[Bug]: 31.0.1 cannot access settings overview and users, wrong type returned in countUsers() function

[lecyril]

⚠️ This issue respects the following points: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration/webserver/proxy issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github OR Nextcloud Community Forum (I've searched it).
• Nextcloud Server is up to date. See Maintenance and Release Schedule for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.

Bug description

I upgraded from Nextcloud 30 to 31 using occ and updater.phar method.

I cannot access the /settings/admin/overview and /settings/users pages anymore: both generate systematic server errors (see below). The culprit seems to be the type returned by the countUsers function in /lib/private/User/Database.php on line 475:
return $result->fetchOne();

Changing this line to
return ($result->fetchOne() !== false) ? (int) $result->fetchOne() : false;
allowed me to retreive access to these pages (this is why the integrity check fails below)

Others are affected, see https://help.nextcloud.com/t/fresh-install-of-server-31-oc-user-database-countusers-error/218958/4

Both 31.0.0 and 31.0.1 are affected.

Steps to reproduce

1.Upgrade from Nextcloud 30 to 31
2.Log in as admin
3.Try accessing /settings/admin/overview and /settings/users

Expected behavior

These pages should not generate server errors

Nextcloud Server version

31

Operating system

Debian/Ubuntu

PHP engine version

PHP 8.2

Web server

Apache (supported)

Database engine version

MySQL

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Upgraded to a MAJOR version (ex. 31 to 32)

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

What user-backends are you using?

• Default user-backend (database)
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Configuration report

{
    "system": {
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "31.0.1.2",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***o",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "debug": false,
        "maintenance": false,
        "maintenance_window_start": 1,
        "enable_certificate_management": false,
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "theme": "",
        "trashbin_retention_obligation": "30, 31",
        "loglevel": 0,
        "updater.release.channel": "stable",
        "versions_retention_obligation": "auto",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpport": "465",
        "mail_smtpauth": 1,
        "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpsecure": "ssl",
        "overwriteprotocol": "https",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "default_phone_region": "CH",
        "app_install_overwrite": [
            "spreed"
        ]
    }
}

List of activated Apps

- activity: 4.0.0
  - app_api: 5.0.2
  - bruteforcesettings: 4.0.0
  - circles: 31.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.14.0
  - comments: 1.21.0
  - contactsinteraction: 1.12.0
  - dav: 1.33.0
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.21.0
  - federation: 1.21.0
  - files: 2.3.1
  - files_downloadlimit: 4.0.0
  - files_external: 1.23.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 4.0.0
  - files_reminders: 1.4.0
  - files_sharing: 1.23.1
  - files_trashbin: 1.21.0
  - files_versions: 1.24.0
  - logreader: 4.0.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.19.0
  - mail: 4.2.6
  - nextcloud_announcements: 3.0.0
  - notifications: 4.0.0
  - oauth2: 1.19.1
  - password_policy: 3.0.0
  - photos: 4.0.0-dev.1
  - privacy: 3.0.0
  - profile: 1.0.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.21.0
  - recommendations: 4.0.0
  - related_resources: 2.0.0
  - serverinfo: 3.0.0
  - settings: 1.14.0
  - sharebymail: 1.21.0
  - spreed: 21.0.1
  - support: 3.0.0
  - survey_client: 3.0.0
  - systemtags: 1.21.1
  - text: 5.0.0
  - theming: 2.6.1
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.20.0
  - twofactor_totp: 13.0.0-dev.0
  - updatenotification: 1.21.0
  - user_status: 1.11.0
  - viewer: 4.0.0
  - weather_status: 1.11.0
  - webhook_listeners: 1.2.0
  - workflowengine: 2.13.0
Disabled:
  - admin_audit: 1.21.0
  - dashboard: 7.11.0 (installed 6.0.0)
  - encryption: 2.19.0
  - firstrunwizard: 4.0.0 (installed 2.4.0)
  - suspicious_login: 9.0.1 (installed 1.0.0)
  - twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 5.0.0
  - user_ldap: 1.22.0

Nextcloud Signing status

Technical information
=====================
The following list covers which files have failed the integrity check. Please read
the previous linked documentation to learn more about the errors and how to fix
them.

Results
=======
- core
	- INVALID_HASH
		- lib/private/User/Database.php

Raw output
==========
Array
(
    [core] => Array
        (
            [INVALID_HASH] => Array
                (
                    [lib/private/User/Database.php] => Array
                        (
                            [expected] => abbafb9122557ac838c53e3d6efd871d4f95cebb14284232e2aa2b41b25c72dd72053ec1ef1683839e1ffa3620921759f6af4af5ee5170ad8dbd42bfdc7e9b8e
                            [current] => dd3cb7f808973a9acdc96c2d93beebb5ff6dbc973f34a619f9fadea0bba0990049432c5f6b822a75d67461b38ce01fa8d19d273900157fe893bcbe23626e6d33
                        )

                )

        )

)

Nextcloud Logs

{
  "reqId": "Z9QAHECZeDCfmi2dzm_-kQABjhk",
  "level": 3,
  "time": "2025-03-14T10:08:39+00:00",
  "remoteAddr": "185.22.110.40",
  "user": "MYADMINUSER",
  "app": "index",
  "method": "GET",
  "url": "/index.php/settings/admin/overview",
  "message": "OC\\User\\Database::countUsers(): Return value must be of type int|false, string returned in file '/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Database.php' line 475",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/134.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
  "version": "31.0.1.2",
  "exception": {
    "Exception": "Exception",
    "Message": "OC\\User\\Database::countUsers(): Return value must be of type int|false, string returned in file '/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Database.php' line 475",
    "Code": 0,
    "Trace": [
      {
        "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php",
        "line": 161,
        "function": "dispatch",
        "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher",
        "type": "->"
      },
      {
        "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/Route/Router.php",
        "line": 307,
        "function": "main",
        "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\App",
        "type": "::"
      },
      {
        "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/base.php",
        "line": 1022,
        "function": "match",
        "class": "OC\\Route\\Router",
        "type": "->"
      },
      {
        "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/index.php",
        "line": 24,
        "function": "handleRequest",
        "class": "OC",
        "type": "::"
      }
    ],
    "File": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php",
    "Line": 146,
    "Previous": {
      "Exception": "TypeError",
      "Message": "OC\\User\\Database::countUsers(): Return value must be of type int|false, string returned",
      "Code": 0,
      "Trace": [
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Manager.php",
          "line": 500,
          "function": "countUsers",
          "class": "OC\\User\\Database",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/apps/updatenotification/lib/Settings/Admin.php",
          "line": 142,
          "function": "countUsersTotal",
          "class": "OC\\User\\Manager",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/apps/updatenotification/lib/Settings/Admin.php",
          "line": 79,
          "function": "isWebUpdaterRecommended",
          "class": "OCA\\UpdateNotification\\Settings\\Admin",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/apps/settings/lib/Controller/CommonSettingsTrait.php",
          "line": 128,
          "function": "getForm",
          "class": "OCA\\UpdateNotification\\Settings\\Admin",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/apps/settings/lib/Controller/CommonSettingsTrait.php",
          "line": 170,
          "function": "formatSettings",
          "class": "OCA\\Settings\\Controller\\AdminSettingsController",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/apps/settings/lib/Controller/AdminSettingsController.php",
          "line": 55,
          "function": "getIndexResponse",
          "class": "OCA\\Settings\\Controller\\AdminSettingsController",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php",
          "line": 200,
          "function": "index",
          "class": "OCA\\Settings\\Controller\\AdminSettingsController",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php",
          "line": 114,
          "function": "executeController",
          "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php",
          "line": 161,
          "function": "dispatch",
          "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/Route/Router.php",
          "line": 307,
          "function": "main",
          "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\App",
          "type": "::"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/base.php",
          "line": 1022,
          "function": "match",
          "class": "OC\\Route\\Router",
          "type": "->"
        },
        {
          "file": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/index.php",
          "line": 24,
          "function": "handleRequest",
          "class": "OC",
          "type": "::"
        }
      ],
      "File": "/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Database.php",
      "Line": 475
    },
    "message": "OC\\User\\Database::countUsers(): Return value must be of type int|false, string returned in file '/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Database.php' line 475",
    "exception": [],
    "CustomMessage": "OC\\User\\Database::countUsers(): Return value must be of type int|false, string returned in file '/home/secondes/public_html/MYDOMAIN.TLD/lib/private/User/Database.php' line 475"
  },
  "id": "67d4057f20a4e"
}

Additional info

Thanks for your help and for your understanding, this is my first bug report!

[kesselb]

cc @nextcloud/server-backend

[lecyril]

Just to be clear, the integrity check only fails because I implemented the workaround described in my bug report (forcing the returned type to int or false).

If I put back the original 31.0.1 file, run occ integrity:check-core, and visit /settings/integrity/failed , I get as expected:
No errors have been found.
... and cannot access /settings/admin/overview anymore

[Safs]

Same problem after update to 31. Is there option to downgrade?

[DJTOMATO]

I have the same issue in 31, new install via php or via softaculous.
Only "General View", "Support" and "Users" will crash