DAV & database commands

DAV commands

The dav commands manage addressbooks, calendars, calendar subscriptions, absences, and related data:

dav
 dav:absence:get                 get the out-of-office absence settings for a user
 dav:absence:set                 set the out-of-office absence settings for a user
 dav:clear-calendar-unshares     clear calendar unshares for a user
 dav:clear-contacts-photo-cache  clear cached contact photos
 dav:create-addressbook          create a dav addressbook
 dav:create-calendar             create a dav calendar
 dav:create-subscription         create a dav subscription
 dav:delete-calendar             delete a dav calendar
 dav:delete-subscription         delete a calendar subscription for a user
 dav:fix-missing-caldav-changes  insert missing calendarchanges rows for existing events
 dav:list-addressbooks           list all addressbooks of a user
 dav:list-calendar-shares        list all calendar shares for a user
 dav:list-calendars              list all calendars of a user
 dav:list-subscriptions          list all calendar subscriptions for a user
 dav:move-calendar               move a calendar from one user to another
 dav:remove-invalid-shares       remove invalid dav shares
 dav:retention:clean-up          delete CalDAV trash elements that are due for removal
 dav:send-event-reminders        send event reminder notifications
 dav:sync-birthday-calendar      synchronize the birthday calendar
 dav:sync-system-addressbook     synchronize users to the system addressbook
calendar
 calendar:export                 export a calendar of a user
 calendar:import                 import a calendar to a user

Manage addressbooks

dav:list-addressbooks

List all addressbooks for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:list-addressbooks layla
+-------------+----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+
| Database ID | URI      | Owner principal             | Owner displayname | Writable |
+-------------+----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+
| contacts    | Contacts | principals/users/layla      | Layla Smith       |  ✓       |
+-------------+----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+

dav:create-addressbook

Create an addressbook for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:create-addressbook layla work

Manage calendars

dav:list-calendars

List all calendars for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:list-calendars layla
+----------+-------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+
| URI      | Displayname | Owner principal             | Owner displayname | Writable |
+----------+-------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+
| personal | Personal    | principals/users/layla      | Layla Smith       |  ✓       |
+----------+-------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+----------+

dav:list-calendar-shares

List all calendar shares for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:list-calendar-shares layla
  User layla has no calendar shares

Use --calendar-id to filter results to a specific calendar.

dav:create-calendar

Create a calendar for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:create-calendar layla holidays

dav:delete-calendar

Delete a named calendar for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:delete-calendar layla holidays

Use --birthday to delete the birthday calendar instead of specifying a name. Use -f / --force to delete immediately instead of moving to the trashbin:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:delete-calendar --force layla holidays
sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:delete-calendar --birthday layla

dav:move-calendar

Note

Moving a calendar changes its existing share URLs.

Move a calendar from one user to another:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:move-calendar personal layla fred

Without --force, the command fails if the destination user already has a calendar with the same name, or if the calendar is shared with a group the destination user is not a member of.

Use -f / --force to proceed anyway: conflicting group shares are dropped, and if the calendar name is already taken at the destination a new name is tried automatically (personal-1, personal-2, up to ten attempts). The command fails if no free name is found within those attempts.

dav:clear-calendar-unshares

Clear stale calendar unshare records for a user. Useful when a user’s calendar sharing state has become inconsistent:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:clear-calendar-unshares layla
  User layla has no calendar unshares

Manage calendar subscriptions

dav:list-subscriptions

List all calendar subscriptions for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:list-subscriptions layla
  User layla has no subscriptions

dav:create-subscription

Create a subscription calendar for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:create-subscription layla "Astronomy Calendar" \
  webcal://cantonbecker.com/astronomy-calendar/astrocal.ics

Optionally pass a HEX color code for the calendar:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:create-subscription layla "Astronomy Calendar" \
  webcal://cantonbecker.com/astronomy-calendar/astrocal.ics "#ff5733"

If not set, the theming default color is used.

dav:delete-subscription

Delete a calendar subscription for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:delete-subscription layla "Astronomy Calendar"

Manage absences (out-of-office)

dav:absence:set

Set the out-of-office absence for a user. first-day and last-day are inclusive and formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.

short-message — a brief one-liner displayed as the user’s status next to their name across the UI while they are absent (e.g. in contacts, chat, and user lists).
message — the full out-of-office text shown to users who try to reach the absent user.
replacement-user-id — optional; a colleague to contact instead. Their display name is stored alongside the absence and shown to others.

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:absence:set layla 2026-05-01 2026-05-15 \
  "On leave" \
  "I am on leave until May 15. For urgent matters please contact my colleague."

To set an absence with a replacement user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:absence:set layla 2026-05-01 2026-05-15 \
  "On leave" \
  "I am on leave. Please contact fred for urgent matters." \
  fred

dav:absence:get

Show the current absence settings for a user:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:absence:get layla
  Start day: 2026-05-01
  End day: 2026-05-15
  Short message: On leave
  Message: I am on leave until May 15. For urgent matters please contact my colleague.
  Replacement user: none
  Replacement display name: none

Sync

dav:sync-system-addressbook

Synchronize all users to the system address book:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:sync-system-addressbook
  Syncing users ...

dav:sync-birthday-calendar

Add birthdays from shared addressbooks to a user’s calendar:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:sync-birthday-calendar layla
  Start birthday calendar sync for layla

Maintenance

dav:fix-missing-caldav-changes

Restore missing calendar sync change records. If the calendarchanges table has lost data, clients may not sync correctly. Run for a single user, or omit the user ID to fix all users (may take some time on large instances):

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:fix-missing-caldav-changes layla
sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:fix-missing-caldav-changes

dav:remove-invalid-shares

Remove invalid DAV shares created by a bug in a previous version:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:remove-invalid-shares

dav:retention:clean-up

Delete elements from the CalDAV trash that are past their retention period:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:retention:clean-up

dav:send-event-reminders

Send pending calendar event reminder notifications. By default, Nextcloud sends reminders via the background job. To use this command instead, switch the mode first:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ config:app:set dav sendEventRemindersMode --value occ

Then call the command regularly via a dedicated cron job to ensure reminders are sent on time:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:send-event-reminders

See Calendar / CalDAV for the recommended cron schedule.

dav:clear-contacts-photo-cache

Clear all cached contact photos. Useful after a migration or if contact avatars are not displaying correctly:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ dav:clear-contacts-photo-cache
  No cached contact photos found.

Export and import calendars

calendar:export

Export a calendar to a file or standard output:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:export layla personal --location /tmp/personal.ics

--format selects the output format (default: ical):

ical — iCalendar (RFC 5545)
xcal — XML iCalendar (RFC 6321)
jcal — JSON iCalendar (RFC 7265)

--location sets the output file path. If omitted, output is written to standard output:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:export layla personal --format xcal \
  --location /tmp/personal.xcal
sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:export layla personal --format jcal

calendar:import

Import calendar entries into a user’s calendar:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:import layla personal /tmp/personal.ics

--format selects the input format (default: ical). Same values as calendar:export. If location is omitted, reads from standard input:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:import --format xcal layla personal \
  /tmp/personal.xcal
cat /tmp/personal.ics | sudo -E -u www-data php occ calendar:import layla personal

--supersede forces override of existing objects with the same UID.

Validation behaviour is controlled with --validation:

0 — no validation
1 — validate, skip invalid entries
2 — validate, fail on invalid entries

Error handling is controlled with --errors:

0 — continue on error (default)
1 — fail on first error

Use --show-created, --show-updated, --show-skipped, or --show-errors to see the UIDs of affected objects after import.

Disable creation of example events

Disable the automatic creation of example events for new calendar users:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ config:app:set dav create_example_event \
  --value=false --type=boolean

Database commands

The db commands manage database schema, indices, and data conversions:

db
 db:add-missing-columns          add missing optional columns to the database tables
 db:add-missing-indices          add missing indices to the database tables
 db:add-missing-primary-keys     add missing primary keys to the database tables
 db:convert-filecache-bigint     convert the ID columns of the filecache to BigInt
 db:convert-mysql-charset        convert charset of MySQL/MariaDB to utf8mb4
 db:convert-type                 convert the Nextcloud database to a different type
 db:schema:expected              export the expected database schema for a fresh installation
 db:schema:export                export the current database schema

Schema maintenance

db:add-missing-indices

Add any indices to the database that are defined in the schema but missing from the current installation. Run this after upgrades if performance has degraded or if prompted by the admin overview:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-indices
  Done.

Use --dry-run to preview the SQL statements without executing them:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-indices --dry-run

db:add-missing-columns

Add optional columns that are defined in the schema but missing from the current installation:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-columns
  Done.

Use --dry-run to preview the SQL statements without executing them.

db:add-missing-primary-keys

Add primary keys that are defined in the schema but missing from the current installation:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-primary-keys
  Done.

Use --dry-run to preview the SQL statements without executing them.

Schema inspection

db:schema:export

Export the current database schema. Useful for debugging or comparing against the expected schema:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:schema:export
  - oc_filecache:
    - columns:
      - checksum:
        - name: checksum
        - type: string

Limit output to a single table:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:schema:export oc_filecache

Use --sql to output SQL CREATE TABLE statements instead of the default structured format. Use --output=json_pretty for machine-readable output.

db:schema:expected

Export the expected schema for a fresh installation of the current version. Compare this against db:schema:export to identify divergences caused by incomplete upgrades or manual changes:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:schema:expected
sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:schema:expected oc_filecache

Supports the same --sql and --output options as db:schema:export.

Data conversions

db:convert-filecache-bigint

Convert the filecache table’s ID columns from integer to BigInt. Required on large installations where file IDs have exceeded the integer limit. This command is non-destructive but may take time on large databases:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:convert-filecache-bigint

db:convert-mysql-charset

Convert all MySQL or MariaDB tables to use utf8mb4 (full Unicode, including emoji). Required for proper Unicode support. Run this once after switching to or upgrading MySQL/MariaDB:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:convert-mysql-charset

db:convert-type

Convert the Nextcloud database from SQLite to MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL. SQLite is suitable for testing and single-user setups, but production servers with multiple users should use one of the other supported databases.

Requirements:

The target database and its PHP connector must be installed.
Login credentials for a database admin user.
The database port number, if non-standard.

This example converts from SQLite to MySQL/MariaDB:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:convert-type mysql oc_dbuser 127.0.0.1 oc_database

For a detailed walkthrough see Converting database type.