttpd as not recommended)
- Working with large files (Shows a PHP bug in older SabreDAV versions and information for mod_security problems)
- 0 byte files (Reasons for empty files on the server)
- Clients (A comprehensive list of WebDAV clients, and possible problems with each one)
- Finder, OS X’s built-in WebDAV client (Describes problems with Finder on various webservers)

There is also a well maintained FAQ thread available at the ownCloud Forums which contains various additional informations about WebDAV problems.

## Troubleshooting Contacts & Calendar

### Service discovery

Some clients - especially iOS - have problems finding the proper sync URL, even when explicitly configured to use it.

There are several techniques to remedy this, which are described extensively at the Sabre DAV website.

### Apple iOS

Below is what have proven to work with iOS including iOS 7.

If your ownCloud instance is installed in a subfolder under the web server’s document root and the client has difficulties finding the Cal- or CardDAV end-points, configure your web server to redirect from a “well-know” URL to the one used by ownCloud. When using the Apache web server this is easily achieved using a `.htaccess` file in the document root of your site.

Say your instance is located in the `owncloud` folder, so the URL to it is `ADDRESS/owncloud`, create or edit the `.htaccess` file and add the following lines:

    Redirect 301 /.well-known/carddav /owncloud/remote.php/carddav
    Redirect 301 /.well-known/caldav /owncloud/remote.php/caldav

If you use lighttpd as web server, the setting looks something like:

    url.redirect = (
        "^/.well-known/carddav" => "/owncloud/remote.php/carddav",
        "^/.well-known/caldav" => "/owncloud/remote.php/caldav",
    )

Now change the URL in the client settings to just use `ADDRESS` instead of e.g. `ADDRESS/remote.php/carddav/principals/username`.

This problem is being discussed in the forum.

### Unable to update Contacts or Events

If you get an error like `PATCH https://ADDRESS/some_url HTTP/1.0 501 Not Implemented` it is likely caused by one of the following reasons:

Outdated lighttpd web server
  lighttpd in debian wheezy (1.4.31) doesn’t support the PATCH HTTP verb. Upgrade to lighttpd >= 1.4.33.
Using Pound reverse-proxy/load balancer
  As of writing this Pound doesn’t support the HTTP/1.1 verb. Pound is easily patched to support HTTP/1.1.