Questions about Federated Cloud Sharing¶

This document provides answers to common questions regarding the federation in Nextcloud.

Can files be shared to another instance without adding it as a trusted server?¶

Yes it is possible if the settings allow it (Admin settings -> Sharing -> Federated Cloud Sharing). Both servers should be able to communicate with each other.
When such a share is made, the receiving user will see a notification to accept/decline it.

Synchronizing the federation accounts on trusted instances takes a long time. Is it possible to accelerate this process?¶

After adding the trusted servers, some cron cycles are needed to exchange a shared secret and then start the address book sync. Ensure OCA\Federation\BackgroundJob\RequestSharedSecret and OCA\Federation\BackgroundJob\GetSharedSecret are not present in the scheduled jobs list: occ background-job:list
The address book/users list synchronization process is handled by the cron job \\OCA\\Federation\\SyncJob, which runs every 24 hours. However, there is an occ command occ federation:sync-addressbooks that can be called from the system's cron job at a desired interval for the contacts sync.

Is there a possibility to automate adding trusted servers via OCC or OCS?¶

Yes, there is an OCS API to add, list and remove trusted Nextcloud servers: Add server to the list of trusted Nextcloud servers.
There is no OCC command, however.

Is there a possibility to use groups and Teams for federation shares?¶

Groups support federation but Teams (formerly Circles) does not. Groups can be enabled from "Admin settings -> Sharing -> Federated Cloud Sharing".

Is it possible to connect more than two Nextcloud instances in federation?¶

Yes, it is possible. All the instances should have all the other instances as trusted servers, and they should all be connected with address book sync.

Can some users be excluded from the address book sync?¶

No, this is not possible at the moment.

Can a deck be shared in federation?¶

No, federation is not yet supported in the Deck app.

Is live collaboration possible in a Nextcloud Office (Collabora) document for users from two federated instances?¶

Yes, users can collaborate on a federation-shared document given the instances of the concerned users are trusted from both ends, and the Collabora instance of the sharing server is accessible from the receiving server.

Can users from instance A log into instance B if both the servers are trusted using credentials from their account in instance A?¶

No, users from instance A cannot login to instance B with their federated accounts. They will have/need different Nextcloud accounts on each instance regardless of the auth provider being the same.
Federation is intended to facilitate sharing between two accounts on two different instances only.

Does Nextcloud Talk support federation?¶

Yes, it can be enabled from "Admin settings -> Talk -> Federation".

Additional Notes¶

• Feature requests can be submitted through the Nextcloud support portal.