[Bug]: Windows client frequently crashes and exits.

[zswll2]

⚠️ Before submitting, please verify the following: ⚠️

• [x] This is a bug, not a question or a configuration issue.
• [x] This issue is not already reported on Github (I've searched it).
• [x] Nextcloud Server and Desktop Client are up to date. See Server Maintenance and Release Schedule and Desktop Releases for supported versions.
• [x] I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct

Bug description

I use the Win11 system, with at least 3 computers synchronized. However, when switching computers, the client gets stuck during synchronization and then exits without any prompt. If I delete the configuration files and clear local files before resynchronizing, the issue is resolved temporarily. But next time I switch computers, it still has a high chance of crashing and exiting.

Steps to reproduce

1. At least 2 computers installed with the Windows client
2. First, open one computer to modify some files
3. Then, opening another computer may cause the client to crash

20241116_1700_nextcloud.log

Expected behavior

Client is prompted for synchronization issues instead of freezing and exiting.

Which files are affected by this bug

Unclear

Operating system

Windows

Which version of the operating system you are running.

windows 11

Package

Official Windows MSI

Nextcloud Server version

29.04

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

3.14.3

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Updated from a minor version (ex. 3.4.2 to 3.4.4)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Enabled

Are you using an external user-backend?

• [x] Default internal user-backend
• [ ] LDAP/ Active Directory
• [ ] SSO - SAML
• [ ] Other

Nextcloud Server logs

Additional info

No response

[yangyunzhao]

me too

[hejiaonju]

I also encountered the same issue.

[karlisi]

If client crashes on files with non-english characters in filenames or path, it could be the same problem as in https://github.com/nextcloud/desktop/issues/7310

[lyhbron2me]

Me too, the Windows client can't start, and the files can't finish syncing. The server I'm using has MySQL as the database, and I can't find any logs about this issue.

[tomdereub]

Same here with windows 10, on many computers. Nextcloud desktop 3.13.4 and 3.14.3, same bug, client crashes without any notification, so some people don't notice it's not running anymore, wich makes cooperation complicated... Server 29.0.8.

[yangyunzhao]

It's really unbearable; I can't live without this software every day. I recommend temporarily using the portable version of Nextcloud until this issue is resolved, and then switch back. Portable version URL: https://github.com/portapps/nextcloud-portable/releases It is recommended to use NextCloud-portable-win64-3.12.4-21.7z

[ywtoly]

An old user is extremely dissatisfied with the latest version of the client!

First of all, pay tribute to all developers!

The current stable version is 3.13.4. Versions after 3.14. x, including the latest 3.15.0, either do not display localized languages, exit abnormally, or the program does not respond. I don't know what has been modified in the latest version? Is there such a big change? And it's been 3 months and it hasn't been resolved yet. Imagine what would happen if it were used in a company with 100 users?

And by default, it still updates automatically without setting the language! For administrators, it's really painful!

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to all the developers once again!

Hope to draw attention!

[tomdereub]

Hi, my client has just crashed now, close after awaking from sleep mode. Here are the logs attached, if it can help debug.

20250305_1435_nextcloud.log.2.txt 20250305_1436_permanent_delete.log.1.txt

[gloryandel]

me too，As soon as it synchronizes certain files, it crashes immediately without any prompts.

[nilsding]

@Gloryandel please share some more details about those certain files and your environment:

• what version of the client are you running?
• what OS version do you use?
• are these files shortcuts?
• do their paths contain any characters outside of the usual ASCII range (e.g. umlaut, or other non-Latin scripts)?
• are they part of a shared folder?
• if yes, what permissions are they shared with?

Unmodified log files from the client would help us a lot in such cases as well -- it could be that the file name itself is the causing some issues we have to fix, redacting all file names in such a case is not helpful for us.

[gloryandel]

@nilsding It seems that since 3.15, Windws11 23H2，Not a shortcut.，There is no sharing, and the permissions are normal Windows permissions automatically inherited from the parent directory.it is no longer possible to sync files (virtual files) on demand. According to my previous experience, there seems to be nothing special about the files themselves. After the crash, you can see the temporary files of the unsynchronized copies. After that, starting the nextcloud client will continue the unsynchronized files. When it encounters the previously unsynchronized files again, it will crash again. In the end, you can only manually delete the unsynchronized files to prevent nextcloud from syncing and avoid crashing immediately after startup. I need to spend some time testing. I haven't used the nextcloud client for a long time. I don't know if the problem still exists now.

[nilsding]

@Gloryandel thanks for the response :>

Should you find some time for testing it again, I would recommend trying it with a recent daily release -- you can find them at https://download.nextcloud.com/desktop/daily/windows/ .

[tomdereub]

@nilsding could you please tell us how we could share unmodified log files without putting lot of personal data in free access on github ? And for others who are facing frequent client crash on windows, I have found a workaround :

• create a .bat file that will check every minute if nextcloud is running :

echo off
:boucle
TASKLIST | FINDSTR nextcloud.exe || START "" "C:\Program Files\Nextcloud\nextcloud.exe"
timeout /t 60 /nobreak
goto boucle

• create a .vbs file that will launch the .bat at startup silently :

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\[path-to-bat]\Relance nextcloud.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing

• launch the .vbs at startup, for example by putting a shortcut pointing to the .vbs file in C:\Users[name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

It'll not prevent nextcloud to crash, but it will make sure it starts again and that people don't stay hours without it running and misunderstanding why he can't see some files in folders, or why he's colleague doesn't see that file...

[tomdereub]

Crash again with 3.16.5 and server 30.0.9. This time it was just after awaking from sleep mode, grey icon, not already connected. When I passed over it with mouse the icon disappeared. I can provide logs if you give me a secure upload link.