Accessing ownCloud Files Using WebDAV

Introduction

ownCloud fully supports the WebDAV protocol, and you can connect and synchronize with your ownCloud files over WebDAV. In this chapter you will learn how to connect Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and mobile devices to your ownCloud server via WebDAV. Before we get into configuring WebDAV, let’s take a quick look at the recommended way of connecting client devices to your ownCloud servers.

ownCloud Desktop and Mobile Clients

The recommended method for keeping your desktop PC synchronized with your ownCloud server is by using the ownCloud Desktop Client. You can configure the ownCloud client to save files in any local directory you want, and you choose which directories on the ownCloud server to sync with. The client displays the current connection status and logs all activity, so you always know which remote files have been downloaded to your PC, and you can verify that files created and updated on your local PC are properly synchronized with the server.

The recommended method for syncing your ownCloud server with Android and Apple iOS devices is by using the ownCloud Mobile apps.

To connect to your ownCloud server with the ownCloud mobile apps, use the base URL and folder only:

example.com/owncloud

In addition to the mobile apps provided by ownCloud, you can use other apps to connect to ownCloud from your mobile device using WebDAV. WebDAV Navigator is a good (proprietary) app for Android devices and iPhones. The URL to use on these is:

example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav

WebDAV Configuration

If you prefer, you may also connect your desktop PC to your ownCloud server by using the WebDAV protocol rather than using a special client application. Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) extension that makes it easy to create, read, and edit files on Web servers. With WebDAV you can access your ownCloud shares on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows in the same way as any remote network share, and stay synchronized.

In the following examples, You must adjust example.com/ to the URL of your ownCloud server installation.

Accessing Files Using Linux

You can access files in Linux operating systems using the following methods.

Nautilus File Manager

Use the davs:// protocol to connect the Nautilus file manager to your ownCloud share:

davs://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav
If your server connection is not HTTPS-secured, use dav:// instead of davs://.

screenshot of configuring Nautilus file manager to use WebDAV

Accessing Files with KDE and Dolphin File Manager

To access your ownCloud files using the Dolphin file manager in KDE, use the webdav:// protocol:

webdav://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav

screenshot of configuring Dolphin file manager to use WebDAV

You can create a permanent link to your ownCloud server:

  1. Open Dolphin and click Network in the left-hand column.

    Dolphin File Explorer

  2. Click on the icon labeled Add a Network Folder.
    The resulting dialog should appear with WebDAV already selected.

  3. If WebDAV is not selected, select it.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Enter the following settings:

    • Name: The name you want to see in the Places bookmark, for example ownCloud.

    • User: The ownCloud username you used to log in, for example admin.

    • Server: The ownCloud domain name, for example example.com (without https:// or http://).

    • Folder: Enter the path owncloud/remote.php/webdav.

      Dolphin Network Folder Wizard

  6. (Optional) Check the create icon checkbox for a bookmark to appear in the Places column.

  7. (Optional) Provide any special settings or an SSL certificate in the Port & Encrypted checkbox.

Creating WebDAV Mounts on the Linux Command Line

You can create WebDAV mounts from the Linux command line. This is useful if you prefer to access ownCloud the same way as any other remote filesystem mount. The following example shows how to create a personal mount and have it mounted automatically every time you log in to your Linux computer.

  1. Install the davfs2 WebDAV filesystem driver, which allows you to mount WebDAV shares just like any other remote filesystem. Use this command to install it on Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install davfs2

  2. Use this command to install it on CentOS, Fedora, and openSUSE:

    sudo yum install davfs2

  3. Add yourself to the davfs2 group (this will be effective after the next login):

    sudo usermod -aG davfs2 <username>

  4. Then create an owncloud directory in your home directory for the mountpoint, and .davfs2/ for your personal configuration file:

    mkdir ~/owncloud
    mkdir ~/.davfs2

  5. Copy /etc/davfs2/secrets to ~/.davfs2:

    sudo cat /etc/davfs2/secrets > ~/.davfs2/secrets

  6. Make the permissions read-write owner only:

    chmod 600 ~/.davfs2/secrets

  7. Add your ownCloud login credentials to the end of the secrets file, using your ownCloud server URL and your ownCloud username and password:

    /home/<username>/owncloud <username> <password>

  8. Add the mount information to /etc/fstab:

    https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav /home/<username>/owncloud davfs user,rw,auto 0 0

  9. Then test that it mounts and authenticates by running the following command. If you set it up correctly you won’t need root permissions:

    mount ~/owncloud

  10. You should also be able to unmount it:

    umount ~/owncloud

Now every time you login to your Linux system your ownCloud share should automatically mount via WebDAV in your ~/owncloud directory. If you prefer to mount it manually, change auto to noauto in /etc/fstab.

Known Issues

Problem: Resource Temporarily Unavailable

Solution

If you experience trouble when you create a file in the directory, edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and add:

use_locks 0

Problem: Certificate Warnings

Solution

If you use a self-signed certificate, you will get a warning. To change this, you need to configure davfs2 to recognize your certificate. Copy mycertificate.pem to /etc/davfs2/certs/. Then edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and uncomment the line servercert. Now add the path of your certificate as in this example:

servercert /etc/davfs2/certs/mycertificate.pem

Accessing Files Using Mac OS X

The Mac OS X Finder suffers from a series of implementation problems and should only be used if the ownCloud server runs on Apache and mod_php. You can use a tool like ocsmount to mount without those issues.

To access files through the Mac OS X Finder:

  1. Choose Go  Connect to Server.
    The "Connect to Server" window opens.

  2. Specify the address of the server in the Server Address field.
    Screenshot of entering your ownCloud server address on Mac OS X

    For example, the URL used to connect to the ownCloud server from the Mac OS X Finder is:

    https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav

    image

  3. Click Connect.
    The device connects to the server.

    For added details about how to connect to an external server using Mac OS X, check the wikihow documentation

Accessing Files Using Microsoft Windows

It is best to use a suitable WebDAV client from the WebDAV Project page .

If you have to use the native Windows implementation, you can map ownCloud to a new drive. Mapping to a drive enables you to browse files stored on an ownCloud server the way you would files stored in a mapped network drive.

Using this feature requires network connectivity. If you want to store your files offline, use the ownCloud Desktop Client to sync all files on your ownCloud to one or more directories of your local hard drive.

If you encounter any issues during the connection please also check the troubleshooting section below.

Prior to mapping your drive, you must permit the use of Basic Authentication in the Windows Registry when using HTTP without SSL encryption. The procedure is documented in:

Please follow the Knowledge Base article before proceeding.

Mapping Drives With the Command Line

The following example shows how to map a drive using the command line. To map the drive:

  1. Open a command prompt in Windows.

  2. Enter the following line in the command prompt to map to the computer Z drive, where <drive_path> is the URL to your ownCloud server:

    net use Z: https://<drive_path>/remote.php/webdav /user:youruser yourpassword

    Example:

    net use Z: https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav /user:youruser yourpassword

    The computer maps the files of your ownCloud account to the drive letter Z.

    Though not recommended, you can also mount the ownCloud server using HTTP, leaving the connection unencrypted. If you plan to use HTTP connections on devices while in a public place, we strongly recommend using a VPN tunnel to provide the necessary security.

    An alternative command syntax is:

    net use Z: \\example.com@ssl\owncloud\remote.php\dav /user:youruser yourpassword

Mapping Drives With Windows Explorer

To map a drive using the Microsoft Windows Explorer:

  1. Migrate to your computer in Windows Explorer.

  2. Right-click on Computer entry and select Map network drive… from the drop-down menu.

  3. Choose a local network drive to which you want to map ownCloud.

  4. Specify the address to your ownCloud instance, followed by /remote.php/webdav.

    For example:

    https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/webdav
    For SSL protected servers, check Reconnect at logon to ensure that the mapping is persistent upon subsequent reboots. If you want to connect to the ownCloud server as a different user, check Connect using different credentials.

    image

  5. Click the Finish button.
    Windows Explorer maps the network drive, making your ownCloud instance available.

Accessing Files Using Cyberduck

Cyberduck is an open source FTP and SFTP, WebDAV, and Amazon S3 browser designed for file transfers on Mac OS X and Windows.

This example uses Cyberduck version 4.2.1.

To use Cyberduck:

  1. Specify a server without any leading protocol information. For example:

    example.com

  2. Specify the appropriate port. The port you choose depends on whether or not your ownCloud server supports SSL. Cyberduck requires that you select a different connection type if you plan to use SSL. For example:

    80 (for WebDAV)
443 (for WebDAV (HTTPS/SSL))

  3. Use the More Options drop-down menu to add the rest of your WebDAV URL into the `Path' field. For example:

    remote.php/webdav

Now Cyberduck enables file access to the ownCloud server.

ownCloud provides the possibility to access public link shares over WebDAV.

To access the public link share, open:

https://example.com/owncloud/public.php/webdav

in a WebDAV client, use the share token as username and the (optional) share password as password.

Settings  Administration  Sharing  Allow users on this server to send shares to other servers needs to be enabled in order to make this feature work.

Known Problems

Problem: Windows Does Not Connect Using HTTPS.

Solution 1

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support Server Name Indication (SNI) on encrypted connections. If you encounter an error mounting an SSL-encrypted ownCloud instance, contact your provider about assigning a dedicated IP address for your SSL-based server.

Solution 2

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support TLSv1.1 / TLSv1.2 connections. If you have restricted your server config to only provide TLSv1.1 and above the connection to your server might fail. Please refer to the WinHTTP documentation for further information.

Problem: The File Size Exceeds the Limit Allowed and Cannot be Saved

You receive the following error message:
Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

Solution

Windows limits the maximum size a file transferred from or to a WebDAV share may have. You can increase the value FileSizeLimitInBytes in HKEY_LOCAL_MacHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters by clicking on Modify.

To increase the limit to the maximum value of 4GB, select Decimal, enter a value of 4294967295, and reboot Windows or restart the WebClient service.

Problem: Accessing your files from Microsoft Office via WebDAV fails

Solution

Known problems and their solutions are documented in the KB2123563 article.

Problem: WebDAV Drive in Windows Using Self-Signed Certificate

Cannot map ownCloud as a WebDAV drive in Windows using self-signed certificate.

Solution

  1. Go to your ownCloud instance via your favorite Web browser.

  2. Click through until you get to the certificate error in the browser status line.

  3. View the cert, then from the Details tab, select Copy to File.

  4. Save to the desktop with an arbitrary name, for example myOwnCloud.cer.

  5. Start, Run, MMC.

  6. File  Add/Remove Snap-In.

  7. Select Certificates  Add  My User Account  Finish  OK.

  8. Dig down to Trust Root Certification Authorities, Certificates.

  9. Right-Click Certificate  Select All Tasks  Import.

  10. Select Save Cert from the Desktop.

  11. Select Place all Certificates in the following Store, click Browse,

  12. Check the Box that says Show Physical Stores.
    Expand out Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
    select Local Computer, click OK to complete the Import.

  13. Check the list to make sure it shows up.
    You will probably need to Refresh before you see it.
    Exit MMC.

  14. Open Browser, select Tools, Delete Browsing History.

  15. Select all but In Private Filtering Data, complete.

  16. Go to Internet Options, Content Tab, Clear SSL State.

  17. Close browser, then re-open and test.

Problem: Upload Large Files or Upload Takes Long

You cannot download more than 50 MB or upload large Files when the upload takes longer than 30 minutes using Web Client in Windows 7.

Solution

Workarounds are documented in the KB2668751 article.

Problem: The Network Name Cannot be Found

Error 0x80070043 "The network name cannot be found." while adding a network drive.

Solution

Make Windows service WebClient start automatically:

  1. Open Control Panel  Administrative Tools  Services.

  2. Find WebClient service.

  3. Right-click on it and choose Properties.

  4. Select Startup type: Automatic.

  5. Click OK button.

Or in command prompt (as Admin):

sc config "WebClient" start=auto
sc start "WebClient"

Problem: Network Discovery

On Windows 10, you need to turn on the Network Discovery to make webdav access work. In newer versions of Windows 10 it is enabled by default.

Solution

The following steps need to be done:

  1. Go to the Windows Settings

  2. Select "Network & Internet"

    network internet

  3. Select "Network and Sharing Center"

    network sharing center

  4. Select "Change advanced sharing settings"

    advanced sharing settings

  5. Select "Turn on network discovery"

    network discovery

Accessing Files Using cURL

Since WebDAV is an extension of HTTP cURL can be used to script file operations.

To create a folder with the current date as name:

curl -u user:pass -X MKCOL \
    "https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/$(date '+%d-%b-%Y')"

To upload a file error.log into that directory:

curl -u user:pass -T error.log \
    "https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/$(date '+%d-%b-%Y')/error.log"

To move a file:

curl -u user:pass -X MOVE --header 'Destination: https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/target.jpg' https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/source.jpg

To get the properties of files in the root folder:

curl -X PROPFIND -H "Depth: 1" -u user:pass https://example.com/owncloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/ | xml_pp
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<d:multistatus xmlns:d="DAV:" xmlns:oc="http://owncloud.org/ns" xmlns:s="http://sabredav.org/ns">
  <d:response>
    <d:href>/owncloud/remote.php/webdav/</d:href>
    <d:propstat>
      <d:prop>
        <d:getlastmodified>Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:07:45 GMT</d:getlastmodified>
        <d:resourcetype>
          <d:collection/>
        </d:resourcetype>
        <d:quota-used-bytes>163</d:quota-used-bytes>
        <d:quota-available-bytes>11802275840</d:quota-available-bytes>
        <d:getetag>"561d3a6139d05"</d:getetag>
      </d:prop>
      <d:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</d:status>
    </d:propstat>
  </d:response>
  <d:response>
    <d:href>/owncloud/remote.php/webdav/welcome.txt</d:href>
    <d:propstat>
      <d:prop>
        <d:getlastmodified>Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:07:35 GMT</d:getlastmodified>
        <d:getcontentlength>163</d:getcontentlength>
        <d:resourcetype/>
        <d:getetag>"47465fae667b2d0fee154f5e17d1f0f1"</d:getetag>
        <d:getcontenttype>text/plain</d:getcontenttype>
      </d:prop>
      <d:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</d:status>
    </d:propstat>
  </d:response>
</d:multistatus>

To get the file id of a file, regardless of location, you need to make a PROPFIND request. This request requires two things:

  1. A PROPFIND XML element in the body of the request method.

  2. The path to the file that you want to find out more about

Here’s an example PROPFIND XML element, which we’ll store as propfind-fileid.xml.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<a:propfind xmlns:a="DAV:" xmlns:oc="http://owncloud.org/ns">
    <!-- retrieve the file's id -->
    <a:prop><oc:fileid/></a:prop>
</a:propfind>
You could pass this directly to the Curl request. However, it can often be easier to create, maintain, and to share, if it’s created in a standalone file.

With the file created, make the request by running the following Curl command:

curl -u username:password -X PROPFIND \
  -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \
  --data-binary "@propfind-fileid.xml" \
  'http://localhost/remote.php/dav/files/admin/Photos/San%20Francisco.jpg'

This will return an XML response payload similar to the following example. It contains the relative path to the file and the fileid of the file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<d:multistatus xmlns:d="DAV:" xmlns:s="http://sabredav.org/ns" xmlns:cal="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:caldav" xmlns:cs="http://calendarserver.org/ns/" xmlns:card="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:carddav" xmlns:oc="http://owncloud.org/ns">
  <d:response>
    <d:href>/remote.php/dav/files/admin/Photos/San%20Francisco.jpg</d:href>
    <d:propstat>
      <d:prop>
        <oc:fileid>4</oc:fileid>
      </d:prop>
      <d:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</d:status>
    </d:propstat>
  </d:response>
</d:multistatus>
The example above’s been formatted for readability, using xmllint, which is part of libxml2. To format it as it is listed above, pipe the previous command to xmllint --format -.

To upload a file named file.txt to a public link with token 70mX9s7KOZwfmdi like https://example.com/s/70mX9s7KOZwfmdi having no password:

curl -k -T file.txt -u "70mX9s7KOZwfmdi:" \
    -H 'X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest' \
    https://example.com/public.php/webdav/file.txt