Nextcloud 35 Upgrade: Path from 32, PHP and Database Requirements

Upgrading Nextcloud from 32 to 35? WZ-IT reviews your instance, raises PHP, database and operating system and carries out the upgrade with a backup and a rollback path, see Nextcloud managed hosting in the Managed Open Source hub. Schedule a meeting

Nextcloud 35 was released on 16 September 2026 as Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer. Six days earlier, 32.0.15 shipped as the last release of version 32. Anyone still running 32 is now running a version without security updates.

This time the upgrade is more than a click in the updater. Nextcloud 35 requires at least PHP 8.3, MariaDB 10.11 or MySQL 8.4 and a current operating system, and from 32 the path runs through three major versions. This post shows which requirements have changed, in which order the upgrade makes sense and what Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer adds. As of September 2026.

Table of contents

1. Nextcloud 32 is end of life
2. Nextcloud 35 system requirements
3. Which Linux release ships which PHP
4. Upgrade path from Nextcloud 32 to 35
5. What changed for admins in Nextcloud 33
6. New features in Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer
7. Common pitfalls during the upgrade
8. Our approach at WZ-IT
9. Further guides

Nextcloud 32 is end of life

Nextcloud publishes a major version every four months and supports each for one year with monthly maintenance releases (Maintenance and Release Schedule). Versions past their end of life receive neither bug fixes nor security updates.

The announcement of 32.0.15 is explicit: it is the last release of version 32, the branch receives no further maintenance or security releases, and an upgrade to 33 or later is recommended (Nextcloud Community, 10 September 2026). The next maintenance release for 33, 34 and 35 is scheduled for 15 October 2026.

Organisations that need a longer lifetime can get five years of long term support through a Nextcloud premium subscription, with maintenance releases for high and critical security issues (Nextcloud, System requirements).

Nextcloud 35 system requirements

The upgrade notes for Nextcloud 35 list three changes to the requirements (Upgrade to Nextcloud 35): PHP 8.2 is dropped, the minimum operating system versions rise, and MariaDB 10.6 and MySQL 8.0 are no longer supported.

The table is based on the system requirements of each version (32, 33, 34, 35). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and 10, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 and 16, openSUSE Leap 16, CentOS Stream and Alpine Linux are also listed for Nextcloud 35.

MySQL 9 and MD5. MySQL 9 no longer supports MD5, and parts of the Nextcloud ecosystem still use it. After switching to MySQL 9, load the classic hashing component on the database server:

INSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_classic_hashing';

The built-in updater requires at least 256 MB of memory.

Which Linux release ships which PHP

Most self-hosted instances use PHP and the database from the distribution's package repositories. The operating system therefore decides whether Nextcloud 35 runs without third-party repositories.

Package versions according to the Ubuntu and Debian archives, as of September 2026. On Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12, upgrading to Nextcloud 35 is therefore in practice an operating system upgrade. Pulling in PHP from third-party repositories on a system that is no longer listed is technically possible, but leaves the officially supported environment.

Upgrade path from Nextcloud 32 to 35

The Nextcloud documentation sets two rules (Upgrade manual): before moving to the next major version, the latest maintenance release of the current version must be installed, and major versions cannot be skipped. After every major upgrade, migrations run as background jobs and have to finish before the next step.

The order follows from the table above. Nextcloud 32 already supports PHP 8.3 and 8.4, MariaDB 10.11 and MySQL 8.4, so the requirements can be raised before the first upgrade starts.

On the command line a single major version step looks like this, run as the web server user in the Nextcloud directory:

sudo -E -u www-data php occ status
sudo -E -u www-data php updater/updater.phar
sudo -E -u www-data php occ upgrade
sudo -E -u www-data php occ app:update --all
sudo -E -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-indices
sudo -E -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --off

The updater enables maintenance mode itself. After each step, cron should run several times before the next updater run starts. Instances on Docker images or Nextcloud All-in-One follow the same principle through the image versions; no major version is skipped there either.

What changed for admins in Nextcloud 33

Coming from 32 means passing through Nextcloud 33 and its changes (Upgrade to Nextcloud 33). There is no separate upgrade notes page for Nextcloud 34.

• PHP 8.1, PostgreSQL 13 and Oracle 11g are no longer supported.
• Snowflake IDs: object IDs contain creation time, a sequence and a server ID. The server ID should be set in config.php or through environment variables.
• Connectivity check: Nextcloud now tests internet connectivity against connectivity.nextcloud.com. Anyone restricting outgoing connections with an allowlist has to add it.
• AI tasks: occ taskprocessing:worker is now recommended instead of occ background-job:worker.
• Monitoring: a new /metrics endpoint provides OpenMetrics data for Prometheus, answering only on localhost by default.

New features in Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer

The features according to Nextcloud's announcement (Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer):

The assistant's AI features need a connected model. How local models are run and which hardware they need is covered on the AI solutions page.

Common pitfalls during the upgrade

• Apps not yet released for 35. Third-party apps often catch up weeks after a major release. The updater disables incompatible apps. Check in the app store before upgrading whether critical apps support the new version.
• Database in a container. In Docker setups the database version is fixed by the image tag. Moving from MariaDB 10.6 to 10.11 is a separate step with its own backup.
• Outgoing connections. Firewalls with an allowlist need connectivity.nextcloud.com since 33, otherwise the administration overview reports missing internet connectivity.
• Background jobs. Upgrading three major versions in a row without waiting for the migrations in between risks incomplete database changes. Cron has to run between the steps.
• Security updates after the upgrade. Version 35 starts a new cycle of monthly maintenance releases; the first is announced for 15 October 2026. How to track security advisories for self-hosted software systematically is covered in the post on CVE monitoring.

Our approach at WZ-IT

We carry out the upgrade as a project with a fixed sequence, on your infrastructure or in an environment we operate in Germany.

1. Inventory. Nextcloud version, operating system, PHP, database, installed apps and integrations such as Collabora or LDAP.
2. Raise the requirements. Operating system, PHP and database to versions supported by Nextcloud 35, each with a backup.
3. Upgrade through every major version. 32 to 33, 33 to 34, 34 to 35, with finished background jobs between the steps and a rollback path to the state before the upgrade.
4. Verification and handover. Apps, indices, administration overview, clients and shares; documented final state.
5. Ongoing operations on request. Maintenance releases, monitoring and backups as managed Nextcloud, embedded in Managed Operations.

For databases that should move at the same time, see the pages on MariaDB and PostgreSQL.

Further guides

• Nextcloud, Seafile, OpenCloud or ownCloud, licence limits and ownership of file storage platforms compared.
• WeTransfer vs. Nextcloud, exchanging files with customers through your own instance.
• CVE monitoring for self-hosted software, tracking security advisories systematically.
• Managed Open Source, the hub with all operated applications.

Is your Nextcloud still on version 32? We review requirements and apps and bring the instance to Nextcloud 35 with a backup and a rollback path. Schedule a meeting

Sources

• Nextcloud, Upgrade to Nextcloud 35
• Nextcloud, Upgrade to Nextcloud 33
• Nextcloud 35, System requirements
• Nextcloud 34, System requirements
• Nextcloud 33, System requirements
• Nextcloud 32, System requirements
• Nextcloud, How to upgrade
• Nextcloud, Maintenance and Release Schedule
• Nextcloud Community, Final releases of 34.0.4, 33.0.9 and 32.0.15
• Nextcloud, Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer announcement
• Nextcloud Server v35.0.0 on GitHub
• Ubuntu package archive, PHP for Ubuntu 24.04
• Debian source archive, PHP 8.4