Controlling file versions and aging

The Versions app (files_versions) expires old file versions automatically to ensure that users don’t exceed their storage quotas. This is the default pattern used to delete old versions:

For the first second we keep one version
For the first 10 seconds Nextcloud keeps one version every 2 seconds
For the first minute Nextcloud keeps one version every 10 seconds
For the first hour Nextcloud keeps one version every minute
For the first 24 hours Nextcloud keeps one version every hour
For the first 30 days Nextcloud keeps one version every day
After the first 30 days Nextcloud keeps one version every week

The versions are adjusted along this pattern every time a new version is created.

The Versions app never uses more than 50% of the user’s currently available free space. If the stored versions exceed this limit, Nextcloud deletes the oldest file versions until it meets the disk space limit again.

You may alter the default pattern in config.php. The default setting is auto, which sets the default pattern:

'versions_retention_obligation' => 'auto',

Additional options are:

D, auto
Keep versions at least for D days, apply expiration rules to all versions that are older than D days
auto, D
Delete all versions that are older than D days automatically, delete other versions according to expiration rules
D1, D2
Keep versions for at least D1 days and delete when they exceed D2 days.
disabled
Disable the Versions app; no old file versions will be deleted.

Background job

To delete expired versions a background jobs runs every 30 minutes. It’s possible to deactivate the background job and setup a (system) cron to expire the versions via occ.

Deactivate background job: occ config:app:set --value=no files_versions background_job_expire_versions

Activate background job: occ config:app:delete files_versions background_job_expire_versions

Expire versions: occ versions:expire or occ versions:expire --quiet (without the progress bar)