Auto upload duplicating all photos

[Phil-Barker]

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Steps to reproduce

1. Install latest update of ios app
2. Find that auto-uploads has turned itself off, was previously on
3. Re-enable auto-uploads with same filename template
4. See all photos are being reuploaded with a different hash

Expected behaviour

The update shouldn't have disabled auto uploads, and re-enabling it shouldn't generate new hashes and duplicate all photos

Actual behaviour

Since re-enabling auto-uploads every photo is duplicated with a new 4 character hash in the filename.

Logs

If applicable, you can post the iOS app or server logs (removing any sensitive information).

Reasoning or why should it be changed/implemented?

Environment data

iOS version: e.g. iOS 17.6.1
18.3.2
Nextcloud iOS app version: see More > Settings
Nextcloud Hydrogen for iOS 6.6.0.4 @ 2025

Server operating system:
Unraid

Web server: Apache, nginx

Database:

PHP version:

Nextcloud version: see Nextcloud admin page
30.0.8

[Steve-Z]

I tried clicking the "Turn on autouploading" button but with the "Back up new photos/videos only" toggled off. (If I turn it on, it will only start from right now; I am missing about 2 weeks of photos that were not uploaded.) I worried that the app would start duplicating years worth of photos. @Phil-Barker has confirmed that. Also, I got 507 error messages on my phone that storage is not adequate. I guess that saved me from the duplicates.

Why would you devs ever turn this feature off if the user had previously had it on?

UPDATE: The folders for the photos have appeared but are all empty. It just took a long time; the time stamp for the folders is 28 minutes ago. I am using the lowest level Linode server running Ubuntu Server 20.04 and nextcloud snap.

UPDATE 2: After hours those folders are still empty. My workaround is to manually add the April photos by "sharing" from my iPhone (18.3.2) directly to the correct folder (I use a year/month/day scheme). I just now changed to Nextcloud iOS app setting to "Backup new photos/videos only" and then clicked "Start auto uploading" button at the bottom. All the settings went gray/disabled and "Start..." changed to "Stop..."

[Steve-Z]

I took a test photo to see if "Backup new photos/videos only" mode would work. It did. The Settings > Auto upload page is still disabled gray. Maybe that is how it is meant to be, i.e., you need to "Stop auto uploading" to change the settings. Anyhow, IMO they have made this all more complicated than it was. Perhaps there are good reasons for this, but I admit was thinking about researching Nextcloud alternatives. I will stick with it for now.

[philiprenich]

I took a test photo to see if "Backup new photos/videos only" mode would work. It did. The Settings > Auto upload page is still disabled gray. Maybe that is how it is meant to be, i.e., you need to "Stop auto uploading" to change the settings. Anyhow, IMO they have made this all more complicated than it was. Perhaps there are good reasons for this, but I admit was thinking about researching Nextcloud alternatives. I will stick with it for now.

You’re still without the 2 weeks of missing photos though right? I’m hoping for a solution that will figure out what was previously uploaded and others and get everything since the broken update.
Not much hope at the moment so the bug hasn’t been acknowledged.
I have the storage capacity to run Immich side by side and duplicate across apps so I may do that instead. If the NC app gets fixed I can consider coming back then, but for now I’d really like my phone photos backed up and available to share!

[Steve-Z]

@philiprenich you are correct. My workaround was to manually upload those ~2 weeks of photos to Nextcloud. It was a small number of photos. I would like to see an option to "Backup new..." that would let the user select which date they would like to start with. I have never coded in Swift so I do not know if this would be difficult to do. When I have some time I may create a new "feature suggestion" issue, but anyone else motivated may do it without me.