nextcloud/server · error · InvalidArgumentException

User $user is unknown

Error message

User $user is unknown

What it means

Thrown by occ dav:list-calendar-shares when the required uid argument fails IUserManager::userExists(). It is the first of two guards in execute(): the user check precedes the principal lookup, so hitting it means the user backend itself does not know the id. No share data is read.

Source

Thrown at apps/dav/lib/Command/ListCalendarShares.php:60

		$this->addArgument(
			'uid',
			InputArgument::REQUIRED,
			'User whose calendar shares will be listed'
		);
		$this->addOption(
			'calendar-id',
			'',
			InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED,
			'List only shares for the given calendar id id',
			null,
		);
	}

	#[\Override]
	protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int {
		$user = (string)$input->getArgument('uid');
		if (!$this->userManager->userExists($user)) {
			throw new \InvalidArgumentException("User $user is unknown");
		}

		$principal = $this->principal->getPrincipalByPath('principals/users/' . $user);
		if ($principal === null) {
			throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Unable to fetch principal for user $user");
		}

		$memberships = array_merge(
			[$principal['uri']],
			$this->principal->getGroupMembership($principal['uri']),
			$this->principal->getCircleMembership($principal['uri']),
		);

		$shares = $this->mapper->getSharesByPrincipals($memberships, 'calendar');

		$calendarId = $input->getOption('calendar-id');
		if ($calendarId !== null) {
			$shares = array_filter($shares, fn ($share) => $share['resourceid'] === (int)$calendarId);

View on GitHub (pinned to ecdeb153ff)

Solutions

1. Verify the id with `occ user:info <uid>` / `occ user:list`
2. Check external user backends (LDAP connection, `occ user:sync`) if the user should exist
3. Re-run with the corrected uid

#!/usr/bin/env bash
uid="$1"
occ user:info "$uid" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "Unknown user: $uid" >&2; exit 1; }
occ dav:list-calendar-shares "$uid"

When it happens

Trigger: `occ dav:list-calendar-shares <uid>` with a non-existent, deleted, or externally-provisioned-but-unavailable user id.

Common situations: Typo in uid; user removed after the admin copied the id; LDAP backend unreachable so the user resolves as absent; automation running against the wrong instance.

Related errors

• User <$user> is unknown.
• User $user is unknown
• User <$userOrigin> is unknown.
• User <$userDestination> is unknown.
• User <$userDestination> is not part of the group <$userOrGro

AI-assisted analysis of nextcloud/server@ecdeb153ff (2026-08-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/59272e18fa65f254. Report an issue: GitHub.