Connection error notifications keep popping up when offline

[r33int]

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Feature description

Since the latest Nextcloud Desktop update, I keep getting notifications about connection errors (Connection timed out, Host not found) when my laptop is offline. These notifications pop every few minutes.

As it is expected to have connection errors when offline, it is pretty annoying for me that Nextcloud reminds me every few minutes that I'm offline.

I tried turning off server notifications, but it did not suppress the connection notifications. Are there any plans to add the ability to turn off these notifications?

[rdsherwood]

I have encountered the same problem, and I agree, there should be an option to disable them.

In my case, the error message displays when I wake the computer from sleep, because it takes a few seconds to reconnect to the network. If you could delay the error for 5 or 10 seconds from awakening or from a restart, it would resolve the problem.

[chiva]

Similar here

I get connected to my Nextcloud instance by Tailscale, but also use it for work, so I have to switch profiles on Tailscale.
This means I'm a lot of hours not connected to my home VPN and getting error notifications every minute, very annoying.

I see it added in PR 6438
Specifically from 35108a8

Can't see any explanation on why was it pushed, more so when it degrades UX

I'd understand this state to be shown in the Nextcloud taskbar icon with a warning icon or something like that, and the actual message within the deployed window when clicking on it.

[maddentim]

It should at least have a little patience. When my laptop wakes from suspend, Nextcloud client throws a network not found error immediately even though the network connection was in the process of reconnecting. If I suspend a resume my system a half a dozen times at, these useless errors just pile up. Oof.

[camilasan]

Thanks for the feedback, it should be possible to make them more 'patience'.

wdyt @nextcloud/designers ?

[nimishavijay]

@camilasan agreed, that can be annoying.

We could delay the connection check by a few minutes after starting up, if that's possible to detect? So if there is no connection found 2 mins after starting up, the error can be shown. Would that be possible? :)

A good error message also has some suggested actions that the user can take, even if it's a simple "Please try again later". That would help troubleshoot the issues if they are happening frequently.

If the error message is really annoying I'm also thinking of having a "Don't show again" checkbox which would stop the notification popping up until the next startup. But this sounds risky, what do you think?

[maddentim]

Personally, I do not see this notification ever being particularly useful to me. I definitely do not need the nextcloud client to tell me it could not connect to the server when the client system has no internet. Maybe if the system can reach the internet but the server was still inaccessible, I suppose that could be useful. Can you imagine if every client application on your system popped a notification every time could not connect?

[r33int]

I'd suggest to turn off (or at least add an option) these notifications for connection errors that are most likely to be on the users's network side (e.g not connected to any network, timed out), as the user is likely already aware of these issues and does not need Nextcloud to notify them.

I'd also mute time out notifications, as these notifications can appear a lot when using an unstable connection (e.g when riding a train), and again, the user is most likely already aware of that.

In these cases, I would show an info box in the systray pane saying for example "You're currently offline. Syncing is paused and will continue when you go online again."

These notifications would indeed be very useful for unexpected issues related to the server itself (internal error, invalid certificate etc).

For most users, Nextcloud client just simply sits there in the background and does its job at syncing, and having constant notifications from it can get disturbing.

That's my own opinion on this, let me know what you think of it!

[nydragon]

My Nextcloud instance is behind a VPN, and as I am not connected to it most of the time I get this notification every ~6 minutes. I don't think that this is a rare use case and so I am not sure if making Nextcloud more patient by a couple of minutes after coming out of sleep properly addresses this issue. For me waiting multiple hours (6, 24?) and being able to disable those notifications would make more sense

[jancborchardt]

I definitely do not need the nextcloud client to tell me it could not connect to the server when the client system has no internet. Maybe if the system can reach the internet but the server was still inaccessible, I suppose that could be useful. Can you imagine if every client application on your system popped a notification every time could not connect?

Agree with @maddentim’s take.

@camilasan there should be no need for a notification if the whole system is offline anyway – other applications do not send a notification on that either.
We already change the tray icon to an offline icon (like other apps), and we change the state to "Offline" in the tray menu. That is enough as info, is it not?

But no notification should be needed, and especially not a setting to either enable or disable them.

[perniczech]

This notification is REALLY annoying. IF someone does actually need it then have it toggleable in the settings but I don't need an app to pester me about its inability to connect to a server all the time when I'm not even connected to the internet.

[camilasan]

It has been fixed in #6550
It is released in 3.12.2

[Slater91]

The issue has not been fixed. The notifications keep on appearing. Using Nextcloud 3.12.3 on Linux.

[mike2307]

It has been fixed in #6550 It is released in 3.12.2

No, it is definitely NOT fixed.
@camilasan: Please reopen this issue.

[JoeKun]

I concur with @Slater91 and @mike2307.

I’m running the latest official version of Nextcloud Desktop on macOS, and I’m still getting those pesky network connection error notifications.

[rdsherwood]

I concur with the others. I'm still getting the network connection messages on Nextcloud 3.13.0 running on Windoze 11.

[nydragon]

They fixed the recurring notifications

[maeyounes]

Hello @camilasan,

This issue is still not fixed.

I'm on version 3.13.2 running on Manjaro with Gnome as the desktop environement.

I still get the notification error poping up after a suspend/resume cycle on my laptop. It also appears whenever the laptop is not connected to internet. Turning off server notifications does not help at all.

[erebion]

I use Nextcloud Desktop on two devices, both running Debian: A laptop and a phone.

Both are by design portable devices that occasionally lose a network connection.

In the case of my laptop it also needs a couple seconds to connect back to wifi after coming out of suspend. In that time Nextcloud Desktop has already sent me four notifications about a network connection issue, all of which I have to click every single time to make them go away.

How about only notifying about connection issues when:

• The user has enabled / not disabled that (it should be a setting)
• A specific amount of time has passed (for example, in my case, I don't care about anything shorter than a few hours, this soo should be configurable)
• A couple seconds have passed after waking up for suspend, allowing the device to connect back to wifi

[Slater91]

I don't know why the title was changed to "Connection error notifications keep popping up when offline" as the issue most people are complaining about in this bug report is that the notifications appear when you are actually online. @jancborchardt maybe a different title is in order?

[jancborchardt]

@Slater91 that is not correct. The original issue is about the notifications popping up when offline. The title basically requested a setting – but instead of a setting we should fix this properly by not sending these notifications.

[maeyounes]

I would suggest removing the notification all together. Generally speaking, I don't know of any other app that sends a system notification when the device is disconnected from the internet. It also seems that it is the only notification I get from the nextcloud client. On Gnome, there is already a tray icon indicator for the state of the client:
Online state

Offline state

It is slightly slow though to switch between the two states but it is enough for the user to know if the client is connected or not.

[rdsherwood]

I would suggest removing the notification all together. Generally speaking, I don't know of any other app that sends a system notification when the device is disconnected from the internet. It also seems that it is the only notification I get from the nextcloud client. On Gnome, there is already a tray icon indicator for the state of the client: Online state Offline state

It is slightly slow though to switch between the two states but it is enough for the user to know if the client is connected or not.

I agree!

[jancborchardt]

I would suggest removing the notification all together.

Yes, this is the plan. :)