[BUG] Fails or frozes "Loading" when accessing through iOS Files app

[parviain]

Steps to reproduce

1. Open iOS Files app
2. Setup Owncloud by enabling it on sidebar
3. Try to browse Owncloud folders

Expected behavior

Tell us what should happen
Folders and contents should be accessible via Files app. It was possible with either previous OwnCloud iOS app OR previous iOS version.

Actual behavior

Tell us what happens instead

Error:
Content unavailable
The folder contents could not be displayed because of an unknown error.
[Try Again]

Client

iOS version:
18.2
ownCloud app version:
12.3.1 build 292

Device model:
iPad Pro 11"

Server configuration

Web server:

Database:

PHP version:

ownCloud version:

Storage backend (external storage):

Logs

Web server error log

Insert your webserver log here

ownCloud log (data/owncloud.log)

Insert your ownCloud log here

Tell us what could be improved:

[th3boz]

Hi,
I have the same issue.

I hope that my comment could help the community to solve this issue.

Have a nice Christmas!
Andrea

---

Steps to reproduce

Open iOS Files app
Setup Owncloud by enabling it on sidebar
Try to browse Owncloud folders

Expected behavior

Folders and contents should be accessible via Files app. It was possible with either previous OwnCloud iOS app OR previous iOS version.

Actual behavior

Error:
Content unavailable
The folder contents could not be displayed because of an unknown error.
[Try Again]

Client

iOS version:
18.2
ownCloud app version:
12.3.1 build 292

Device model:
iPad Pro 11"

Server configuration

Web server: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

Database: MariaDB Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.11.8-MariaDB

PHP version: 7.4.33

ownCloud version: 10.15.0.2

Storage backend (external storage):

Logs

Web server error log: nothing logged while trying to access

ownCloud log (data/owncloud.log): nothing logged while trying to access

[hermelin44]

Exactly the same issue here…

[thoughtsunificator]

Open iOS 18.2 Files app and click "owncloud":

Happened to me after upgrading to iOS 18.2, I did the install-uninstall and I even resetted my network settings. I'm using the latest version of owncloud.

Jan  6 02:45:44 ownCloud File Provider(CoreFoundation)[10754] <Error>: Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x105cc4780> (Domain: group.com.owncloud.ios-app, User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd
Jan  6 02:45:45 tccd[45] <Error>: Refusing TCCAccessRequest for service kTCCServiceUserTracking from extension Sub:{com.owncloud.ios-app.ownCloud-File-Provider}Resp:{TCCDProcess: identifier=com.owncloud.ios-app.ownCloud-File-Provider, pid=10754, auid=501, euid=501, binary_path=/private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/60620F26-140D-4BCC-8D22-98E1039465A4/ownCloud.app/PlugIns/ownCloud File Provider.appex/ownCloud File Provider}, extension point disallows prompting

[tech-nfvk]

I have exactly the same issue after upgrading to iOS 18.2 and 18.2.1.
The content is unavailable if there is a stable connection to the cloud server.
In 'flight mode' without a connection to the cloud server, i can open the 'offline files' trough the 'files app' normaly.
Hope that could help.

With iOS 17.5.1 this issue was not happen. So i think, apple has change something at the internal file handling...

[s9fde]

Same problem here, iPad Pro, 18.2.1 (latest app, latest OS)

[thoughtsunificator]

Nextcloud app is working by the way.

[tech-nfvk]

@thoughtsunificator:
But the Nextcloud iOS app has many problems with offline files since version 5.5.x.x (nextcloud/ios#3077).
Thats why i have change my cloud server to owncloud in October 2024.

[thoughtsunificator]

@thoughtsunificator: But the Nextcloud iOS app has many problems with offline files since version 5.5.x.x (nextcloud/ios#3077). Thats why i have change my cloud server to owncloud in October 2024.

It looks like they have similar bugs and a lot of them would probably be because of sync (and the iOS file integration), for example I had a folder "Document" that was showing as empty through the Files iOS App, I reinstalled the app to fix this, just like I did with owncloud..

Still, not sure what's your use case, but I need to edit notes, and Nextcloud has an editor (with markdown capabilities that is) and their file integration is working while with ownCloud I'm pretty much out of luck.

I'm actually using them both I'm losing a bit of speed because of external storage it works great with versioning, offline files and integrates seamlessly with iOS Files app. At the very least, it looks better than my out-of-the-box Samba setup.

[ebin-dev]

I have the same issue with ownCloud 12.3.1 (build 292) on iOS:

The integration of ownCloud 12.3.1 (build 292) with the Files app is not working on iOS 18.2.1 and iPadOS 18.2.1 if there is at least a nested folder structure stored in ownCloud such as a small website (error 'Content Unavailabe').

The Files App can however display ownCloud files if there are i.e. only plain text files stored in the Personal Folder. Accessing those files fails with the error message 'Couldn't communicate with a helper application'. There are no issues on iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1.

I am using an ocis 7.0.0 bare metal installation with nginx as a reverse proxy on Debian 12 (arm64).

I will be sending log files to ios-app@owncloud.com and hope that this is being taken care of, since the integration of owncloud with the Files App is crucial for working efficiently with files on iOS.

[thoughtsunificator]

The Files App can however display ownCloud files if there are i.e. only plain text files stored in the Personal Folder. Accessing those files fails with the error message 'Couldn't communicate with a helper application'.

If you try to create a new Folder after it successfully loaded the file you can manage to have it work even with a folder, however it will fail as soon as you try to load an empty folder (it will load if there is at least on file/folder).

EDIT: If you try to delete a file/folder following the successful loading, it will fail with the following message:

The operation can't be completed. Couldn't communicate with a helper application.

Jan 12 13:41:28 runningboardd(RunningBoard)[33] <Error>: RBSStateCapture remove item called for untracked item 33-298-155912 (target:[xpcservice<com.owncloud.ios-app.ownCloud-File-Provider([osservice<com.apple.FileProvider>:298])>{vt hash: 59558647}[uuid:XXXXX37F5-8118-4872-9E1D-8ED398A1D322]{persona:3518E644-XXX-4F70-976E-93E0E9C7ED2F}:15248])

I believe the file/folder still manage to get deleted after a while.

[ebin-dev]

@tech-nfvk:

In 'flight mode' without a connection to the cloud server, i can open the 'offline files' trough the 'files app' normaly. Hope that could help.

I can confirm that if all files are downloaded by the owncloud app ('make available offline' enabled) the Files App displays owncloud files and it is possible to access them if 'flight mode' is enabled (no access to owncloud server).

[ebin-dev]

The issues with integration of ownCloud 12.3.1 (build 292) with the Files app remain the same on iOS 18.3 (ownCloud server version: ocis 6.6.1, 7.0.0, 7.1.0-rc2).

There are no issues with the Nextcloud app (6.2.3.1): the integration with the files app is working also on iOS 18.3 (Nextcloud server version 30.0.5).

[ebin-dev]

The owncloud app (12.4.0, build 296) integration with the Files app seems to be working now. Tested under iOS 18.3.