How To Manually Move a Data Directory¶
If you need to move your ownCloud data directory from its current location to somewhere else, here is a manual process that you can take to make it happen.
Note
This example assumes that:
- The current folder is: /var/www/owncloud/data
- The new folder is: /mnt/owncloud
- You’re using Apache as your webserver
- Stop Apache
- Use rsync to sync the files from the current folder to the new one
- Create a symbolic link from the new directory to the old one
- Double-check the directory permissions on the new directory
- Restart Apache
To save time, here’s the commands which you can copy and use:
apachectl -k stop
rsync -avz /var/www/owncloud/data /mnt/owncloud
ln -s /mnt/owncloud /www/owncloud/data
apachectl -k graceful
Note
If you’re on CentOS/Fedora, try systemctl restart httpd
.
If you’re on Debian/Ubuntu try sudo systemctl restart apache2
To learn more about the systemctl command, please refer to the systemd essentials guide
Fix Hardcoded Database Path Variables¶
If you want to manually change the location of the data folder in the database, run the SQL below:
UPDATE oc_storages SET id='local::/mnt/owncloud'
WHERE id='local::/var/www/owncloud/data'
The other area to check is the oc_jobs table. The logrotate process may have hard-coded a non-standard (or old) value for the data path. To check it, run the SQL below and see if any results are returned:
SELECT * FROM oc_jobs WHERE class = 'OC\Log\Rotate';
If any are, run the SQL below to update them, changing the value as appropriate.
UPDATE oc_jobs SET argument = '/your/new/data/path'
WHERE id = <id of the incorrect record>;
Fix Application Settings¶
One thing worth noting is that individual apps may reference the data directory separate from the core system configuration. If so, then you will need to find which applications do this, and change them as needed.
For example, if you listed the application configuration by running occ config:list, then you might see output similar to that below:
{
"apps": {
"fictitious": {
"enabled": "yes",
"installed_version": "2.3.2",
"types": "filesystem",
"datadir": "var/www/owncloud/data"
}
}
}
Here, the “fictitious” application references the data directory as being set to var/www/owncloud/data. So you would have to change the value by using the config:app:set option. Here’s an example of how you would update the setting:
occ config:app:set --value /mnt/owncloud fictitious datadir