Upgrading ownCloud to New Version Releases

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ownCloud does not have a feature for automatically or for manually initiating the installation of new version releases. An administrator "update" feature (third party) is available, but will only work in a "traditional" LAMP server environment using ownCloud install defaults. Moving to a new release is achieved by installing a newly updated "one click install" Amahi package. Installing a new ownCloud release manually is also possible but can introduce security risks due to manual configuration changes. Reinstalling a new Amahi package is a safer practice than a manual install.

When there is a new ownCloud version release, any third party applications written by a "third party author" may not work as expected with a new release. It takes time for third party authors to update their applications to work with a new ownCloud release. Some third party applications can be "restored" from backups or re-installed from the ownCloud applications store successfully for a new ownCloud version release.

When moving to a new ownCloud version release the ownCloud Community has defined two activities, "updates" and "upgrades", as specific implementation activities.

  • Update: Bring an ownCloud instance to a new "point release" (ownCloud 4.5.5 => 4.5.6).
  • Upgrade: Bring an ownCloud instance to a new "major release" (ownCloud 4.5.6 => 5.0.0).


Please Note:
Information following is based on Fedora installations.

Updating ownCloud on Amahi

For Amahi, ownCloud must be reinstalled in order to move to a new version release. Additionally, installed third party applications may have to be reinstalled.

Use the following steps for package reinstallation:

  • Catalogue all applications active in the current ownCloud instance.
  • Review and document all ownCloud sharing techniques used in the current ownCloud instance.
  • Do backups of the ownCloud database and stored files.
  • Go to the Amahi Dashboard, Apps => Installed, and uninstall the current ownCloud instance. This will remove the ownCloud binaries and ownCloud database.
  • Go to the Amahi Dashboard, Apps => Available, and install the new ownCloud release.
restore config from backups
restore apps from backups
restore database from backups
login to admin as usual
confirm new version number
test other user logins
test owncloud apps
test owncloud sharing



To update an ownCloud installation manually, follow those steps:

  • Do a backup.
  • Download the new tarball (tar.bz2) file for the new ownCloud release in to a known directory location.
  • Extract the tarball and copy in to the ownCloud application directory.
bash code
​tar -xjf path/to/downloaded/owncloud-x.x.x.tar.bz2 cp -r owncloud /var/hda/web-apps/owncloud/html​
  • Using the "cd" command go to "/var/hda/web-apps/owncloud/html/".
  • Change the ownership and permissions of the contents of this directory (Ubuntu ownerships are "www-data:www-data").
bash code
​​chown -vR apache:users * chmod -vR 775 *​ 


Always do backups anyway.To upgrade ownCloud, follow those steps:

• Make sure that you ran the latest point release of the major ownCloud version, e.g. 4.0.x in the 4.5.x series. If not, update to that version first (see above). • Do a backup. • Deactivate all third party applications. • Delete everything from your ownCloud installation directory, except data and config. • Unpack the release tarball in the owncloud directory (or copy the files thereto). • Make sure that the file permissions are correct. • With the next page request the update procedures will run. • If you had 3rd party applications, check if they provide versions compatible with the new release. If so, install and enable them, update procedures will run if needed.

When reinstalling the ownCloud package make sure all data is backed up. To upgrade to the next version of ownCloud instance, replace the files (copy) with the new set from the download. Leave the "config/" directory intact to preserve your ownCloud configuration data. The upgrade will happen automatically upon the next user login.

Please remember to check the “apache:users” ownership on the copied files and directories. If they are not set, use the “chown” command (recursively).

Upgrading ownCloud on Amahi


Main ownCloud Page

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