Nextcloud Needs Me To Sign In Every Time (Desktop Linux)

If you’re getting signed out of Nextcloud’s desktop sync app on Linux every time you start a new GUI session, this is probably why.

I was seeing this on an Arch Linux system (this one) when I logged into an LXQt session, but not when I logged into KDE/Plasma.

Under LXQt, I found if I closed the Nextcloud app without logging in again, unlocked KWallet manually, then re-launched Nextcloud, it found the existing login credentials from before.

I finally solved it by enabling the KWallet PAM Socket Connector (/usr/lib/pam_kwallet_init) in my LXQt Autostart settings. So it opens the wallet as I log in, and then Nextcloud finds the login tokens just fine.

Since then I’ve confirmed on an Alpine Linux system that GNOME Keyring (gnome-keyring) also works for this under LXQt. It just needs to be some keyring manager, and it has to launch first.

That said, I’ve also had the same symptoms on a Macbook, but it seems to be a different underlying issue.

Update June 2024: Plasma 6 Problems

The Arch system using kwallet has stopped remembering the Nextcloud credentials since upgrading to Plasma 6.

I’m going to have to reinstall the rest of Plasma on the PineTab2, maybe uninstall it and then reinstall it, maybe reinstall Gnome and try gnome_keyring or look for an entirely third-party keyring to run under LXQt.