[Bug]: Shortcuts generate errors

[xXFreeFunXx]

⚠️ 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

After updating to 3.15.0, .lnk files throw errors. These were created a long time ago and have never caused problems.

Steps to reproduce

Update to 3.15.0 from 3.14.0

Expected behavior

That the error “Couldn't update placeholder info” does not occur!

Which files are affected by this bug

*.lnk

Operating system

Windows

Which version of the operating system you are running.

Windows 10

Package

Official Windows MSI

Nextcloud Server version

29.0.8

Nextcloud Desktop Client version

3.15.0

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

Updated to a major version (ex. 3.3.6 to 3.4.0)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

Additional info

[Mika-6-9]

Idem for me with Windows 11
(It's .lnk not .ink 😉)

[Tormak3D]

Idem with Win11 23h2

[mgallien]

@xXFreeFunXx @Mika-6-9 @Tormak3D sorry for that
would you be able to share a debug archive with us ?
best is to do this with a dummy test account (with no real private data)
an alternative is for us to provide an upload only share link
we get the data and can guarantee confidentiality
anything else I must know to try to reproduce ?
any steps to be able to reproduce ?

[Tormak3D]

Only update to the last version of the desktop app, nothing before.
After the updates, all my shortcuts files (*.lnk) in my dektop folder sync are in error :

@mgallien I have the archive but it's my private data, i send you in private the password :
https://cloud.lengrais.fr/s/R3nyF9nx7JEfwfx

[hi-ko]

@mgallien I send you account detalis via email, which has dummy files wich fail to sync.
Hope this helps to reproduce the issue.

[hi-ko]

I was not able to reproduce the issue by creating new windows shortcuts in that test account but at least the same issue occours when I copy files / shortcuts which have issues in other accounts. I suspect it is due to the saved properties of the shortcut. Are these read by Nextcloud Client?
Creating OS specific "links" should be avoided anyway. A better solution would be to add a new generic file/folder link doc type which gets dynamically generated on the fly depending on the client OS (e.g. on windows a shortcut with an UNC url in the target) and which could also work in the browser. That's how Alfresco solves this on the CIFS connector.

[moorsey]

Seeing this also after updating to 3.15 this morning

[mgallien]

thanks to all that send me logs. That is really nice and appreciated 💙
I will try my best to quickly solve this.

[chdh]

I have the same problem. I uninstalled the Nextcloud Desktop Client, but now I get the error message "The cloud file provider is not running" when trying to open a Windows shortcut.

How can I restore these Windows shortcut files?

[kritzi-at]

same problem for me.

[syzop]

We have a couple of users on 3.15.0 who were hit with this. So this happens when there is a .lnk file in an Nextcloud folder. The .lnk file points to another folder (i think to a folder outside Nextcloud). The client tries to sync, then fail and try again a few seconds later, endlessly. It will never sync any files. After removing the .lnk file it syncs perfectly. This should be easy to reproduce.

I got a debug log off one of the Windows 3.15.0 clients. It had this "Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk" file. Speculation: i am i seeing this right that it is trying to "follow" the link? That's not good.

Here's the log, the relevant part (i did replace some file names and the username for privacy reasons). The error/phrase "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden" means "The system cannot find the specified path" in Dutch:

2024-12-10 14:36:59:837 [ info nextcloud.sync.engine C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\syncengine.cpp:786 ]:	#### Discovery end ####################################################  34242 ms
2024-12-10 14:36:59:841 [ info nextcloud.gui.folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\folder.cpp:1680 ]:	will delete invalid read-only folders: "2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk"
2024-12-10 14:36:59:858 [ info nextcloud.gui.folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\folder.cpp:887 ]:	Saved folder "1" to settings, status QSettings::NoError
2024-12-10 14:36:59:862 [ info nextcloud.gui.application C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\owncloudgui.cpp:251 ]:	Sync state changed for folder  "https://cloud.xxxxxxxxx.nl/remote.php/dav/files/usernameabcdefgh/" :  "Sync paused"
2024-12-10 14:36:59:868 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/00f07518-0eb7-4791-8605-dda28bfe5652 (1).jfif" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:868 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/00f07518-0eb7-4791-8605-dda28bfe5652.jfif" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:868 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/06-01-2021 2042 Office ABCD 30.pdf" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:869 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/06722 (1).pdf" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:869 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/06722.pdf" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:869 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/1 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Yyyyyyyyy 21-22  zzzzzz 3 - XXXXX.docx" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:869 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/10 xxxx yyyyyyy Zzzzz 2024 - 2033   (versie 19-07-2023).xlsx" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:870 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/101249482.pdf" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:36:59:870 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/11022.pdf" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
--snip a lot more and then it ends with..--
2024-12-10 14:37:00:263 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/~$zzzzzzzz Aaaaaaaaaaaa 2de en 3de bbbbbbbb ccc 1 november 2021 (1).doc" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:37:00:263 [ warning nextcloud.sync.filesystem C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\filesystem.cpp:291 ]:	Error removing  "C:/Users/gebruiker/Nextcloud/2023 ABC defghijklmi jklmn/Downloads - Snelkoppeling.lnk/~$aaaaaaaaa bbb ccccccc.docx" : "Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden."
2024-12-10 14:37:00:263 [ info nextcloud.sync.engine C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\syncengine.cpp:993 ]:	User aborted sync
2024-12-10 14:37:00:263 [ info nextcloud.sync.engine C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\libsync\syncengine.cpp:905 ]:	Sync run took  34667 ms
2024-12-10 14:37:00:284 [ info nextcloud.gui.folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\folder.cpp:887 ]:	Saved folder "1" to settings, status QSettings::NoError
2024-12-10 14:37:00:284 [ info nextcloud.gui.folder.manager C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\folderman.cpp:702 ]:	Schedule folder  "1"  to sync!
2024-12-10 14:37:00:287 [ info nextcloud.gui.application C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-26654\client-building\desktop\src\gui\owncloudgui.cpp:251 ]:	Sync state changed for folder  "https://cloud.xxxxxxxxx.nl/remote.php/dav/files/usernameabcdefgh/" :  "Not yet started"

Off-topic: sadly we first had our entire organization hit by the "file too long" bug that crashed all or at least dozens of Nextcloud clients (#7265 and #7258). So we upgraded to latest version and then we had people hit by this. At least this one only affects a couple of users, since it isn't really common to have .lnk files in your nextcloud folder.