Groupfolders App crashs nextcloud when the root_id entry of a group folder is missing in oc_filecache

[stefan817]

How to use GitHub

• Please use the 👍 reaction to show that you are affected by the same issue.
• Please don't comment if you have no relevant information to add. It's just extra noise for everyone subscribed to this issue.
• Subscribe to receive notifications on status change and new comments.

Steps to reproduce

1. I expect, the first step was an inconsistence of the oc_filecache because the server with the nextcloud-data-folder went suddenly away.
2. As a result, in oc_filecache the row was missing with the fileid that is used in oc_group_folders as root_id
3. Groupfolders App crashes and has to be deactivated. Otherwise Nextcloud will not run.

Expected behaviour

• The groupfolders app should validate whether the root_id exists in oc_filecache and handle the absence gracefully.
• Provide a clear error or warning message to alert admins about missing cache entries.
• Possibly offer an automated repair or recovery mechanism for such broken references.

Actual behaviour

The groupfolders app crashes when accessing a group folder whose root_id entry from the oc_group_folders table does not exist in the oc_filecache table.
The root_id field in oc_group_folders references a fileid in oc_filecache that represents the root folder in the file cache. If this cache entry is missing completely, the Groupfolders app code fails with a TypeError because it tries to operate on invalid or null data.

Symptoms:

• Nextcloud becomes unusable when Groupfolders is enabled.
• Accessing the group folder triggers fatal errors in Cache.php during cache entry creation.
• Standard commands such as occ files:scan --all or occ maintenance:repair do not detect or fix this inconsistency.

Workaround:

1. Manually delete the inconsistent entry from oc_group_folders.
2. Recreate the group folder via the Nextcloud UI.
3. Move the files from the original folder to the newly created one at the filesystem level.

Diagnostic SQL: To find affected entries, run:

SELECT folder_id, mount_point, root_id
FROM oc_group_folders
WHERE root_id NOT IN (SELECT fileid FROM oc_filecache);

Server configuration

Operating system: Debian 12.12 (64-bit) / Linux 6.1.0-34-amd64 x86_64

Web server: Apache 2.4.65

Database: MariaDB 10.11.14

PHP version: 8.2.29

Nextcloud version: 32.0.1.2

Team folders version: 20.1.3

Updated from an older Nextcloud/ownCloud or fresh install: older Nextcloud

Where did you install Nextcloud from: ZIP

Are you using external storage, if yes which one: local (and that is connected by OS via cifs)

Are you using encryption: no

Are you using an external user-backend, if yes which one: no

Client configuration

Browser: Brave 1.84.132 / Chromium 142.0.7444.60

Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 26200.7019

Logs

Nextcloud log (data/nextcloud.log)

OCP\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162 in file '/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php' line 323

Details

nextcloud.log:{"reqId":"***","level":3,"time":"2025-11-04T13:20:36+00:00","remoteAddr":"***","user":"***","app":"index","method":"POST","url":"/login","message":"OCP\\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162 in file '/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php' line 323","userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/142.0.0.0 Safari/537.36","version":"32.0.0.13","exception":{"Exception":"Exception","Message":"OCP\\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162 in file '/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php' line 323","Code":0,"Trace":[{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php","line":153,"function":"dispatch","class":"OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Route/Router.php","line":321,"function":"main","class":"OC\\AppFramework\\App","type":"::"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/base.php","line":1061,"function":"match","class":"OC\\Route\\Router","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/index.php","line":25,"function":"handleRequest","class":"OC","type":"::"}],"File":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php","Line":150,"Previous":{"Exception":"TypeError","Message":"OCP\\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162","Code":0,"Trace":[{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php","line":162,"function":"numericToNumber","class":"OCP\\Util","type":"::"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/apps2/groupfolders/lib/Folder/FolderManager.php","line":618,"function":"cacheEntryFromData","class":"OC\\Files\\Cache\\Cache","type":"::"},{"function":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Folder\\{closure}","class":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Folder\\FolderManager","type":"->","args":["--- sensitive parameters replaced ---"]},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/apps2/groupfolders/lib/Folder/FolderManager.php","line":614,"function":"array_map"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/apps2/groupfolders/lib/Folder/FolderManager.php","line":912,"function":"getFoldersForGroups","class":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Folder\\FolderManager","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/apps2/groupfolders/lib/Mount/MountProvider.php","line":51,"function":"getFoldersForUser","class":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Folder\\FolderManager","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/apps2/groupfolders/lib/Mount/MountProvider.php","line":55,"function":"getFoldersForUser","class":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Mount\\MountProvider","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Config/MountProviderCollection.php","line":56,"function":"getMountsForUser","class":"OCA\\GroupFolders\\Mount\\MountProvider","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Config/MountProviderCollection.php","line":113,"function":"getMountsFromProvider","class":"OC\\Files\\Config\\MountProviderCollection","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/SetupManager.php","line":209,"function":"addMountForUser","class":"OC\\Files\\Config\\MountProviderCollection","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/SetupManager.php","line":316,"function":"OC\\Files\\{closure}","class":"OC\\Files\\SetupManager","type":"->","args":["--- sensitive parameters replaced ---"]},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/SetupManager.php","line":210,"function":"setupForUserWith","class":"OC\\Files\\SetupManager","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Filesystem.php","line":334,"function":"setupForUser","class":"OC\\Files\\SetupManager","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Cache/File.php","line":37,"function":"initMountPoints","class":"OC\\Files\\Filesystem","type":"::"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Cache/File.php","line":158,"function":"getStorage","class":"OC\\Cache\\File","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/base.php","line":889,"function":"gc","class":"OC\\Cache\\File","type":"->"},{"function":"{closure}","class":"OC","type":"::","args":["--- sensitive parameters replaced ---"]},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Hooks/EmitterTrait.php","line":89,"function":"call_user_func_array"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Hooks/PublicEmitter.php","line":23,"function":"emit","class":"OC\\Hooks\\BasicEmitter","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/User/Session.php","line":355,"function":"emit","class":"OC\\Hooks\\PublicEmitter","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/CompleteLoginCommand.php","line":26,"function":"completeLogin","class":"OC\\User\\Session","type":"->","args":["--- sensitive parameters replaced ---"]},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/ALoginCommand.php","line":22,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\CompleteLoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/LoggedInCheckCommand.php","line":41,"function":"processNextOrFinishSuccessfully","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\ALoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/ALoginCommand.php","line":22,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\LoggedInCheckCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/UidLoginCommand.php","line":36,"function":"processNextOrFinishSuccessfully","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\ALoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/ALoginCommand.php","line":22,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\UidLoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/UserDisabledCheckCommand.php","line":39,"function":"processNextOrFinishSuccessfully","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\ALoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/ALoginCommand.php","line":22,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\UserDisabledCheckCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/PreLoginHookCommand.php","line":34,"function":"processNextOrFinishSuccessfully","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\ALoginCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Authentication/Login/Chain.php","line":43,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\PreLoginHookCommand","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/core/Controller/LoginController.php","line":346,"function":"process","class":"OC\\Authentication\\Login\\Chain","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php","line":204,"function":"tryLogin","class":"OC\\Core\\Controller\\LoginController","type":"->","args":["--- sensitive parameters replaced ---"]},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php","line":118,"function":"executeController","class":"OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php","line":153,"function":"dispatch","class":"OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Route/Router.php","line":321,"function":"main","class":"OC\\AppFramework\\App","type":"::"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/base.php","line":1061,"function":"match","class":"OC\\Route\\Router","type":"->"},{"file":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/index.php","line":25,"function":"handleRequest","class":"OC","type":"::"}],"File":"/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php","Line":323},"message":"OCP\\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162 in file '/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php' line 323","exception":{},"CustomMessage":"OCP\\Util::numericToNumber(): Argument #1 ($number) must be of type string|int|float, null given, called in /home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Files/Cache/Cache.php on line 162 in file '/home/users/--- sensitive parameters replaced ---/www/nextcloud/lib/public/Util.php' line 323"}}

[stefan817]

I have one more addition:

The Nextcloud client (Windows V4) exhibited the following behavior during the Groupfolders crash: Since the group folders were suddenly invisible, the client probably thought it had to upload the “missing” folders. When the Groupfolders app started working again, these duplicates were renamed to “Foldername (1)”. The duplicate folders were incomplete, but caused confusion among users.

The question is: Is this a bug in the client or in the Groupfolders app?

[provokateurin]

The groupfolders app should validate whether the root_id exists in oc_filecache and handle the absence gracefully.

Not really, we can safely assume the row exists. The inconsistency in oc_filecache is a problem with your instance and should be solved by a occ files:scan-app-data.

The question is: Is this a bug in the client or in the Groupfolders app?

It is a problem, but not a bug anywhere. The Desktop client is just doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

[stefan817]

The groupfolders app should validate whether the root_id exists in oc_filecache and handle the absence gracefully.

Not really, we can safely assume the row exists. The inconsistency in oc_filecache is a problem with your instance and should be solved by a occ files:scan-app-data.

But the occ files:scan-app-data didn't solve the problem. I had to fix it manually in the database like I discribed. So I wonder, which app should solve this problem.

[Sreini]

have the same issue. After deleting a groupfolder through the GUI, the whole nextcloud application crashes. Running the query @stefan817 printed above returns the groupfolder that we deleted. Running occ files:scan-app-data does not resolve the issue. Deleting the entry from the database resolves the issue.