Nextcloud: Your data directory is invalid (.ocdata missing)

What the message looks like

Your data directory is invalid
Ensure there is a file called ".ocdata" in the root of the data directory.

Common causes

• The data volume (second disk, NFS, SMB, bind mount) is not mounted after a reboot, so the path exists but is empty.
• datadirectory in config.php points to a different path than the real one, for example after a move or a migration.
• The hidden file .ocdata was not copied, because the copy skipped dot files or only some folders were restored from a backup.
• The web server user cannot read the directory, for example after wrong chown or a changed mount option.

Check

1. Which path does Nextcloud use?
   grep datadirectory /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.phpCopy
2. Is the marker file there?
   ls -la /srv/nextcloud-data/.ocdataCopy
3. Is the volume really mounted?
   findmnt /srv/nextcloud-dataCopy
4. Owner and mode of the directory
   stat -c '%U:%G %a %n' /srv/nextcloud-dataCopy

Fix

• Mount the volume first and check that your user folders and nextcloud.log are visible in the data directory. Make the mount start before the web server, for example with RequiresMountsFor=/srv/nextcloud-data in a systemd drop-in.
• If the path in config.php is wrong, set the real one in datadirectory and nowhere else.
• Only when the folder is the real data directory and the file is missing, recreate it: sudo -u www-data touch /srv/nextcloud-data/.ocdata. Never do this on an empty mount point.
• Fix the owner: chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/nextcloud-data and mode 0750 on the directory.
• Reload the page. For future copies use rsync -a, which keeps dot files.

FAQ

Can I just create .ocdata to make the error go away?

Only if you are sure the directory holds your real data. On an unmounted empty folder it would make Nextcloud start with a new, empty instance, and the first uploads would land on the wrong disk.

Why does it happen after every reboot?

Usually the mount comes up later than the web server or fails silently. Check the mount unit or the fstab line and add a dependency so the web server waits for it.