How to create a Nextcloud admin user

Nextcloud administrator accounts control server settings, apps, users, groups, and sharing policy. Adding a separate admin account is useful when a team member needs named administrative access or when a recovery account should exist before changing the primary admin login.

The occ command creates local accounts from the server shell and must run as the web-server user that owns the Nextcloud installation. Adding the account to the built-in admin group grants administrator privileges without changing existing accounts.

Use a named account such as ada instead of sharing the original admin login. The password is read into a temporary shell variable so it is not typed directly on the occ command line, and the final check confirms the account is enabled and belongs to admin.

1. Open a shell on the Nextcloud server and enter the installation directory.

   $ cd /var/www/nextcloud

2. Confirm occ can read the installed instance.

   $ sudo -E -u www-data php occ status
     - installed: true
   ##### snipped #####
     - maintenance: false
   ##### snipped #####

   www-data is the HTTP user on Debian and Ubuntu. Use the web-server user that owns your Nextcloud files when the instance runs under a different account.
   Related: How to run Nextcloud occ commands

3. Mark the password variable for export.

   $ export OC_PASS

4. Read the new account password into the variable.

   $ read -rs OC_PASS

   Type the password at the silent prompt. No characters are displayed while read stores the value.

5. Create the account and add it to the admin group.

   $ sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:add --password-from-env --display-name="Ada Admin" --group=admin ada
   The account "ada" was created successfully
   Display name set to "Ada Admin"
   Account "ada" added to group "admin"

   --password-from-env reads OC_PASS, and --group=admin assigns the administrator role during account creation. This creates a local database-backed user.

6. Remove the temporary password variable from the shell.

   $ unset OC_PASS

7. Verify the new account is enabled and belongs to admin.

   $ sudo -E -u www-data php occ user:info ada
     - user_id: ada
     - display_name: Ada Admin
     - email:
     - cloud_id: ada@cloud.example.com
     - enabled: true
     - groups:
       - admin
     - quota: none
     - storage:
     - first_seen: never
     - last_seen: never
     - user_directory: /var/www/nextcloud/data/ada
     - backend: Database

   For a recovery account, sign in once through the web interface and store the credential where the operations team can retrieve it.