Nextcloud User Migration

A notable feature of Nextcloud is that there is no vendor lock-in. This means you have the option to migrate your Nextcloud to another provider. With the ‘User Migration’ app, you can export all files, profile settings, calendars, and contacts and import them into a new Nextcloud instance. In this article, you‘ll learn how this works and what to keep in mind during the process.

Installation

To install, log in to your Nextcloud with an administrator account, click on the round icon in the top right, and then on “+Apps“.
In the search, you can simply enter “User Migration“ and then click on “Download and enable“.
A new menu item “User Migration“ now appears in the settings.

Export

To export your data, click on ‘Data Migration’ in the settings. There you can select exactly what should be exported. By clicking on ‘Export’, the selected information/data will be exported to a file.

If you have a lot of data, we recommend only exporting profile information, contacts, and calendars. For data transfer, you can use the External Storage App. We explain how this works in this article: Switching from one Nextcloud instance to another

Import

If you want to import your information/data into the new Nextcloud, you can install the ‘User Migration’ app again. This time, click on ‘Import’ and select the export file from your old Nextcloud. For this step, the export file from your old Nextcloud must be transferred to the new Nextcloud. Please note that you will temporarily need double the storage space, as you will have both the export file and the unpacked data.