Instant upload fails with "can't access local file" error

[fatino]

⚠️ 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

1. Have instant upload configured

Expected behaviour

Photos and videos get uploaded

Actual behaviour

It shows error "can't access local file", even if access to storage is granted. Photos don't appear on next loud. Reconfiguring, forcing sync in settings. Nothing helps. Funny thing is, it shows thumbnails correctly in the app, so it "sees" the file.

Android version

15

Device brand and model

Oneplus 12

Stock or custom OS?

Stock

Nextcloud android app version

3.32.2

Nextcloud server version

31.0.6

Using a reverse proxy?

Yes

Android logs

No response

Server error logs

Additional information

I think it might be, because oneplus 12 system update that made photos and videos read only.

[SanSiro8]

Same problem but on Xiaomi

[schiessle]

I have the same problem on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Android 15.

I just reconfigured the upload with the option "also upload already existing files" some where uploaded especially older ones. But newer pictures are not uploaded automatically. Also if I take new pictures. For me it looks like maybe the permissions changed on filesystem level at some point in time?

[ChristophWurst]

For me it looks like maybe the permissions changed on filesystem level at some point in time?

Same happened for Richard and me. This sounds like the issue discussed in https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/15039. Re-granting permissions manually solved new uploads for me.

[AndyScherzinger]

^ @tobiasKaminsky @alperozturk96

[schiessle]

@ChristophWurst removing and adding the permission again didn't solved the problem for me. But this one seems to work: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/15039#issuecomment-3074371984

[ChristophWurst]

Cool! For me it was the other way around

1. Recreated instant upload rules after the app had deleted them after an update
2. Manually grant "Manage all files" permission

[Patta]

reinstall and setup the app and settings again works

[schiessle]

While I think it is safe to assume that the problem was triggered by some changes in Android it is still super frustrating for a user. I now have to check on multiple devices when the upload stopped and upload the missing files manually again.

I think we should be come less error prone in such situations because recovering from such issues is quite cumbersome as described above. Ideally the app would detect it, warn the user that it can no longer access the filesystem and maybe store where it stopped working to continue from there when the user adjusted the settings.

.... Just thinking our loud some ideas.

[ChristophWurst]

They work on the detection with https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/15240 but I agree that a nicer way to resume where it stopped would be ideal.

[regs01]

Mine is kind of working, but still ignoring lots of files. And there are still no tools to do deal with autoupload issues, like force rescan, force reupload etc

[amTresen]

I'm not sure if I'm getting the exact same error message, as I would translate it from German to "Upload failed: file not found", which I'm getting for thousands of photos. I'm quite sure that these have all already been uploaded. It's trying to upload over and over again, which is really slowing down my Xiaomi 13t and draining an absurd amount of battery. I would like to resolve this myself somehow, but either I didn't fully understand what I'm supposed to do according to the other comments, or it didn't work for me. I even tried setting all auto uploads to "only upload while charging battery", but it's still looping regardless of charging or not.

[WarnerV]

Same here. Even on v3.34.0 RC2 (OnePlus 13, Android 15) I can't get a single AutoUpload to work.

[alperozturk96]

@amTresen @WarnerV @regs01 Could you please try this QA version and share your experience? That would help us a lot. Thank you so much.

[hansemschnokeloch]

Could you please try this QA version and share your experience?

Hi, I have the same issue with Pixel 9a / Android 16. I installed your QA version but I still have the same issue, instant upload isn't working anymore.

[alperozturk96]

@hansemschnokeloch Can you upload your logs to this link?

You can filter logs from Settings → Logs → type "AutoUpload" and "Upload"

[hansemschnokeloch]

I have several lines with the same log message

2025-09-29T14:44:34.789+0200;W;🔄📤AutoUpload;⚡ Skipping: device is in power saving mode
2025-09-29T14:45:38.213+0200;W;🔄📤AutoUpload;⚡ Skipping: device is in power saving mode
...

After plugin in the phone, auto upload was successfull.

But background usage is allowed for Nextcloud QA without restriction, so it should upload even if the device is in power saving mode.

[alperozturk96]

@hansemschnokeloch Did you try to run auto-upload while device is in battery saver mode?

[hansemschnokeloch]

@hansemschnokeloch Did you try to run auto-upload while device is in battery saver mode?

Yes.

[hansemschnokeloch]

Autoupload isn't working anymore, and I'm not in battery saver mode.

Logs

2025-10-03T14:25:27.985+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;lastScanTimestampMs: 1759378804687
2025-10-03T14:25:27.985+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;calculatedScanInterval: 900000
2025-10-03T14:25:27.985+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;totalScanInterval: 1759379704687
2025-10-03T14:25:27.985+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;currentTime: 1759494327985
2025-10-03T14:25:27.985+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;passedScanInterval: true
2025-10-03T14:25:27.986+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;lastScanTimestampMs: 1759378804699
2025-10-03T14:25:27.986+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;calculatedScanInterval: 900000
2025-10-03T14:25:27.986+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;totalScanInterval: 1759379704699
2025-10-03T14:25:27.986+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;currentTime: 1759494327986
2025-10-03T14:25:27.986+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;passedScanInterval: true
2025-10-03T14:25:27.988+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;Exception collectFileChangesFromContentObserverWork: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unknown URL: content://media/external is hidden API
2025-10-03T14:25:27.989+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;Exception collectFileChangesFromContentObserverWork: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unknown URL: content://media/external is hidden API
2025-10-03T14:25:27.998+0200;W;🔄📤AutoUpload;uploadFiles skipped paths is empty
2025-10-03T14:25:27.999+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;✅ /InstantUpload/Camera finished checking files.
2025-10-03T14:25:28.000+0200;W;🔄📤AutoUpload;uploadFiles skipped paths is empty
2025-10-03T14:25:28.000+0200;D;🔄📤AutoUpload;✅ /InstantUpload/Camera finished checking files.

I'm still using this apk https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/15218#issuecomment-3345523479 and Nextcloud QA has access to all files

[regs01]

@amTresen @WarnerV @regs01 Could you please try this QA version and share your experience? That would help us a lot. Thank you so much.

Installed QA version. Disabled upload in stable version. Enable upload in QA version.

First critical issue that wasn't fixed. By default it's not lower casing camera folder for photos. Not for videos, only for photos. It's Camera on phone and on server. And it used to be Camera by default. So it's creating new folder and reupload all files into new folder. It's not lower casing other folders. Now Windows version is freaking out, because doesn't understand how to deal with those conflicts, as it sees camera and Camera as the same folder.

So now again, i have to delete it, reinstall it and start over. The app doesn't allow itself to be reset. Has to be reinstalled, as it controls clean up functionality.

So far other there things i noticed.

1. At first Autoupload section in settings appeared much faster. But my main photo camera folder appears down in the middle of the list. With video Camera folder atop. In stable main photo camera folder appears on the top. Later it's started appearing slower and slower.
2. Status window doesn't show uploaded files. So it's difficult to understand what the app is actually doing without looking on server. In 5 minutes it's uploaded 500 files/2.2 GB with 500 Mbps internet and was says there 200 pending out of 11500 actual files. So upload is probably going fine, not fast though, but the pending list seem to building up slowly.
3. There is a notification says Send files. But it doesn't seem to do anything, when you click on it.

As of battery optimizations Huawei has entirely own optimization features, so in-app interface for that is not working. You have to go into Battery Settings and enable manual control for the app there.

On second attempt the the app has hanged up for few minutes while starting uploading.

In 10 minutes no files uploaded. Seem skipping existing files. Difficult to say - no completed section down below. But pending list only says 2000 out of actual 11500, so still building up very very slowly.

20 minutes into. Pending files showing 4000. Uploaded 7 missing files so far. Including 1 files that wasn't just missing. The app kept complaining about it for no apparent reason, so I disabled it. I tried reupload it after rebuilding the server (after moving to TrueNAS Scale) and reinstalling the app, but it's still filed to upload. Just 1 file out of thousands. It wasn't big, just a JPG file. Larger photos and videos were uploading fine. The app was kept indefinitely trying to upload it and failing. But this QA version finally uploaded it.

30 minutes into, 7000 files in pending queue. Nothing in completed. Probably some bug not moving completed files into completed?

Took a hour. Everything moved into Completed only after finishing entire queue.

Couple of hundred missing files uploaded.

[alperozturk96]

@hansemschnokeloch Thanks for the feedback. Did you configure a folder from your SD card for auto upload?

Additionally, could you check storage permissions? (Note: The exact path may vary depending on the device and Android version.)

All files access:

You can check it from Settings → Apps → Special app access → All files access.

Photos and videos permission:

You can check it from App info → Permissions

[regs01]

It looks like it's trying to upload all my 11500 files every time there is a new photo. And as it takes over a hour to built up a queue it takes very long until i get my recent photos up. This also hogging the batter hard.

There is also no way to see current status in QA version - what is it doing at the moment. Queue is static. And notification only saying Uploading files.

[regs01]

After two more hours only few more photos uploaded. It's way too slow.

[regs01]

~~Looks like it stuck in a loop. Once unchecked upload existing files queue started decreasing.~~

[amTresen]

@alperozturk96 Sorry, I haven't found the time to try this again before today. So I installed the QA version today. After setting everything as it was in my other version, I've noticed a) it is de facto uploading files and b) it does not respect my folder settings (I have triple checked this setting), i.e. I set all uploads to upload to /Photos and then subfolders, but when I go to the uploads section in the app it displays some uploads to the designated folder and some still uploading to /SofortUpload and subfolders. It also doesn't respect my setting to skip uploading files, but instead prompts me to choose what to do with the conflicts.

I hope, what I wrote is understandable. Else feel free to contact me again. I couid also provide more information, but I don't really know how to do that.

[regs01]

At some point queue started rising again. After so many hours queue still at 11500 and only 12 new photos uploaded. Still dozens to go...

So it's building up entire file list of folder from beginning for every new uploading file. And it takes hours.

But why making a list of local files takes over an hour? It should be mere miliseconds to do. Actually under a millisecond.

[alperozturk96]

Hello.

We’ve made several fixes to the auto-upload logic and would appreciate your feedback. You can download the updated QA version here:

[amTresen]

@alperozturk96 hi again, I've downloaded the new Version, but it shows erratic behaviour again for me (Xiaomi 13t). It doesn't respect the folders I set for the uploads, it uploads although all uploads have been paused (or at least it shows a banner "uploading" in my system tray, and it still doesn't seem to automatically resolve conflicts by skipping the files.

P.S.: it also drains my battery (50% over night) although uploads are allegedly paused.

[regs01]

Is there any news on this? Still missing a lot of photos with no way to rescan and reupload a folder.

[alperozturk96]

@regs01 @amTresen Hello.

We’ve addressed several issues in the following PRs, including improvements to name-collision handling, restarting failed uploads, and more:

https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/15920 https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/15874 https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/15872 https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/15861

Once the QA APK for PR #15920 is generated, you can test it. We’d greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.