[How-To] Move Nextcloud Data Directory

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to show how to move the data directory of a nextcloud server. 

Prerequisites

List of prerequisites:

• Root user or sudo user
• Nextcloud Server

Data Directory Move

Step 1: Shut Down Nextcloud Web Server

First, we need to stop Apache so nextcloud is not active. Do this with the following command:

sudo systemctl stop apache2

Step 2: Move Data Directory Contents

Next, we have to move the contents of the data directory. First, become root:

sudo su -l

Then, use the copy command to move everything from the original dir to the target dir for new data:

cp -r /var/www/nextcloud/data /mnt/nc-data/

Step 3: Change Data Directory in Nextcloud Config

Next, change the data directory in the nextcloud config:

sudo nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php

'datadirectory' => '/mnt/nc-data/data',

Around line 15, you should see like above, change this to the new data directory.

Step 4: Change Owner Permissions

Next, we need to update www-data to be the owner of the new data dir:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/nc-data/data

Step 5: Start Nextcloud Web Server

Finally, start the nextcloud web server for the first time with the new data directory:

sudo systemctl start apache2

Once the web server has started, try to browse to the URL. If everything is good, you'll get to login page. If it says something about a file not existing, you've not done things in order. After getting past login, go to admin settings to check for errors. It will likely complain about the cronjob not being able to run. Just run it manually once like this then it should be good going forward:

sudo -u www-data php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php

Once everything is good to go with no errors and you have backups, remove the old data directory:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/nextcloud/data