Automatic Upload is prepared

[LunaticTazz]

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⚠️ Before posting ⚠️

• [X] This is a bug, not a question or an enhancement.
• [X] I've searched for similar issues and didn't find a duplicate.
• [X] I've written a clear and descriptive title for this issue, not just "Bug" or "Crash".
• [X] I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.

Steps to reproduce

Set up Automatic Upload for in total four folders. From time to time a notification is present on Android, that the automatic upload is prepared (German version "Automatisches Hochladen wird vorbereitet"). A progress bar is at min, the message disappears after a while and is retriggered from time to time. According to Android it pops up about 80 times a day. Mobile background data is allowed, but uploads are only allowed on a WiFi network. In addition to this, mobile data is consumed, but no files seem to be uploading. There's no files in the upload queue, there is nothing arriving on the server. It is unknown to me, which files caused this behavior, but it's also present with only the photo folder being on automated upload (the other three have been deactivated).

Expected behaviour

Wait for WiFi to upload the files and be quiet if there is nothing to upload. No usage of mobile data.

Actual behaviour

Constant notifications, decreased battery life and mobile data consumption.

Android version

Android 11

Device brand and model

moto G 5G

Stock or custom OS?

Stock

Nextcloud android app version

3.28.0

Nextcloud server version

26.0.10

Using a reverse proxy?

No

Android logs

No response

Server error logs

No response

Additional information

No response

[davidcrds]

I have the same issue on Android 14 (S22+). Auto Upload still works fine, but it keeps trying to do something which drains battery.

Running Nextcloud AIO currently on Version 27.1.5 on the Server.

[kadrim]

I have the same issue. It appeared a few days ago, most probably due to an update of the android app

• samsung note 9
• android 10
• nextcloud server 28.0.2

[steel-moose]

Same issue here.

• android 9
• nokia 8 (HMD TA-1004)
• version 3.28.0
• nextcloud snap 27.1.6

Seems to be draining the battery much faster.

[regs01]

Also stuck for almost a day now.

The problem with permanent scanning draining the battery has been there for very long. They just made a visible notification, so now those having the problem can see there is a problem.

[davidcrds]

Also stuck for almost a day now.

The problem with permanent scanning draining the battery has been there for very long. They just made a visible notification, so now those having the problem can see there is a problem.

Removing bigger folders from Auto Upload shortens the notification considerably. So you are probably right.

[regs01]

And past the 17 hours it's still there in same position.

[kadrim]

Also stuck for almost a day now.

The problem with permanent scanning draining the battery has been there for very long. They just made a visible notification, so now those having the problem can see there is a problem.

you are right, that there are/were problems with this all along, but for me this was considerable better with the previous app-versions. this is not just about an indicator, but also the battery consumption is much worse right now.

[JustACasual]

I am also having this exact behaviour "Automatisches Hochladen wird vorbereitet" which appears from time to time. App Version 3.28.0 from F-Droid Android 13 Pixel 4a

[LunaticTazz]

Also stuck for almost a day now. The problem with permanent scanning draining the battery has been there for very long. They just made a visible notification, so now those having the problem can see there is a problem.

Removing bigger folders from Auto Upload shortens the notification considerably. So you are probably right.

I have removed all folders from auto upload, I have disabled background data for the app, it's still scanning. Maybe it's something I have downloaded or synced with my nextcloud. I haven't noticed it permanently scanning with big issues with battery life in the past, and I didn't notice the mobile data usage either, until my provider told me this month, that 80% of my quota is used, which is when I looked into it. My feeling is, sorry for this poor proof, that it came with the latest update.

It's also present on my wife's phone, moto g30 on Android 12.

[regs01]

I have removed all folders from auto upload, I have disabled background data for the app, it's still scanning.

It stuck in some loop. Reboot the phone to have it restarted.

[vanMacG]

Since 3.28.0 I also see the "Prepare automatic update" notification several times a day, although I don't have any folders configured for automatic upload. There was no notifiaction in previous versions.

[LunaticTazz]

I have removed all folders from auto upload, I have disabled background data for the app, it's still scanning.

It stuck in some loop. Reboot the phone to have it restarted.

I have cancelled all my Auto uploads, I have restarted the phone, the notification still pops up.

[el-kute]

I have the same issue

• Samsung Galaxy SIII neo and Google Nexus 7 (2013)
• both on Lineage 18.1 / Android 11

The problem stopped when reverting the Nextcloud app version back to 3.27.0 (using adb install -d nextcloud-3.27.0.apk from f-droid)

[marcdw1289]

In the app under Settings -> More subsection -> Auto Upload is all the directories with images.

They are all toggled off but I guess the app does a check and hence the 'preparing' notifications (I think).

However, on my Android 8 and 9 ROMs I do no get these notifications. Only on A11. Don't have A12+ but assume this is an A11+ thing maybe. My A10 ROM doesn't have Nextcloud so haven't checked yet.

EDIT: Oh wait, someone said it happens on their Android 9. Hmm. Haven't noticed on my Havoc OS Pie. Will monitor.

[supern64]

same issue here, Galaxy A53, Android 14, Nextcloud AIO 27.1.5

[iGaneshKumar]

Same here, I should say I started using recently and from the very beginning I've been experiencing this issue.

Nextcloud Server Version: 28.0.2 Device Brand and Model: Samsung S9 Plus Android Version: 10 Nextcloud Android App Version: 3.28.0

[symetryczny]

Same here, the notification started popping up a few days ago. Possibly when I updated the nextcloud app to the newest version but I cannot confidently confirm that.

Samsung S22FE Android 14 Nextcloud app 3.28.0 downloaded from f-droid

[pglpm]

Same issue here, on Android, with Nextcloud 3.28.0 from F-droid. Most important is that no folders are chosen for autoupload in the settings; yet I see this recurring message. Uninstalling Nextcloud app until this problem is fixed.

[vabene1111]

Same issue on android 14 one plus 10.

Also, something is wrong with power consumption, 1 hour off the cable, 10% battery used and 6% went to nextcloud without any sync that could even happen.

[bobbolous]

Same issue on: SM-G781W (S20FE) Android 13 NC App 3.28.0

[LunaticTazz]

I don't know if it's related, but on my Tab "On the device" ("Auf dem Gerät") there are no files shown. Like a fresh install with nothing downloaded. I know for a fact that I have downloaded (or even chosen synchronize) to download a bunch of files and folders, which are still there. It even shows the green round bubble icon when I browse my Nextcloud under "All files". Is this the sync that got lost and it's not even the auto upload folder? Just an idea.

[antoineguichard]

I have the same issue (Notification "Preparing auto upload" appearing most of the time). On three phones of the same model and running the same software versions. From what I can figure out, it appeared right after NC app upgrading to 3.28.0.

Honor 10 lite (HRY-LX1) Android 10 NC app 3.28.0

[meonkeys]

I'm able to get rid of the "Preparing auto upload" notification temporarily if I disable Battery Saver and force kill the app.

I recall I'm supposed to leave the Nextcloud app battery usage set to "Unrestricted" but I noticed it draining my battery a few weeks ago so for now it is "Restricted".

Hmm, perhaps using anything other than "Unrestricted" actually causes the app to use more battery?

[JonasMayerDev]

Hi all, thanks for the report.

Analysis

Yes, this behavior of showing a notification when ever sync work is done (so also checking if files need to be uploaded) was introduced in https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/12337. The idea behind it was to make the autoupload more reliable and a lot faster because there were cases where the background worker was killed by android and the sync didn't work because of this. In theory, as some already said, the notification should only visualize what was already happening in the versions before. I would say there are 3 issues with this implementation currently:

1. Worker runs without auto upload activated when auto upload was activated before (issue probably existed before but was never visible).
2. I think the sync worker runs too often (I would guess that is the reason you see the notification all the time, I guess that the sync worker just executes again and again and is always showing the notification)
3. The new foreground worker consumes too much energy (This is also just a guess, but I think changing the sync worker to a foreground worker results in higher batterie usage because the worker is not randomly killed by the android system. This is on one side good for reliability of the sync but bad for the batterie consumption) I actually have not looked into it deeply yet, so those are just some guesses that need to be confirmed.

Question

It would help if you could answer some questions to confirm / fix those issues more quickly:

1. For those that see the notification without autoupload activated, did you all have it activated at some point in the past or do you even see the notification on a clean installation for example?
2. How large are the folders for which auto upload is activated (rough folder size and file count)?
3. Was autoupload before this update unreliable for you?
4. For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck? Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

[kadrim]

1. For those that see the notification without autoupload activated, did you all have it activated at some point in the past or do you even see the notification on a clean installation for example?

N/A

2. How large are the folders for which auto upload is activated (rough folder size and file count)?

120 GB, 100K+ Files

3. Was autoupload before this update unreliable for you?

Many times before, but was recently pretty stable until the upgrade to app version 3.28.0

4. For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck? Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

it seems to be stuck right away. hard to reproduce other than to reboot the phone and taking a picture or something like that.

Notice: i only let the sync happen during charging of the phone for all of my folders, so i thought the scan would only initiate while charging. currently it seems, that the scan will run all the time which might contribute to the high power usage, which might have been handled differently in the previous versions where the scan might have been run only when the phone was charging (and configured to sync only while charging)

[LunaticTazz]

1. For those that see the notification without autoupload activated, did you all have it activated at some point in the past or do you even see the notification on a clean installation for example?

Yes, 4 uploads folders had been defined, although one was used twice, once for images once for videos.

2. How large are the folders for which auto upload is activated (rough folder size and file count)?

Enormous in size: The largest was 16 GB with over 4000 files.

3. Was autoupload before this update unreliable for you?

Yes, close to no issues. Sometimes you had to rebump it if it has lost connection or anything minor had happened. But that was easy to check in the upload section.

4. For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck? Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

It was shorter before I intervened. That's when the traffic even on mobile data was excessive, as well as battery usage. I have unchecked the background data for the app and I have unchecked the battery optimization. Since then the progress bar is completely stuck and does not go away until you kill the app, but then it reappears after some time. Before that it came and went away after a short period if I remember correctly.

[cvonderstein]

How large are the folders for which auto upload is activated (rough folder size and file count)?

In total something along the lines of 70-80 GB, probably about 10-20k files (mainly my images on the phone).

Was autoupload before this update unreliable for you?

Didn't work perfectly, but I also didn't disable battery optimization, since I was too lazy to search in the settings (seems like this is kind of hidden on current samsung phones, or I am just blind). My workaround if I really needed something uploaded directly was to quickly open the app, then it was uploaded. As I said, I was just too lazy to look for the battery optimization setting.

For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck? Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

It comes randomly and doesn't disappear at all. I can swipe it away, but then it reappears after a while. Reproducing is simply waiting something between 2 hours and 1,5 days I would guess. Not helpful for debugging, but that's how it appears to me. Opening the app is not neccessary though.

[paulchen]

1. For those that see the notification without autoupload activated, did you all have it activated at some point in the past or do you even see the notification on a clean installation for example?

As I installed the app long time ago I didn't know. I cleared the app data and then configured my two accounts. I did not configure auto upload.

After some time, the notification "Preparing auto upload" appeared. It is a sticky notification that I cannot get rid of. I need to kill the Nextcloud app to make it go away.

4. For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck?

It appears after some time for no apparent reason.

Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

Unfortunately, no, besides setting up the app and waiting.

[ezelbanaan]

1. For those that see the notification without autoupload activated, did you all have it activated at some point in the past or do you even see the notification on a clean installation for example?

N/A

2. How large are the folders for which auto upload is activated (rough folder size and file count)?

23 GB; 5000 files

3. Was autoupload before this update unreliable for you?

I never had any issues with it. It seemed to upload fine most times I checked it

4. For those that have a notification that sticks for longer than 5 min, is it stuck from the first time appearing or is it first behaving normally (so appearing for short times and disappearing again) and then at some point it is stuck? Do you have a way to reproduce the issue of a stuck notification?

N/A

Info Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Android 14 App version 3.28.0 No failed or error'ed uploads

I did notice a significant increase in battery usage though. It uses about 10% of my battery a day now, while it didn't use nearly as much before.

[JustACasual]

For me also auto upload is doing fine, I just find the notification every few minutes annoying. Not so bad though. It stays for a few seconds on my device. Then it goes away.