Switching from the ownCloud to the Nextcloud client
The migration of our sync-and-share services from the ownCloud platform to the Nextcloud platform requires that users switch from the ownCloud desktop client to the Nextcloud desktop client.
In the following, we show how to carry out this transition on a Linux machine, but most of the configuration steps can be applied to any other operating system.
If you are running a recent Linux distribution, the transition is quite easy and we suggest to rely on the package provided by your distribution. If you want to run the very latest Nextcloud client or your Linux distribution is old and only obsolete clients are provided, then you may want to consider installing the client from the AppImage file, as described below.
Regardless of your choice, please take care of reading the instructions below on how to delete your account from the old ownCloud client and configure the new Nextcloud client.
Step 1: delete your account from the old ownCloud client.
Before configuring your account on the Nextcloud client it is very important that you remove your account from the old ownCloud client. This will prevent the two clients from trying to access your data at the same time, possibly creating some inconsistencies in your files.
In order to do so:
Open your ownCloud desktop client
Select the account you want to remove from the top row of accounts you have configured
Select the account button on the right and then “Remove”
This will delete your account from the client, but all your data will still be available in the synchronized folder and on the online server. Note that at this point you should not edit the files in your synchronized folder, as any new change is not immediately committed to the online server.
Step 2: download the Nextcloud desktop client.
Nextcloud from repository
If you are planning on installing the Nextcloud desktop client from your Linux distribution repository, look for the
nextcloud-desktop package. For example,
sudo apt install nextcloud-desktop
This will install the basic client and its dependencies. You may also want to install some plugins that will allow
you to see the synchronization status of your files and create shares from the context menu directly in the file
manager. For example, nautilus-nextcloud provides Nextcloud integration for the Nautilus (GNOME) file manager.
For OpenSUSE the packages are called nextcloud-client-dolphin (KDE) and nautilus-extension-nextcloud (GNOME).
E.g. if you are using the default KDE desktop, you would run
sudo zypper install nextcloud-desktop nextcloud-client-dolphin
Nextcloud from AppImage
On the other hand, if you want to install Nextcloud from the AppImage file, navigate to this link and select “Download for desktop”. Note that for Linux only a single AppImage file is provided for all the distributions.
Change the permissions on the downloaded AppImage file to allow its execution. At this point you can simply run the downloaded file in order to configure your Nextcloud account. It is convenient to store the Nextcloud client AppImage file somewhere on your computer, as you will have to run this file every time you want to start your client (or when you setup the automatic startup for this application).
Step 3: configure the Nextcloud desktop client.
After starting the Nextcloud client (installed via the repository of via the AppImage file), you will be asked if you want to import the old ownCloud accounts detected on your machine. Please skip the import and configure your accounts from scratch, otherwise authentication may be configured incorrectly!
You will be prompted with the wizard to add a new account. Select the “Log in” button
and provide the URL of the sync-and-share server.
Once you select the “Next” button, your web browser will redirect you to the login page of the server. Select the “Log in” button
and then the “MPCDF Login” button in the login page of the DataShare service.
This will redirect your connection to the MPCDF Single Sign-On page where you can enter your credentials,
including your One Time Password (OTP).
Finally, grant the Nextcloud desktop client access to your account.
At this point you can close the browser and continue the configuration of the desktop client.
Select the folder that you want to synchronize with the server. If you select the same folder you were previously using for the ownCloud client, you will be asked if you want to keep the local data or if you want to erase the local data and start a clean sync.
Which option to choose depends on your internet connection and the available space on your local machine. If you have enough space available (or not much data on the server), you can make a clean synchronization of your data in a new folder. If you have a lot of files stored locally and you don’t want to wait until they are downloaded again, you can select “Keep local data” (but be sure that files were not changed on the server and your local files are not up-to-date anymore).
Note that even if you select to erase the local data, the most recent Nextcloud clients will create a copy of the selected folder called “folder-name (backup)”, so that your local files are not lost. This however is not ensured with older clients, so it is better to create a new empty synchronization folder if you want to be sure to have a local copy of your old data that you can safely remove at a later time.
When the configuration is completed, select “Connect” to trigger the first synchronization of the new desktop client with the server.