Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MrU]

folders disappearing in left hand tree: Network/server [or mapped] /topic above folder & contents.

Looked in explorer and folder and contents is there....BUT:
had to adjust explorer hidden folder details to finally see folder in explorer, still shaded though.
I had to attempt to remove the thumbs.db file in the hidden folder [sometimes unsuccessfully] before I could see it in the explorer window.
However as said above it is not being seen in JRiver software, so cannot update my library....

Please help.

[Frobozz]

Do any of those hidden folders or hidden files start with a dot?

In the world of Linux and Unix a file or folder that starts with a dot becomes a hidden folder or hidden file. Called dotfiles.

Your NAS lives in the world of Linux. So any folders or files you copy over to your NAS that happen to start with a dot will become hidden.

The Windows file system doesn't do that. Windows can have folders and files that start with a dot and those files won't get hidden. But copy those files over to a NAS and suddenly they're hidden.

One common album that can cause this sort of problem is Metallica's "...And Justice For All".

[EnglishTiger]

Do any of those hidden folders or hidden files start with a dot?

In the world of Linux and Unix a file or folder that starts with a dot becomes a hidden folder or hidden file. Called dotfiles.

Your NAS lives in the world of Linux. So any folders or files you copy over to your NAS that happen to start with a dot will become hidden.

The Windows file system doesn't do that. Windows can have folders and files that start with a dot and those files won't get hidden. But copy those files over to a NAS and suddenly they're hidden.

One common album that can cause this sort of problem is Metallica's "...And Justice For All".

Are you sure you have got that right about windows and dots in folder names.

On my WIN10 system it doesn't tell you that dots are illegal characters in folder names, unlike some some other characters, it simply strips the dots from the string, i.e. an Album Name, to form an acceptable Folder Name.

[Frobozz]

A file name or folder name that starts with a dot is a legal name in Windows and the Windows file systems (FAT32 and NTFS). Windows will allow those names and the files don't become hidden.

But copy those files over to a NAS that is running Linux and a Linux file system and those names that start with a dot become hidden files or folders.

[MrU]

Thanks for the reply but that's not the issue.

There are NO dots before the folder name or in the file name.

Basically I use my JRiver as a library for my music folders/files.
they are accessed as I said originally from a local server [a synology CS407 ] which is built up as a raid 5 with 4* 2TB drives in it.
the synology & the other PC's [ I have an occasional laptop connected as well are all connected via LAN using the router as a central hub.
Up until recently it has not been a problem to add albums [folders of music files ] to the synology/Library.

But for some reason the problem described as happened now.

this problem shows in explorer [windows 10] as a faded folder. I made the assumption this is a hidden file  [perhaps wrongly] and tried to make adjustments to the Windows explorer file system. This did not work.

Also in JRiver on the left hand side [tree] those folders above sometimes are not listed in the tree so in effect cannot be added to the library. However when looking at the library in the main JRiver window I can see files that in the tree are not there. Very confusing.

To get round this in some instances [not PREFERABLE] I have re-added the album in the awkward folder as its title + a # before . if I try to add it as the same it attempts to add into the folder I cannot see then its lost again. EG = ##Going Out in Style  [that is the album title as well as ## as explained.]

All of the above problems have occurred at the same time as JRiver appears to be much slower in adding files [tagging] to the library.
So this is taking an enormous amount of time and when there are more than a thousand albums to update it is a very slow job.

any more comments would be appreciated.

[Frobozz]

Next I'd look at user and permissions.
Make sure you're accessing the files on the NAS using the NAS user account and permissions you think you are. And double check that the files are owned by an account that has both read and write permissions.

NAS user permissions and access rules can get confusing. I've had folders and files get created that I was unable to access from Windows even though I was using the admin account on the NAS. Had to log in to the NAS as admin and use the web UI file manager to change permissions for those files before Windows would let me access them or change them.

[MrU]

took a brief look at synology server...agreed it's complex BUT....no faded out issue there. now looked at explorer views:


in explorer
some folders faint. [shaded out]
looking at properties/details/attributes the read only is blocked [that appears normal]
& the archive is ticked [that appears normal]
but the hidden is faded and appears ticked [that is not normal].
on above folders within folder are music files and noticed 1 is faded. This in properties shows a faded ticked hidden box , which is not the case in other files. Tried to "google" support and understand but no luck there.

On going through all of this I checked my C: drive & documents & settings folder. That is shaded too so I am unable to access that.

Looking/comparing good with faded files at its *Attributes* it appears the correct files have an A listed whereas the faded files have an HSA listed.
these files could be music files or pic [jpg] files of the album. Same attributes.

I'm not sure what else I can say other than to repeat that this is a new thing that has happened.
any ideas please.

[Frobozz]

You've got some user access and permissions issues going on. That's what is causing your problems. Unfortunately I cannot give good advice on how to fix that. I don't know enough about the details of Linux file permissions and how they translate/transfer to how Windows sees those file permissions when Windows accesses those files over SMB or other network file sharing protocols. I don't know the details of what is going on and why.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge about Linux file sharing and how Windows sees the file permissions will be able to answer.

When I have run into these problems I have been able to fix them by floundering around and managing to somehow fix things without understanding the root cause.

I've had permissions or user access issues with music files on the NAS a few times. Once happened when I bought a download that came in a ZIP or some other archive format. I copied the archive to a NAS folder and unzipped the archive there. The unzipped files had weird permissions and user account settings. I was unable to move those files or delete them using Windows. After that experience I now unzip archives on a local Windows drive before copying the files to the NAS. That avoids the problem. But I still don't understand the root cause for why that has happened.

A Windows utility that I've found useful is Free Commander. It's freeware. It is able to scan folders on a NAS and find files or folders that are hidden or have other attributes. It's a very handy file management utility.