[Bug]: [cron] Warning: Memory leak detected after executing job OCA\Files_Trashbin\BackgroundJob\ExpireTrash (id: 2540, arguments: null). Memory usage grew by 85 MB.

⚠️ 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

Our up to date nextcloud server with ~2100 Users (which 500 are deactivated) and ~1.3TB of Data across them reports a memory leak during trashbin expiration cronjobs.

Steps to reproduce

1. Have a large (single-Node) and carried through all sorts of versions of an installation of Nextcloud
2. Have Users do things or not. Seems to not care that much as it also happens during the middle of the night (when nobody access it apart from a few outliers and iphone clients that asks for syncs.
3. Cronjob
4. Profit

Expected behavior

Memory Leak would not get reported (tbf. it's more for you to maybe identify the problem and i respect that)

Nextcloud Server version

34

Operating system

Debian/Ubuntu

PHP engine version

PHP 8.4

Web server

Apache (supported)

Database engine version

MariaDB

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***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
        ],
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "34.0.2.1",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "default_phone_region": "DE",
        "installed": true,
        "mail_smtpmode": "sendmail",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "asset-pipeline.enabled": true,
        "force_language": "de_DE",
        "preview_max_x": 750,
        "preview_max_y": 750,
        "maintenance_window_start": 1,
        "preview_libreoffice_path": "\/usr\/bin\/libreoffice",
        "preview_office_cl_parameters": "",
        "preview_max_scale_factor": 1,
        "theme": "",
        "maintenance": false,
        "loglevel": 2,
        "forcessl": true,
        "trashbin_retention_obligation": "auto, 61",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "integrity.check.disabled": false,
        "auth.bruteforce.protection.enabled": false,
        "skeletondirectory": "\/data\/skeleton",
        "updater.release.channel": "stable",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_smtpport": "25",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "filelocking.enabled": "true",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "memcache.distributed": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 6379,
            "dbindex": 1
        },
        "serverid": 1,
        "trusted_proxies": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "forwarded_for_headers": [
            "HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"
        ]
    }
}

List of activated Apps

Enabled:
  - activity: 7.0.0
  - announcementcenter: 7.4.1
  - appstore: 1.0.0
  - bruteforcesettings: 7.0.0
  - calendar: 6.5.1
  - circles: 34.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.18.0
  - comments: 1.24.0
  - contacts: 8.7.4
  - contactsinteraction: 1.15.0
  - dav: 1.39.0
  - deck: 1.18.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.24.0
  - federation: 1.24.0
  - files: 2.6.0
  - files_downloadlimit: 5.2.0
  - files_lock: 34.0.1
  - files_reminders: 1.7.0
  - files_sharing: 1.26.0
  - files_trashbin: 1.24.0
  - files_versions: 1.27.0
  - logreader: 7.0.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.22.0
  - nextcloud_announcements: 6.0.0
  - notifications: 7.0.0-dev.1
  - oauth2: 1.22.0
  - office: 1.0.0
  - ownershiptransfer: 1.5.0
  - password_policy: 6.0.0-dev.0
  - photos: 7.0.0
  - privacy: 6.0.0-dev.1
  - profile: 1.3.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.24.0
  - recommendations: 7.0.0
  - related_resources: 5.0.0-dev.0
  - serverinfo: 6.0.0
  - settings: 1.17.0
  - sharebymail: 1.24.0
  - survey_client: 6.0.0-dev.0
  - systemtags: 1.24.0
  - text: 8.0.0
  - theming: 2.9.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.23.0
  - twofactor_totp: 16.0.0
  - updatenotification: 1.24.0
  - user_retention: 1.17.0
  - viewer: 7.0.0-dev.0
  - weather_status: 1.14.0
  - webhook_listeners: 1.6.0
  - workflowengine: 2.16.0
Disabled:
  - admin_audit: 1.24.0
  - app_api: 34.0.0 (installed 32.0.0)
  - dashboard: 7.14.0 (installed 7.0.0)
  - encryption: 2.22.0
  - files_external: 1.26.0 (installed 1.21.0)
  - files_pdfviewer: 7.0.0-dev.0 (installed 1.1.1)
  - firstrunwizard: 7.0.0-dev.0 (installed 2.2.1)
  - richdocuments: 10.2.0 (installed 10.2.0)
  - richdocumentscode: 26.4.104 (installed 26.4.104)
  - spreed: 23.0.7 (installed 23.0.7)
  - support: 6.0.0 (installed 1.5.0)
  - suspicious_login: 12.0.0-dev.0
  - testing: 1.23.0
  - twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 8.0.0
  - user_ldap: 1.25.0
  - user_status: 1.14.0 (installed 1.0.1)

Nextcloud Signing status

No errors have been found.

Nextcloud Logs

{"reqId":"v7Dfk1KJTEXbTHS93ZjL","level":2,"time":"2026-07-22T15:10:33+00:00","remoteAddr":"","user":"--","app":"cron","method":"","url":"--","scriptName":"/data/var/www/kacloud/cron.php","message":"Memory leak detected after executing job OCA\\Files_Trashbin\\BackgroundJob\\ExpireTrash (id: 2540, arguments: null). Memory usage grew by 85 MB.","userAgent":"--","version":"34.0.1.2","occ_command":["/data/var/www/kacloud/cron.php"],"data":{"app":"cron"},"id":"6a60e2f9ce696"}
{"reqId":"LB3D8k16jinjY9sRkKAS","level":2,"time":"2026-07-24T08:00:28+00:00","remoteAddr":"","user":"--","app":"cron","method":"","url":"--","scriptName":"/data/var/www/kacloud/cron.php","message":"Memory leak detected after executing job OCA\\Files_Trashbin\\BackgroundJob\\ExpireTrash (id: 2540, arguments: null). Memory usage grew by 64.4 MB.","userAgent":"--","version":"34.0.2.1","occ_command":["/data/var/www/kacloud/cron.php"],"data":{"app":"cron"},"id":"6a631d586b236"}

Additional info

No response

Start at cron.php and the OCA\Files_Trashbin\BackgroundJob\ExpireTrash job named in the warning. Reproduce the cron run while monitoring memory, then inspect the trash expiration path to isolate what remains allocated. Done means the job no longer produces the reported memory-growth warning under comparable conditions, with regression coverage if an existing test entry point is found.