Nextcloud & WebDAV

Any WebDAV share, including Nextcloud and ownCloud.

Fields

Field	Notes
Server URL	The full DAV endpoint, including the trailing slash. Required
Username	The account the share belongs to
Password	Use an app password where the server offers one. Stored encrypted, never returned to the browser
Folder within the share	Optional, to scope this storage to a subfolder
Timeout	Seconds; defaults to 30

Getting the Server URL right

This is the field that goes wrong, because the address you browse in a web UI is not the DAV endpoint.

Nextcloud

https://cloud.example.com/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

Replace USERNAME with the account's login name — lowercase, exactly as stored — and keep the trailing slash. Nextcloud shows this address under Settings → Personal → Files → WebDAV, which is the reliable way to get it.

ownCloud

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

Older ownCloud installs use the shorter webdav path rather than Nextcloud's dav/files/USERNAME form.

Generic WebDAV

Whatever your server documents as its DAV root. Apache mod_dav, rclone serve webdav, Synology, Box and others each have their own; there is no universal path.

App passwords

Where the server supports them, use one instead of the account password.

In Nextcloud: Settings → Personal → Security → Devices & sessions → Create new app password. Name it for this site, copy the generated value, and paste it into the Password field.

Two reasons this matters:

Two-factor authentication. If the account has 2FA enabled, the account password will not authenticate over WebDAV at all — an app password is the only thing that works.
Revocation. An app password can be revoked individually without changing the account password or disturbing anything else that uses it.

Capabilities

WebDAV sits in the middle of the capability range — more capable than an object store, less than SFTP.

Capability	WebDAV
True directories	Yes — collections are real
Server-side rename	Yes, via `MOVE`
Range read	Usually, depending on the server
Directory size	Reported as a capped estimate where the server supplies it
Chmod	No — WebDAV has no POSIX permission model
Symlinks	No

Where range reads are unavailable, media in the lightbox buffers from the start rather than scrubbing. See Storage for the full capability model.

Performance

WebDAV is a chatty protocol: each folder listing is a PROPFIND round trip, and each file operation is at least one request. Over a link with meaningful latency this is noticeable.

Two things help:

Start searches from a deep folder. Recursive search means a PROPFIND per folder — see Search.
Raise the timeout on the storage record for large transfers. Thirty seconds is fine for browsing and short of it for a large upload.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Test Connection fails with an authentication error	The account password on a 2FA-enabled account. Use an app password
Test connects, but the drive is empty	The Server URL points at the web UI, not the DAV endpoint. It must contain `remote.php` for Nextcloud/ownCloud
"Not found" on every path	A missing trailing slash on the Server URL, or a wrong username in the `dav/files/USERNAME/` segment
Intermittent failures on large files	Timeout too low, or the server's own upload limit. Raise the timeout first
Works for browsing, fails for uploads	The share is read-only for that account, or the server enforces a quota

More general guidance: Troubleshooting.

Practical notes

HTTPS only. WebDAV sends credentials with every request. A plain-HTTP endpoint hands them to anyone on the path.
One storage, several places. A Nextcloud account with several folders worth naming wants one storage and several places, not several storages — the password stays in one row.
Scope with the folder field. Setting Folder within the share makes that subfolder the drive's root; nothing above it is reachable through this storage.