Accessing Nextcloud files using WebDAV

Nextcloud fully supports the WebDAV protocol, and you can connect and synchronize with Nextcloud Files over WebDAV. In this chapter, you will learn how to connect Linux, macOS, Windows, and mobile devices to your Nextcloud server.

WebDAV stands for Distributed Authoring and Versioning. It is an HTTP extension that makes it easy to create, read, and edit files hosted on remote Web servers. With a WebDAV client, you can access your Nextcloud Files (including shares) on Linux, macOS and Windows in a similar way as any remote network share, and stay synchronized.

Before we get into configuring WebDAV, let's take a quick look at the recommended way of connecting client devices to Nextcloud.

Official Nextcloud desktop and mobile clients

The recommended way to synchronize a computer with a Nextcloud server is by using the official Nextcloud sync clients. You can configure the client to save files in any local directory and you can choose which directories on the Nextcloud server to sync with. The client displays the current connection status and logs all activity, so you always know which remote files have been downloaded to your PC and you can verify that files created and updated on your local PC are properly synchronized with the server.

The recommended way to synchronize Android and Apple iOS devices is by using the official Nextcloud mobile apps.

To connect the official Nextcloud apps to a Nextcloud server use the same URL you use to access Nextcloud from your web browser - e.g.:

https://cloud.example.com

https://example.com/nextcloud (if Nextcloud is installed in a subdirectory called "nextcloud")

Third-party WebDAV clients

If you prefer, you may also connect your computer to your Nextcloud server by using any third-party client that supports the WebDAV protocol (including what may be built into your operating system).

You can also use third-party WebDAV capable apps to connect your mobile device to Nextcloud.

When using third-party clients, keep in mind that they may not be optimized for use with Nextcloud or implement capabilities you consider important to your use case.

Mobile clients that Nextcloud community members have reported using include:

The URL to use when configuring third-party apps to connect to Nextcloud is a bit lengthier than the one for official clients:

https://cloud.example.com/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ (if Nextcloud is installed in a subdirectory called "nextcloud")

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When using a third-party WebDAV client (including your operating system's built-in client), you should use an application password for login rather than your regular password. In addition improved security, this increases performance significantly. To configure an application password, log into the Nextcloud Web interface, click on the avatar in the top right and choose Personal settings. Then choose Security in the left sidebar and scroll to the very bottom. There you can create an app password (which can also be revoked in the future without changing your main user password).

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In the following examples, you should replace example.com/nextcloud with the URL of your Nextcloud server (omit the directory part if the installation is in the root of your domain), and USERNAME with the username of the connecting user.

See the WebDAV URL (bottom left in settings) on your Nextcloud.

Accessing files using Linux

You can access files in Linux operating systems using the following methods.

Nautilus file manager

When you configure your Nextcloud account in the GNOME Control Center, your files will automatically be mounted by Nautilus as a WebDAV share, unless you deselect file access.

You can also mount your Nextcloud files manually. Use the davs:// protocol to connect the Nautilus file manager to your Nextcloud share:

davs://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

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If your server connection is not HTTPS-secured, use dav:// instead of davs://:

Screenshot of configuring Nautilus file manager to use WebDAV

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The same method works for other file managers that use GVFS, such as MATE's Caja and Cinnamon's Nemo.

Accessing files with KDE and Dolphin file manager

To access your Nextcloud files using the Dolphin file manager in KDE, use the webdav:// protocol:

webdav://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/
Screenshot of configuring Dolphin file manager to use WebDAV

You can create a permanent link to your Nextcloud server:

  1. Open Dolphin and click "Network" in the left-hand "Places" column.

  2. Click on the icon labeled Add a Network Folder. The resulting dialog should appear with WebDAV already selected.

  3. If WebDAV is not selected, select it.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Enter the following settings:

    • Name: the name you want to see in the Places bookmark, for example, Nextcloud.

    • User: the Nextcloud username you used to log in, for example, admin.

    • Server: the Nextcloud domain name, for example, example.com (without http:// before or directories afterwards).

    • Folder -- Enter the path nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/.

  6. (Optional) Check the "Create icon" checkbox for a bookmark to appear in the Places column.

  7. (Optional) Provide any special settings or an SSL certificate in the "Port & Encrypted" checkbox.

Creating WebDAV mounts on the Linux command line

You can create WebDAV mounts from the Linux command line. This is useful if you prefer to access Nextcloud the same way as any other remote filesystem mount. The following example shows how to create a personal mount and have it mounted automatically every time you log in to your Linux computer.

  1. Install the davfs2 WebDAV filesystem driver, which allows you to mount WebDAV shares just like any other remote filesystem. Use this command to install it on Debian/Ubuntu:

    apt-get install davfs2

  2. Use this command to install it on CentOS, Fedora, and openSUSE:

    yum install davfs2

  3. Add yourself to the davfs2 group:

    usermod -aG davfs2 <username>

  4. Then create a nextcloud directory in your home directory for the mount point, and .davfs2/ for your personal configuration file:

    mkdir ~/nextcloud
mkdir ~/.davfs2

  5. Copy /etc/davfs2/secrets to ~/.davfs2:

    cp  /etc/davfs2/secrets ~/.davfs2/secrets

  6. Set yourself as the owner and make the permissions read-write owner only:

    chown <linux_username>:<linux_username> ~/.davfs2/secrets
chmod 600 ~/.davfs2/secrets

  7. Add your Nextcloud login credentials to the end of the secrets file, using your Nextcloud server URL and your Nextcloud username and password:

    https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ <username> <password>
or
$PathToMountPoint $USERNAME $PASSWORD
for example
/home/user/nextcloud john 1234

  8. Add the mount information to /etc/fstab:

    https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ /home/<linux_username>/nextcloud davfs user,rw,auto 0 0

  9. Then test that it mounts and authenticates by running the following command. If you set it up correctly you won't need root permissions:

    mount ~/nextcloud

  10. You should also be able to unmount it:

    umount ~/nextcloud

Now every time you login to your Linux system your Nextcloud share should automatically mount via WebDAV in your ~/nextcloud directory. If you prefer to mount it manually, change auto to noauto in /etc/fstab.

Known issues

Problem

Resource temporarily unavailable

Solution

If you experience trouble when you create a file in the directory, edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and add:

use_locks 0

Problem

Certificate warnings

Solution

If you use a self-signed certificate, you will get a warning. To change this, you need to configure davfs2 to recognize your certificate. Copy mycertificate.pem to /etc/davfs2/certs/. Then edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and uncomment the line servercert. Now add the path of your certificate as in this example:

servercert /etc/davfs2/certs/mycertificate.pem

Accessing files using macOS

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The macOS Finder suffers from a series of implementation problems and should only be used if the Nextcloud server runs on Apache and mod_php, or Nginx 1.3.8+. Alternative macOS-compatible clients capable of accessing WebDAV shares include open source apps like Cyberduck (see instructions here) and Filezilla. Commercial clients include Mountain Duck, Forklift, Transmit, and Commander One.

To access files through the macOS Finder:

  1. From the Finder's top menu bar, choose Go > Connect to Server…:

    Screenshot of entering your Nextcloud server address on macOS

  2. When the Connect to Server… window opens, enter your Nextcloud server's WebDAV address in the Server Address: field, i.e.:

    https://cloud.YOURDOMAIN.com/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/
    Screenshot: Enter Nextcloud server address in "Connect to Server…" dialog box

  3. Click Connect. Your WebDAV server should appear on the Desktop as a shared disk drive.

Accessing files using Microsoft Windows

If you use the native Windows implementation of WebDAV, you can map Nextcloud to a new drive using Windows Explorer. Mapping to a drive enables you to browse files stored on a Nextcloud server the way you would browse files stored in a mapped network drive.

Using this feature requires network connectivity. If you want to store your files offline, use the Desktop Client to sync all files on your Nextcloud to one or more directories of your local hard drive.

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Windows 10 now defaults to allow Basic Authentication if HTTPS is enabled before mapping your drive.

On older versions of Windows, you must permit the use of Basic Authentication in the Windows Registry:

  • launch regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters.

  • Create or edit the BasicAuthLevel (Windows Vista, 7 and 8), or UseBasicAuth (Windows XP and Windows Server 2003), DWORD value and set its value data to 1 for SSL connections. A value of 0 means that Basic Authentication is disabled, and a value of 2 allows both SSL and non-SSL connections (not recommended).

  • Then exit Registry Editor, and restart the computer.

Mapping drives with the command line

The following example shows how to map a drive using the command line. To map the drive:

  1. Open a command prompt in Windows.

  2. Enter the following line in the command prompt to map to the computer Z drive:

    net use Z: https://<drive_path>/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ /user:youruser yourpassword

    with <drive_path> as the URL to your Nextcloud server. For example:

    net use Z: https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ /user:youruser yourpassword

    The computer maps the files of your Nextcloud account to the drive letter Z.

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If you get the following error System error 67 has occurred. The network name cannot be found., or frequent disconnections, open the Services app and make sure that the WebClient service is running and started automatically at startup.

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Though not recommended, you can also mount the Nextcloud server using HTTP, leaving the connection unencrypted.

If you plan to use HTTP connections on devices while in a public place, we strongly recommend using a VPN tunnel to provide the necessary security.

An alternative command syntax is:

net use Z: \\example.com@ssl\nextcloud\remote.php\dav /user:youruser
yourpassword

Mapping drives with Windows Explorer

To map a drive using Microsoft Windows Explorer:

  1. Open Windows Explorer on your MS Windows computer.

  2. Right-click on Computer entry and select Map network drive… from the drop-down menu.

  3. Choose a local network drive to which you want to map Nextcloud.

  4. Specify the address to your Nextcloud instance, followed by /remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/.

    For example:

    https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

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    For SSL-protected servers, check Reconnect at sign-in to ensure that the mapping is persistent upon subsequent reboots. If you want to connect to the Nextcloud server as a different user, check Connect using different credentials.

    Screenshot of mapping WebDAV on Windows Explorer

  1. Click the Finish button.

Windows Explorer maps the network drive, making your Nextcloud instance available.

Accessing files using Cyberduck

Cyberduck is an open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift, and Amazon S3 browser designed for file transfers on macOS and Windows.

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This example uses Cyberduck version 4.2.1.

To use Cyberduck:

  1. Specify a server without any leading protocol information.

    For example: example.com

  2. Specify the appropriate port.

    The port you choose depends on whether or not your Nextcloud server supports SSL. Cyberduck requires that you select a different connection type if you plan to use SSL.

    For example:

    • 80 for unencrypted WebDAV

    • 443 for secure WebDAV (HTTPS/SSL)

  3. Use the 'More Options' drop-down menu to add the rest of your WebDAV URL into the 'Path' field.

    For example: remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

Now Cyberduck enables file access to the Nextcloud server.

Accessing public shares over WebDAV

Nextcloud provides the possibility to access public shares anonymously over WebDAV.

To access the public share, open:

https://example.com/nextcloud/public.php/webdav

in a WebDAV client, use the share token as username and the (optional) share password as the password. For example, with a share link https://example.com/s/kFy9Lek5sm928xP, kFy9Lek5sm928xP will be the username.

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Settings → Administration → Sharing → Allow users on this server to send shares to other servers. This option also allows WebDAV access to public shares and needs to be enabled to make this feature work, except if cURL is being used (see below).

Known problems

Problem

Windows does not connect using HTTPS.

Solution 1

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support Server Name Indication (SNI) on encrypted connections. If you encounter an error mounting an SSL-encrypted Nextcloud instance, contact your provider about assigning a dedicated IP address for your SSL-based server.

Solution 2

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 connections. If you have restricted your server config to only provide TLSv1.1 and above the connection to your server might fail. Please refer to the WinHTTP documentation for further information.

Problem

You receive the following error message: Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

Solution

Windows limits the maximum size a file transferred from or to a WebDAV share may have. You can increase the value FileSizeLimitInBytes in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters by clicking on Modify.

To increase the limit to the maximum value of 4GB, select Decimal, enter a value of 4294967295, and reboot Windows or restart the WebClient service.

Problem

Adding a WebDAV drive on Windows via the above described steps does not display the correct size of in Nextcloud available space and instead shows the size of the C: drive with its available space.

Answer

Unfortunately is this a limitation of WebDAV itself, because it does not provide a way for the client to get the available free space from the server. Windows automatically falls back to show the size of the C: drive with its available space instead. So unfortunately there is no real solution to this problem.

Problem

Accessing your files from Microsoft Office via WebDAV fails.

Solution

Known problems and their solutions are documented in the KB2123563 article.

Problem

Cannot map Nextcloud as a WebDAV drive in Windows using a self-signed certificate.

Solution

  1. Access to your Nextcloud instance via your favorite Web browser.

  2. Click through until you get to the certificate error in the browser status line.

  3. View the certificate, then from the Details tab, select 'Copy to File'.

  4. Save the file to your desktop with an arbitrary name, for example myNextcloud.pem.

  5. Go to Start menu > Run, type MMC, and click 'OK' to open Microsoft Management Console.

  6. Go to File > Add/Remove Snap-In.

  7. Select Certificates, Click 'Add', choose 'My User Account', then 'Finish', and finally 'OK'.

  8. Dig down to Trust Root Certification Authorities, Certificates.

  9. Right-Click Certificate, Select All Tasks, and Import.

  10. Select the saved certificate from the Desktop.

  11. Select Place all Certificates in the following Store, and click Browse.

  12. Check the Box that says Show Physical Stores, expand out Trusted Root Certification Authorities, select Local Computer there, click 'OK', and Complete the Import.

  13. Check the list to make sure the certificate shows up. You will probably need to Refresh before you see it.

  14. Exit MMC.

For Firefox users:

  1. Launch your browser, go to Application menu > History > Clear recent history...

  2. Select 'Everything' in the 'Time range to clear' dropdown menu

  3. Select the 'Active Logins' check box

  4. Click the 'Clear now' button

  5. Close the browser, then re-open and test.

For Chrome-based browsers (Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge) users:

  1. Open Windows Control Panel, navigate down to Internet Options

  2. In the Content tab, click the Clear SSL State button.

  3. Close the browser, then re-open and test.

Accessing files using cURL

Since WebDAV is an extension of HTTP, cURL can be used to script file operations.

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Settings → Administration → Sharing → Allow users on this server to send shares to other servers. If this option is disabled, the option --header "X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest" needs to be passed to cURL.

To create a folder with the current date as name:

$ curl -u user:pass -X MKCOL "https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/$(date '+%d-%b-%Y')"

To upload a file error.log into that directory:

$ curl -u user:pass -T error.log "https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/$(date '+%d-%b-%Y')/error.log"

To move a file:

$ curl -u user:pass -X MOVE --header 'Destination: https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/target.jpg' https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/source.jpg

To get the properties of files in the root folder:

    $ curl -X PROPFIND -H "Depth: 1" -u user:pass https://example.com/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ | xml_pp
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<d:multistatus xmlns:d="DAV:" xmlns:oc="http://nextcloud.org/ns" xmlns:s="http://sabredav.org/ns">
  <d:response>
    <d:href>/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/</d:href>
    <d:propstat>
      <d:prop>
        <d:getlastmodified>Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:07:45 GMT</d:getlastmodified>
        <d:resourcetype>
          <d:collection/>
        </d:resourcetype>
        <d:quota-used-bytes>163</d:quota-used-bytes>
        <d:quota-available-bytes>11802275840</d:quota-available-bytes>
        <d:getetag>"561d3a6139d05"</d:getetag>
      </d:prop>
      <d:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</d:status>
    </d:propstat>
  </d:response>
  <d:response>
    <d:href>/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/welcome.txt</d:href>
    <d:propstat>
      <d:prop>
        <d:getlastmodified>Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:07:35 GMT</d:getlastmodified>
        <d:getcontentlength>163</d:getcontentlength>
        <d:resourcetype/>
        <d:getetag>"47465fae667b2d0fee154f5e17d1f0f1"</d:getetag>
        <d:getcontenttype>text/plain</d:getcontenttype>
      </d:prop>
      <d:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</d:status>
    </d:propstat>
  </d:response>
</d:multistatus>

Accessing files using WinSCP

WinSCP is an open source free SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, S3, and SCP client for Windows. Its main function is file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting and basic file management functionality.

You can download the portable version of WinSCP and run it on Linux through Wine.

To run WinSCP on Linux, download wine through your distribution's package manager, then run it with the command: wine WinSCP.exe.

To connect to Nextcloud:

  • Start WinSCP

  • Press 'Session' in the menu

  • Press the 'New Session' menu option

  • Set the 'File protocol' dropdown to WebDAV

  • Set the 'Encryption' dropdown to TLS/SSL Implicit encryption

  • Fill in the hostname field: example.com

  • Fill in the username field: NEXTCLOUDUSERNAME

  • Fill in the password field: NEXTCLOUDPASSWORD

  • Press the 'Advanced...' button

  • Navigate to 'Environment', 'Directories' on the left side

  • Fill in the 'Remote directory' field with the following: /nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/NEXTCLOUDUSERNAME/

  • Press the 'OK' button

  • Press the 'Save' button

  • Select the desired options and press the 'OK' button

  • Press the 'Login' button to connect to Nextcloud

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It is recommended to use an app password for the password if you use TOTP as WinSCP does not understand TOTP with Nextcloud at the time of writing (2022-11-07).