Files provided via a public link with write access will not be downloaded by the NextCloud Desktop Client (MacOS)

[mamboone]

⚠️ Before submitting, please verify the following: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github (I have searched for it).
• Nextcloud Server and Desktop Client are up to date. See Server Maintenance and Release Schedule and Desktop Releases for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct

Bug description

I encountered following bug using the most recent version of NextCloud Server along with the 3 most recent Desktop Clients (34.0.1 up to 34.0.3 as of today and maybe all earlier versions) on macOS Tahoe 26.6.2 on MacBook Air M4.

When a file gets uploaded via a shared link which is "public" - it will be uploaded to the server, but never occurs on the desktop client. See "Steps to reproduce".

Steps to reproduce

• Use the Desktop Client with VFS on
• Create a directory using the Desktop Client and share it as "external link" so any external user with that link can upload a file
• Upload some file via that link in the browser (no matter which size or type)
• Desktop Client shows under "Activity" that a file has been uploaded. Correct!
• Looking into the shared folder via browser on the NextCloud Server shows that the file is really there. Correct!
• BUT: the Desktop Client will never download it. Even when restarting it or waiting for hours.
• Workaround: Force download of that folder in Desktop Client via "Keep offline" in the context menu of the respective shared directory - then (and only then!) immediately the file(s) will appear in Finder.

Expected behavior

When some file has been uploaded to a publicly shared folder, the respective file should appear on the desktop client's side in Finder without any further interaction.

Which files are affected by this bug

All files which are uploaded via a public shared link

Operating system

macOS

Which version of the operating system you are running.

MacOS 26.6.2

Installation method

Official Installer for macOS 13 and later

Nextcloud Server version

33.0.6.2

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

34.0.3

Did this occur after an update or on a clean installation?

Minor version update (i.e. 33.0.0 → 33.0.1)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

No

Are you using an external user-backend?

• Default internal user-backend
• LDAP or Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Nextcloud Server logs

Additional info

No response

[nicokaiser]

Is this the same issue as #9688? I am experiencing the same issues (with files created on the web or other clients), but it works "sometimes" – not very easy to reproduce reliably, it feels like it just stops working after some time.

[mamboone]

To be honest - I didn't find that issue before, but from the description in #9688 it seems to be exactly the same behavior. Interesting is that according to the message inside "Activities" the client should be aware of the new file - but it does nothing at all to fetch it.
Thanks for linking both issues and glad to hear that there is work on it already 👍

[nicokaiser]

I think "Activities" has nothing to do with the file sync behaviour, it is just a list of things that are displayed.
The client should be polling changes on the server every 30 seconds, but clearly does not reliably.
The "Client Push" (notify_push) was made to avoid crawling the server every 30 seconds, but as far as I saw, it only makes the client hammer the server on every change instead #10656 – and even when a notification was sent by notify_push, this does not mean that the client will update the folder reliably, see above.