Users and groups #

owncloud.online manages accounts and groups in the web interface, through the Users entry in the user menu at the top right, and on the command line with occ. Both write to the same tables. There is no separate data store.

Run the occ commands on this page from the installation directory, for example after cd /var/www/owncloud.online.

The user management page #

The Users menu entry (/settings/users) is shown to admins and to group admins (lib/private/legacy/app.php). The left column holds the group list with Add Group, Everyone, Admins, and the existing groups. Click a group to filter the account list. On the right are the form for new accounts and the account list.

Everyone is not a group but a filter over all accounts (data-gid="_everyone" in settings/templates/users/part.grouplist.php).

The checkboxes under Settings at the bottom of the left column control which columns the account list shows. Each one writes an app config value of the core app:

The values apply to the whole instance, not per admin. You can also set them directly:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:app:set core umgmt_show_last_login --value true

Username and display name #

Every account has two names, and they are often mixed up.

The username is checked when the account is created (lib/private/User/Manager.php). It may contain a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and +_.@-', and it must be 3 to 64 characters long. Leading or trailing spaces are rejected, and so are umlauts and other special characters. A space inside the name passes the check even though the error message does not mention it. Avoid it anyway.

The names that sit next to the accounts in the data directory are reserved and cannot be used as usernames (lib/public/User/Constants.php): avatars, meta, files_external, files_encryption, .htaccess, .ocdata, htaccesstest.txt, owncloud.db, owncloud.log, index.html.

You cannot change a username later, neither in the web interface nor with an occ command. To rename an account, create a new one and move the data with files:transfer-ownership (see below).

Display names are not unique: two accounts may have the same full name. If allow_user_to_change_display_name is set to false in config/config.php, only admins and group admins can change display names. Users can no longer change their own (lib/private/User/User.php, canChangeDisplayName).

Creating accounts #

In the web interface, fill in Username and, depending on the settings, Password or E-Mail, and optionally pick groups. The password field and the email field exclude each other: if Set password for new users is checked, the email field is hidden, and the other way round (settings/js/users/users.js).

If the password stays empty and an email address is given, the server generates a random password and sends an invitation with a link to set the password (settings/Controller/UsersController.php, create). Without working email delivery, this message never arrives and the account cannot be used. See Sending email.

On the command line:

# interactive, prompts for the password
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:add jdoe

# non-interactive, password from the OC_PASS environment variable
sudo -u www-data env OC_PASS='ExamplePassword' php8.4 occ user:add jdoe \
  --password-from-env \
  --display-name "Jane Doe" \
  --email jane.doe@example.com \
  --group project-a --group sales

OC_PASS has to come after sudo, as shown above with env. If you set the variable before sudo, sudo drops it with its default settings (env_reset), and occ reports "--password-from-env given, but OC_PASS is empty!".

user:add creates the groups named in --group if they do not exist yet. Without --password-from-env and without an interactive session, the command stops because it cannot ask for a password.

On first login, the home directory is filled from the skeleton directory (skeletondirectory, see Configuration).

Changing accounts #

Change the display name and email address in the list with the pencil icons next to Full Name and Email, or on the command line:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:modify jdoe displayname "Jane Doe"
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:modify jdoe email jane.doe@example.com

user:modify accepts exactly these two keys (displayname, email). An invalid email address is rejected.

Resetting a password:

# set a new password directly
sudo -u www-data env OC_PASS='NewPassword' php8.4 occ user:resetpassword jdoe \
  --password-from-env

# create a reset link and print it instead
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:resetpassword jdoe --output-link

# send a reset link to the stored address (and print it)
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:resetpassword jdoe --send-email

If the encryption app is enabled, interactive mode shows an explicit warning: resetting the password then causes data loss unless a recovery key applies. See Encryption.

Reading and writing individual account settings:

# all settings of an account
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:setting jdoe

# only those of one app
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:setting jdoe core

# read, set, delete a single value
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:setting jdoe core lang
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:setting jdoe core lang --value de
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:setting jdoe core lang --delete

--update-only writes only if the key already exists. --error-if-not-exists makes --delete fail if there was nothing to delete. --default-value returns a fallback value instead of an error when reading.

Disabling accounts #

A disabled account can no longer log in, neither in the web interface nor through the login methods for WebDAV and clients (lib/private/User/Session.php). Files, shares, and group memberships stay as they are. This is the right step when someone leaves, when an account is suspected of misuse, and for anything that should stay reversible.

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:disable jdoe
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:enable jdoe

In the web interface, use the Enabled column. Turn it on first with Show enabled/disabled option. You cannot disable or delete your own account there.

Finding candidates:

# accounts that have not logged in for 180 days
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:inactive 180

# last login of a single account
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:lastseen jdoe

Deleting accounts #

Deleting is final. In the web interface, the Delete user dialog asks first ("All user data, files and shares will be deleted.", settings/js/users/users.js). occ user:delete deletes without asking. lib/private/User/User.php (delete) and the hooks attached to it remove:

For shares, OC\Share20\Hooks::post_deleteUser applies (lib/private/Share20/Hooks.php). These are deleted:

• user shares owned by the account or shared with the account,
• group shares owned by the account, and the account's own entries derived from group shares,
• public links the account owns or created,
• shares with remote instances (apps/federatedfilesharing/lib/FederatedShareProvider.php) and the mounts received from them (apps/files_sharing/lib/Hooks.php, deleteUser).

Recipients immediately lose access to everything the deleted account had shared. To keep the data, transfer it before deleting the account:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ files:transfer-ownership jdoe jsmith
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:delete jdoe

files:transfer-ownership moves files and folders and takes the shares along. --path limits the transfer to a subfolder.

If a failed run leaves orphaned data behind, --force cleans up even when the account itself can no longer be found:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:delete jdoe --force

Groups #

Groups are used for assigning permissions and for sharing. Manage them in the left column of the user management page or on the command line:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ group:add project-a
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ group:add-member project-a -m jdoe -m jsmith
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ group:list-members project-a
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ group:remove-member project-a -m jsmith
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ group:delete project-a

Two special cases:

• The admin group is protected and cannot be deleted (lib/private/Group/Group.php). Its members are admins of the instance.
• Groups cannot be renamed. The group name is also its ID. There is neither an occ command nor a button for it.

When you delete a group, the server removes all shares with that group, including the members' own entries derived from these shares (lib/private/Share20/DefaultShareProvider.php, groupDeleted). If you only remove one member from the group, the group share stays. Only that account loses access.

Group admins #

A group admin manages the accounts in their groups without being an admin of the instance. You can only assign this role in the web interface, in the Group Admin for column. Only admins of the instance see that column.

The limits come from lib/private/SubAdmin.php and settings/Controller/UsersController.php:

If a group admin creates an account without choosing a group, the account is added to the group admin's own groups automatically.

You can turn the whole feature off. With

'allow_subadmins' => false,

in config/config.php, nobody counts as a group admin anymore. Only admins of the instance keep access to the user management page.

To check which groups an account belongs to:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:list-groups jdoe

Storage quota #

The quota belongs to the account, not to the group. owncloud.online has no per-group quota. If you want different quotas per department, set the value per account or work with the default.

The quota is resolved in this order (lib/private/legacy/util.php, getUserQuota):

1. the value set on the account, unless it is default,
2. otherwise default_quota of the files app,
3. if the resulting value is none, there is no limit.

Two app config values control the selection lists:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:app:set files default_quota --value "10 GB"
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:app:set files quota_preset --value "1 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB, 100 GB"

Set the quota of a single account in the Quota column. Besides Default and Unlimited, it offers the preset values and Other ... for free input such as 512 MB or 12 GB. Check the stored values with:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:list --attributes uid --attributes quota

Custom groups #

The customgroups app adds groups that users create themselves. They are meant for sharing, not for granting permissions. Users create them under Settings → Personal → Custom Groups. In the share dialog they look like regular groups.

A custom group has two roles. A Group owner can add and remove members, rename and delete the group, and assign roles. A Member can share with the group, see the member list, and leave the group. Admins see and change all custom groups.

Two checkboxes are in the Custom Groups section under Settings → Admin → Sharing:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:app:set customgroups only_subadmin_can_create --value true

If shareapi_only_share_with_group_members of the core app is enabled, a member can only add accounts with which they share at least one group (the app's lib/Service/MembershipHelper.php).

Important for troubleshooting: the app's group backend only reports itself as responsible for the "sharing" scope (isVisibleForScope). Custom groups therefore do not show up in occ group:list or in occ user:list-groups, even though they are real groups with the ID prefix customgroup_.

Install the app from the Market, see Managing apps. For more about the app, see Custom Groups.

occ command overview #

--output accepts plain (default), json, and json_pretty. Possible attributes for user:list are uid, displayName, email, quota, enabled, lastLogin, creationTime, home, backend, cloudId, and searchTerms. Without --attributes, the command prints displayName.

An overview of all accounts:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:report
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ user:list --show-all-attributes --output json_pretty

user:sync syncs the accounts of a backend with the accounts table. --list shows the backend classes you can use. Be careful: --missing-account-action remove deletes accounts, including their data, as soon as they are missing in the backend. If in doubt, choose disable and check the list first.

Troubleshooting #