[Bug]: Sync stops, but most of UI suggest that everything is fine.

[artfulrobot]

⚠️ 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've searched 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

• Automatic stopping of sync for folders that grow larger than the app's configured limit happens without the user's understanding, leading to lost work, poor communication, difficult file conflicts and the feeling that Nextcloud is unreliable.

• The app icon shows green ✔ despite no longer syncing the things the user expects to be synced.

• The app "main dialogue" shows huge green ✔ and "All synced!" despite it having decided not to sync any more.

• The app "settings" window's UI is unclear and unsuitable for guiding a user through making sensible decisions.

I support a team of 12 using this and regularly have to deal with "people can't see my changes" or "we've both changed a file" or "Person A says they have uploaded something but it's not there on my files" or "do I have to use the web to re-upload my file every time I change it?" or "nextcloud's unreliable, it doesn't always see my changes"

People have gone months without realising their changes are not being shared with the team.

The limit is a good idea, but the implementation causes lost work because people believe their local new and modified files are safely in nextcloud (and therefore on the organisation's server that is included in back ups) when they are in fact not.

Desktop notifications are plentiful and are often dismissed without much thought - especially confusing ones where you don't really know what happened and you don't know how to find out more about it etc. e.g. on Gnome, they pop up in a truncated fashion, then auto-dismiss, and anyway if you click them they go away. Perhaps other OSes do this better (let's not start that discussion!).

The missing information from the current UI is:

• the folders: x, y, z, were previously in-sync but are no longer being synchronised.
• This means that your files may be out of date and incomplete, and any work you do in existing files and any new work does not get stored on your Nextcloud server.
• This has happened because the folder grew beyond the size limit set for this app (500MB). This may have been because you added content or somebody else added content.
• To restore synchronisation you can:
  • Choose "Synchronise all" which will override the size limit and allow those big folders to re-sync, so it will work like it did before this happened. Recommended.
  • Choose "Synchronise none". Warning: this means you do not want your files synchronised; your work is local-only and no longer sent to the server. This is not usually what you want because if you did not want this, you would not have chosen to synchronise these folders in the first place.
  • Manually choose which folders to synchronise and which not to synchronise. This is useful if you are short of disk space, but carries the risk that local work never makes it to the server (e.g. if you forget to synchronise something you have worked on).
• The safest course of action is:
  1. choose Synchronise all. This will ensure that any work you have done is once again safely stored on the nextcloud server, and that your local copies are up-to-date with any file changes others made. Once all is in sync...
  2. consider increasing the 500MB limit in your settings. If you have the space and you need all the files synchronised, this is sensible.
  3. consider removing folders you do not need, from the settings window. This will remove the files locally saving you disk space and bandwidth. For example, if you had a folder called "Project" in sync and somebody then added "Project/Training videos" which was large, you may not need that new folder locally, so you could remove it.

I realise this is a lot, but it is an example of how complex the real world situation is, and important because we're talking about people losing real-world work.

Changing the icon shape and colour would be a minimal viable solution that could restore faith in nextcloud. But the other changes in guiding the user are very important in my opinion.

Steps to reproduce

1. setup a sync of a directory with<100MB contents, and use configuration: "Ask for confirmation before synchronizing folders larger than: 100MB"
2. add a file that takes the folder over 100MB. You can do this in various ways - locally, or by another user/online; by adding a big file or by increasing the size of an existing file.
3. you may get some brief notification
4. the folder is no longer synchronised but the status / app-tray icon is still green. If you visit the Settings UI, you'll see some folder names in red, and a red notice at the bottom. It reads "These are folders that were not synchronised because they are too big or external storages: x, y, z" and buttons for sync all, none, apply manual changes. This messaging is really unclear

Actual behaviour

The app has stopped working (as in: it is no longer doing what it used to do, no longer doing what the user believes it is doing), but appears to be fine, presenting a bright green tick ✔ in the status tray and "All Synced!" in the "main dialogue" window.

Expected behavior

If something was in a working state (being sync-ed, as is the purpose of the app), and now is in a degraded state (files are no longer in sync; it is no longer working as it should)

1. the app icon should display a clear fail state, e.g. the yellow "!" or the red "X".
2. a notification is fine, but unreliable way to explain a complex situation.
3. we need much better explanation about what has happened and how the user is potentially affected and what they can do to resolve the situation.

Which files are affected by this bug

All changed or new files

Operating system

Linux

Which version of the operating system you are running.

Fedora 40

Package

Distro package manager

Nextcloud Server version

Various

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

3.13.4

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Fresh desktop client install

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

Are you using an external user-backend?

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

Nextcloud Server logs

Additional info

No response

[artfulrobot]

The following issues are related but focus on other specific issues with the situation that a folder grows too big:

• [Bug]: Oversized folders need recursive confirmation to download #7169 This is about the UI for dealing with re-sync-ing previously synced folders being difficult to use.
• [Bug]: new 'Notify when synchronized folders grow larger than specified limit' and disable sync option cause issues #6097 This is about specific expectations around it only being new child folders added on the server that are dropped from sync, not all the folders within the top-level one.

[siblount]

+1 on this. I can't verify if #7676 is occuring on the latest version because of this. I can attest that after immediately upgrading to 3.15.1 (from 3.15.0) that this issue arises.

EDIT: It synced for me, but it took a very long time, I'm talking roughly 30+ minutes.