If you’re a user of the Nextcloud snap, you may have noticed that upstream Nextcloud released v12 a while back, but you’re still on v11. That’s because v12 introduced several regressions that made us maintainers decide to hold off on the upgrade. Thankfully, things are finally looking up.

As of today, it seems that all the blocking regressions have been fixed. Which means that, barring any additional regressions being introduced between now and then, v12.0.4 will be the release that sees the Nextcloud snap join the party.

What does this mean for you, oh treasured Nextcloud snap user? If you, like the majority of Nextcloud users, want to be on v12, it means nothing. Just wait for it to automatically update. However, what if you don’t want v12? Maybe an app you’re using hasn’t been updated yet, or you just really like v11? Then this post is for you.

The snap is broken down into tracks, of which there are currently three: 11, 12, and latest. Each track is composed of four channels, not all of which are utilized by the Nextcloud snap, but I’ll outline their usages here:

  • 11
    • edge: Daily builds of Nextcloud’s stable11 branch (i.e. what will be coming down the pipe in the next v11 point release).
    • beta/candidate: Not used
    • stable: The latest stable release of Nextcloud v11. Will never update to v12.
  • 12
    • edge: Daily builds of Nextcloud’s stable12 branch (i.e. what will be coming down the pipe in the next v12 point release).
    • beta/candidate/stable: As of now, nothing. As soon as the snap is based on v12, the stable channel will contain the latest stable release of Nextcloud v12. Will never update to v13.
  • latest
    • edge: Daily builds of Nextcloud’s master branch (look where development is heading)
    • beta: The development branch of the snap itself
    • candidate: Used for release candidates and calls for testing
    • stable: The latest stable release of Nextcloud.

So by default, when you snap install nextcloud, you’re on the stable channel of the latest track (denoted as latest/stable). This means that, by default, you’ll upgrade automatically from v11 to v12 when it comes out. If you don’t want that, and would prefer to stay on v11 (including its point releases), you need to be using the stable channel of the 11 track. To switch to that channel, run this command:

$ sudo snap refresh nextcloud --channel=11/stable

As soon as you run that command, you’ll begin tracking 11/stable, and will only update when new v11 point releases come out. Then, if/when you’re ready, you can switch channels again to upgrade to v12:

$ sudo snap refresh nextcloud --channel=12/stable

Now you’ll only update when new v12 point releases come out. If you want to jump back to getting the newest stable release (including v13 when it comes out) refresh back to latest/stable:

$ sudo snap refresh nextcloud --stable

It’s important to note that snaps allow changing channels at any time, from any channel to any other channel. That includes, say, changing from 12/stable to 11/stable. While this is technically possible, Nextcloud does not support this. Downgrading is not supported and will be met with a significant lack of happiness.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this will be happening soon, so you can take action if necessary.