[v6.1.0] [NC34.0.4] [PHP8.5-FPM] Nextcloud Notes causes Apache error 503 / Internal server error (500)

The error points to a private method call in /var/www/nextcloud/apps/notes/lib/Service/NoteUtil.php line 195. Start by examining the SettingsService class to understand its visibility. Check the Capabilities.php file to see how NoteUtil is instantiated. Reproduce the issue in a development environment with Nextcloud 34.0.4, PHP 8.5, and Notes 6.1.0. Look for recent changes in the Notes app's Service layer that might have broken compatibility.

Hello everybody!

I have a strange problem since I've upgraded to Nextcloud Server 34.0.4 and PHP 8.5 FPM with Nextcloud Notes. During Nextcloud Upgrade I deactivated all 3rd party Nextcloud apps (like it is recommended). After upgrading Nextcloud to 34.0.4, I also migrated from php8.3-fpm to php8.5-fpm. Since then, when I enable Nextcloud Notes App, I suddenly get an "internal server error" and the webinterface is no more reachable.

My Setup:
System = Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB RAM)
OS = Debian 13.7 (Trixie), 64bit
Kernel = 6.18.50+rpt-rpi-2712
Webserver = Apache 2.4.68
PHP-FPM = 8.5.10 with opcache + opcache.jit enabled
Database = MariaDB 11.8.6

2 weeks ago (13th of September), I upgraded Nextcloud server and php-fpm in the following steps on ONE day:

NC 32.0.5 --> NC 32.0.15 (php8.3-fpm) (Notes 5.0.2)

NC 32.0.15 --> NC 33.0.9 (php8.3-fpm) (Notes 5.0.2 -> Notes 6.0.2)

NC 33.0.9 --> NC 34.0.4 (php8.3-fpm) (Notes 6.0.2)

Upgrade php8.3-fpm to php8.5-fpm

Notes 6.1.0 was not yet released, so I worked a few days with Notes 6.0.2 without any issues, my Nextcloud server also had no issues. Everything seemed fine

Then I upgraded from Notes 6.0.2 to 6.1.0 over the Nextcloud WebGUI and during the upgrade I faced the first time the "internal server error" (Error 500) and later I received the "service unavailable" Error 503.

Error 503 often has to do with insufficient PHP ressources (PHP children), so I double checked the configuration between php8.3 & php8.5 and it stayed the same:

grep -r pm. /etc/php/8.5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf | grep -Ev "^;"

listen = /run/php/php8.5-fpm.sock
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 155
pm.start_servers = 60
pm.min_spare_servers = 20
pm.max_spare_servers = 60
pm.max_spawn_rate = 32
pm.max_requests = 0

(Please note: These settings are perfect for my setup + users and I haven't seen the error 503 since 2 years)

Troubleshooting:

1. So I disabled the Notes app over shell, deleted it and installed it once again (6.1.0) over shell --> again internal server error
2. I repeated the steps but then downloaded the 6.0.2 Notes app from Nextcloud App Store this time --> same result, internal server error
3. To prevent cached php script stuff, I rebooted in between and also deleted the opcache cache
4. I also did the following repair steps:

sudo -u www-data php occ db:add-missing-indices
sudo -u www-data php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php --define apc.enable_cli=1

Also to mention, I launch every night a script which includes the following "tidy up" commands:

sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/nextcloud/occ files:cleanup -vvv
sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/nextcloud/occ files:scan --all
sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/nextcloud/occ files:scan-app-data

5. After several days the problem still persisted, so I tried the hard way - uninstall Nextcloud Notes and completely wipe it from my database:

• Maintenance mode on
• disable Notes over shell
• remove Notes over shell
• remove all Notes folders of all users
• remove all database entries:

MariaDB [nextcloud]> SELECT * FROM oc_migrations where app='notes';
+-------+------------------------+
| app | version |
+-------+------------------------+
+-------+------------------------+
| notes | 3005Date20200528204430 |
+=======+========================+
| notes | 3005Date20200528204431 |
+-------+------------------------+
+-------+------------------------+

MariaDB [nextcloud]> SELECT * FROM oc_appconfig where appid='notes';
+-------+-------------------+-------------+------+------+
| appid | configkey | configvalue | type | lazy |
+-------+-------------------+-------------+------+------+
+-------+-------------------+-------+---+---+
| notes | enabled | no | 2 | 0 |
+=======+===================+=======+===+===+
| notes | installed_version | 6.1.0 | 2 | 0 |
+-------+-------------------+-------+---+---+
| notes | types | | 2 | 0 |
+-------+-------------------+-------+---+---+
+-------+-------------------+-------------+------+------+
3 rows in set (0,000 sec)

MariaDB [nextcloud]> DELETE FROM oc_migrations where app='notes';
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0,000 sec)

MariaDB [nextcloud]> DELETE FROM oc_appconfig where appid='notes';
Query OK, 3 rows affected (0,000 sec)

MariaDB [nextcloud]> SELECT * FROM oc_migrations where app='notes';
Empty set (0,000 sec)

MariaDB [nextcloud]> SELECT * FROM oc_appconfig where appid='notes';
Empty set (0,000 sec)

"show tables;" also showed me that there is a table "oc_notes_meta"

So I also deleted this one:

MariaDB [nextcloud]> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS oc_notes_meta;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0,005 sec)

But that also did not solve the issue...
(Did I forget something there?)

THIS happens, when I enable the Notes app:

Webserver:
cat /var/log/apache2/nc-error.log

AH01067: Failed to read FastCGI header
AH01075: Error dispatching request to :

PHP-FPM - all PHP children die:

cat /var/log/php8.5-fpm.log
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:20] WARNING: [pool www] child 814513 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31129.501089 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:20] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068451 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:27] WARNING: [pool www] child 814537 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31136.262006 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:27] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068453 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:27] WARNING: [pool www] child 814495 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31136.691358 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:27] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068454 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:36] WARNING: [pool www] child 814526 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31145.054261 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:36] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068455 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:36] WARNING: [pool www] child 814535 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31145.286025 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:36] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068456 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:48] WARNING: [pool www] child 814503 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31157.673507 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:48] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068457 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:56] WARNING: [pool www] child 814511 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31165.633189 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:56] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068460 started
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:56] WARNING: [pool www] child 814514 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 31165.631630 seconds from start
[21-Sep-2026 09:52:56] NOTICE: [pool www] child 1068461 started

Database:

2026-09-21 9:52:20 2265 [Warning] Aborted connection 2265 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:27 2270 [Warning] Aborted connection 2270 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:27 2271 [Warning] Aborted connection 2271 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:36 2272 [Warning] Aborted connection 2272 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:36 2273 [Warning] Aborted connection 2273 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:48 2276 [Warning] Aborted connection 2276 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:56 2277 [Warning] Aborted connection 2277 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-09-21 9:52:56 2278 [Warning] Aborted connection 2278 to db: 'nextcloud' user: 'admin' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)

Nextcloud Notes:

ErrorCall to private method OCA\Notes\Service\SettingsService::get() from scope OCA\Notes\Service\NoteUtil

"File": "/var/www/nextcloud/apps/notes/lib/Service/NoteUtil.php",
"Line": 195,
"message": "Call to private method OCA\Notes\Service\SettingsService::get() from scope OCA\Notes\Service\NoteUtil",
"exception": "{"class":"Error","message":"Call to private method OCA\Notes\Service\SettingsService::get() from scope OCA\Notes\Service\NoteUtil","code":0,"file":"/var/www/nextcloud/apps/notes/lib/Service/NoteUtil.php:195","trace":"#0 /var/www/nextcloud/apps/notes/lib/AppInfo/Capabilities.php(29): OCA\Notes\Service\NoteUtil->getNotesFolderUserPath()\n#1 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/CapabilitiesManager.php(60): OCA\Notes\AppInfo\Capabilities->getCapabilities()\n#2 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Template/JSConfigHelper.php(141): OC\CapabilitiesManager->getCapabilities()\n#3 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/TemplateLayout.php(251): OC\Template\JSConfigHelper->getConfig()\n#4 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Template/Template.php(117): OC\TemplateLayout->getPageTemplate()\n#5 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/public/AppFramework/Http/TemplateResponse.php(196): OC\Template\Template->fetchPage()\n#6 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php(124): OCP\AppFramework\Http\TemplateResponse->render()\n#7 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php(137): OC\AppFramework\Http\Dispatcher->dispatch()\n#8 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/private/Route/Router.php(324): OC\AppFramework\App::main()\n#9 /var/www/nextcloud/lib/base.php(1172): OC\Route\Router->match()\n#10 /var/www/nextcloud/index.php(25): OC::handleRequest()\n#11 {main}"}",
"CustomMessage": "Call to private method OCA\Notes\Service\SettingsService::get() from scope OCA\Notes\Service\NoteUtil"
},

This ends the webserver up in a 503 error.

After days of troubleshooting I am running out of ideas :-(

Questions I am asking myself:

• Is this issue related to a defect version 6.1.0 of Nextcloud Notes?
• Does Nextcloud Notes 6.1.0 has problems with php8.5-fpm and is not fully compatible?
• Did I miss some database keys from nextcloud notes, that still prevent me from a succesful re-installation?
• Is the issue related to NC 34.0.4?
• Did I upgrade the NC versions "too fast", so the tidy up jobs in between did not have enough time to run successfully? (Maybe one version upgrade / per day and next version upgrade on the next day?)

I am thankful for any kind of help and for any inspiration for new troubleshooting methods :-)