How to install Nextcloud server on Windows 10

by Sarbasish Basu/Last Updated: August 22, 2019/How To/18 Comments/

NextCloud, a perfect alternative to Owncloud cloud storage software. It has both opensource community edition plus enterprise edition, needless to say, paid. The NextCloud also provides a server-client architecture exactly like OwnCloud and why not, it is a fork of it but with wide extensions support. Users can install the NextCloud community server edition on their PC or server to create their own personal in-house local cloud storage.

The NextCloud client is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS and smartphone platform iOS and Android. So, it is cross-platform cloud storage with modular architecture that’s capabilities can be extended using the plugins or extension provide by the NextCloud. There are more than 200 extensions such as calendars (CalDAV), contacts (CardDAV), URL shortening suite, streaming media (Ampache), bookmarking service, image gallery, RSS feed reader, document viewer tools, browser-based text editor, connection to Dropbox, Google Drive & Amazon S3 and more…

The interface is quite easy to use and friendly. Here in this tutorial, we will see how to install NextCloud on Windows 10 without using XAMMP, WAMP, IIS server or a Virtualization software like VirtualBox/Vmware player. We will use the Windows’ 10 WSL (windows subsystem Linux) feature. It allows us to run Linux environment apps natively on Windows 10 with a high degree of performance just like any native Linux server. That’s why the NextCloud also runs on it very smoothly without any glitches.

Install NextCloud server on Windows 10 using WSL (windows subsystem Linux) Ubuntu

Step 1: Install the WSL feature on Windows 10.

The WSL (Windows subsystem Linux) is already there on Windows 10 and we just need to activate it. For that, the user has to go to Control Panel->Programs->Turn Windows feature On or off. For a more deep tutorial on WSL installation see: Activate Windows 10 subsystem for Linux

Step 2: Get Linux environment app from the Microsoft store

To install NextCloud on Windows 10, first, we need a Linux app from Microsoft store. Go to Windows search box and type Microsoft store as it appears, click on it and search for Ubuntu 18.

The store will show the Ubuntu 18 app, select and install it. and then use the launch button.

When you Launch the Ubuntu Linux environment it will take some time to get set up.

Step 3: Install Apache+PHP+MySQL/MariaDB for NextCloud

Run the following commands to install the Apache along with MySQL and PHP 7.2

sudo apt install apache2
sudo apt install mysql
sudo apt-get install php7.2 apache2 mysql-server libapache2-mod-php7.2
sudo apt-get install php7.2-gd php7.2-json php7.2-mysql php7.2-curl php7.2-mbstring
sudo apt-get install php7.2-intl php-imagick php7.2-xml php7.2-zip php7.2-dom

Step 3: Download & Install NextCloud server on Windows 10

To download the latest version of NextCloud, we need to visit the official download page

As the NextCloud doesn’t offer repository like Owncloud to directly download the server files, so we have two options either via SNAP or directly from the website.

Unfortunately, the SNAP (Snapcraft) is still not workable on Windows subsystem Linux systems, so we can’t use that. Thus, the option which left is via their download page.

On the Next cloud page right click on the Download button and copy the link address.

Now come to Ubuntu (WSL) window and type wget and then press right click of the mouse to paste the link.

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-15.0.5.zip

Step 4: Extract NextCloud server files

Extract the zipped file of the Next Cloud and then move that to the web directory

sudo apt install unzip

See the downloaded files

ls

Extract the files…

unzip downloaded_file name

In our case, the downloaded files name was: nextcloud-15.0.5.zip so the command was

unzip nextcloud-15.0.5.zip

Exactly in the same way you have to use your downloaded NextCloud zipped file name.

Step 5: Copy the Nextcloud files to Apache web directory

After extracting its time to move the nextcloud folder to /var/www/html. The command is:

sudo mv nextcloud /var/www/html/nextcloud/
or

sudo cp -R nextcloud/ /var/www/html/

Create a data folder inside the copied folder

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/nextcloud/data

Set the permission to the nextcloud directory

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/nextcloud/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/nextcloud/

Step 6: Create a new configuration file called nextcloud.conf

Now, we will create an Apache configuration file for NextCloud to tell Apache how to let users access our cloud storage. For this purpose, manually create a configuration file named nextcloud.conf.

The command is:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf

After the above step adds the following lines in the configuration file:

<VirtualHost *:80>

DocumentRoot /var/www/html/nextcloud/

Alias /nextcloud "/var/www/html/nextcloud/"

<Directory /var/www/html/nextcloud/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
<IfModule mod_dav.c>
Dav off
</IfModule>
SetEnv HOME /var/www/html/nextcloud
SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html/nextcloud
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

To save and exit the files first press CTRL+O and then CTRL+X.

Enable the newly created site:

sudo service apache2 reload

sudo a2ensite nextcloud.conf
sudo apt update

Step 7: Commands for Additional Apache configurations

Enable the following modules for proper Nextcloud working…

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod headers
sudo a2enmod env
sudo a2enmod dir
sudo a2enmod setenvif
sudo a2enmod mime

Restart Apache to make the installed modules effective:

sudo service apache2 stop
sudo service apache2 start

Step 8: Create MySQL/MariaDB database for NextCloud

We have done almost everything related to web server setting for the Next cloud and its time to create a database plus user for the same.

The commands are as following:

sudo mysql

Create a database, we are giving it a name nextdb you can give whatever you would like…

CREATE DATABASE nextdb;

Create a Database user along with password and assigned all the right or above-created database to it.

Note: h2smedia is username and next@123 is the password. You can change them with your choice. Whereas the nextdb is the above-created database name.

GRANT ALL ON nextdb.* to 'h2smedia'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'next@123';

Flush the privileges so that MySQL can recognize the changes and then exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Step 9 – Setup and Configuring NetCloud server on Windows 10

Finally, go to your browser and type http://localhost/nextcloud or http://127.0.01/nextcloud. It will guide to open an account creation and database setup page of NextCloud.

Enter the username and password which you want to assign to the Admin account for Next cloud. And then below that enter the details of the database we have created above and click on the Finish Setup button. That’s it.

This is the way to install NextCloud server cloud storage in Windows 10 without the installation of any software like WAMP or XAMMP.

Other Resources to read:

About The Author

Sarbasish Basu

From B.Tech (Hons.) Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer to Photography and Writing blogs; he ultimately has answers to everything. Oh, and he's also quite good in rapidly building a relationship and set up the trust; his articles are proof of that...

18 Comments

DigitalJester88 March 12, 2019

This post saved me from giving up until I got this right when I ran
sudo mysql
The output was as follows
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ (2 “No such file or directory”)
I have spent hours trying to fix this with no change in the outcome I am very lost if you or anyone have a idea I’m all ears. Thanks.

Reply
- H2S Media Team March 13, 2019
  
  Actually, we need to start the mysql service. Use the command sudo service mysql start
  
  Reply
  - DigitalJester88 March 13, 2019
    
    Sir I promise you I did that more times then I care to count never fixed it, even tried it again with no result. However and I don’t know why I installed Synaptic and Xserver and rolled through php, apache, and mariadb installs in full. Then restarted my PC and the server as well as ran [sudo service mysql start]….. Now it works! I have a question that I feel should be covered in this for good reason. When I restart the PC at any point will commands need to be run to restart the server and if so is there a way to setup a single script icon for it to do so in a batch action? O yes and one more, I plan to move this to a server after testing do I have a option to clone this as it will all be the same info as current?
    
    Reply
    - Tim master March 14, 2019
      
      Hi Jester,
      Tim this side, I am also playing around WSL to learn its curves…
      What I understand that you want to start MySQL automatically every time during the system boot. However, in WSL it would be a problem but on the real system, it will start automatically without any problem, as far as I know. Still, here is the link to a script for MySQL available on Ubuntu forum you can try it out:
      http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man1/mysql.server.1.html
      Other Question of yours which is cloning of Ubuntu system:
      You should not clone the WSL running system because it would not be feasible. As it is a kind of virtual machine and when you try to clone it to other hardware it will create problem. Just copy all the data and packa all the installed service in a package file which later we can run on the new Ubuntu system to install all the packages and services which were there on old one. Below I am giving the commands:
      However, if you are using the Ubuntu on some PC or other hardware then you can use the Clonezilla or bare metal backup software those will clone your system and deploy it exactly on new ones.
      Coming to the point:
      If you want to transfer old machine to a brand new machine but you won’t like to spend hours tuning it to get the same configuration as the one you have used for years?
      Let’s transfer your Ubuntu configuration and applications to your new computer in three simple steps.
      Note: The same version of Ubuntu should be installed on both machines. The architecture (32/64 bit) can be different.
      Step 1: Store the list of installed packages
      Run the following command on the source machine to store the installed packages names in ~/pkglist:
      sudo dpkg –get-selections | sed “s/.*deinstall//” | sed “s/install$//g” > ~/pkglist
      Step 2: Transfer your config
      Use scp or rsync or even a flash drive to transfer your home directory (~/*, ~/.*), the source list (/etc/apt/sources.list) and any other files you customized or installed (like apache config under /etc or softwares on /opt) from the source machine to the target one.
      Step 3: Install packages
      On the target machine run the following command in a failsafe terminal session to install your packages:
      sudo aptitude update && cat pkglist | xargs sudo aptitude install -y
      Let me know if it works for you!!!!
      
      Reply
DigitalJester88 March 18, 2019

Sorry Been very busy I have many questions about this and would like to try and perfect this method of install. I’m would like to get in to much deeper detail about the goal I have and the outcome that I seem to be getting. However I don’t feel the comments section on this post is the correct place to be posting a book of details and plans but you guys have been very helpful. The main goal here is for a 100% free Nextcloud server that can be run on a windows 10 enterprise pc that is a daily driver I have a NAS/Server but this is for the people that don’t have the ability or money. I would like to know where would be best that this guide can be perfected and hopefully worked on with as may people as possible for the maximum stability. This guide made my idea come alive and I want it to grow in the best way without the troll input that I have seen on some sites please give me the best input you can without hurting your own traffic. Thank you for the help so far!

Reply
Eric Hamby April 14, 2019

STEP 3…
Cant install any of them, error said files not found.

Reply
- H2S Media Team April 16, 2019
  
  Try sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server libapache2-mod-php7.2
  
  Reply
  - abuke May 3, 2019
    
    Does not work
    
    Reply
    - abuke May 3, 2019
      
      Nevermind…ran sudo apt update
      
      Reply
Steven Webber April 24, 2019

Forgot this Right before installing anything
sudo apt update

Reply
Paulianick June 6, 2019

Hey Having trouble on Step 6. I get into the GNU nano 2.9.3 and it gives me a [ Error Writing /etc/apache2/sites-avaible/nextcloud.conf: no such file or directory ]

Reply
Mark Ramsay July 6, 2019

Failed on the first step (sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server libapache2-mod-php7.2
) with following errors:
Cannot open /proc/net/unix: No such file or directory
Cannot stat file /proc/1/fd/5: Operation not permitted
Cannot stat file /proc/3/fd/7: Operation not permitted

Reply
Marcus July 23, 2019

Hey guys,
First thanks for the tutorial. After starting nextcloud (http://127.0.0.1/nextcloud/index.php) I get the following messages:
Error
No database drivers (sqlite, mysql, or postgresql) installed.
PHP module GD not installed.
Please ask your server administrator to install the module.
PHP module cURL not installed.
Please ask your server administrator to install the module.
PHP modules have been installed, but they are still listed as missing?
Please ask your server administrator to restart the web server.
Can you help?
Thx Marcus

Reply
- H2S Media Team July 23, 2019
  
  On Your Ubuntu WSL, again run these commands one by one and see all of them are installed properly.
  sudo apt-get install php7.2-gd sudo apt-get install php7.2-curl sudo apt-get install php7.2-mysql
  If yes, then restart the Apache
  sudo service apache2 stop sudo service apache2 start
  Also make sure the Mysql service is up and running
  sudo service mysql start
  
  Reply
Marcus July 23, 2019

So easy…I could swear that I did this before ;). Thank you

Reply
Trever July 26, 2019

Step 5: sudo mv nextcloud /var/www/html/nextcloud/
it says mv: cannot move ‘nextcloud’ to ‘/var/www/html/nextcloud/’: No such file or directory
What do I do?

Reply
- Paul August 22, 2019
  
  Have you found any solution? Im stuck here too~
  
  Reply
  - H2S Media Team August 22, 2019
    
    Try either of these commands
    For copy Nextcloud folder
    sudo cp -R nextcloud/ /var/www/html/
    or
    For completely moving it.
    sudo mv nextcloud /var/www/html/
    
    Reply