I have TrueNAS Scale set up on a computer on my network. I use it for all my downloads and keep pretty much all my files on there so it doesnt matter which computer I am at, I can get to everything. Well up until now that has worked great…
Yesterday I had to wipe and reinstall windows on my main computer. Now that its back up and running I cant get to anything on my nas. I can map the drive no problem. But every time I do it just creates a new folder under the main “File Storage” dataset and gives me an empty file with the storage amount thats free on the nas. It wont give me access to anything that is already on there. I have googled and searched and even gotten ChatGPT involved trying to figure this out. As far as I can tell I have all of the permissions set correctly and I dont have create new directory selected for the user name. But each time I try and map the drive it makes that folder and wont let me in to the old data that I need.
Anyone have any ideas??? I have made a post on the TrueNAS forum but from reading around over there I’m not sure someone like me is going to get much help. I have a lot higher faith in this forum. I really need to get into these files so I can get some orders going. None of my computers can access the nas right now. IDK what I have done wrong
I can try. I am not the best at this. I can do a lot of things ok. This one has for sure been right at the tip of my reach just to get it barely working. It has always had some quirks that I did not like but never could figure out how to do anything with it, so since it worked I just let it work lol
Yes. Same user. And now that is the only use account. All of the old files “belong” to that user but I still cant access them or even log in without it making that new blank folder.
I can log into trueNAS but you cant access the files that way. Only through a mapped drive. I know My computer and Carmen’s computer both make the new folder when you try and map the drive. I have not checked the garage computer yet but will do that now.
Considering I didn’t know that was something different I have no idea lol
There are 2 versions of TrueNAS. One is TrueNAS Core and the other TrueNAS Scale. My understanding is Core is the old enterprise edition that isn’t really being developed much anymore, and scale is what they are actively still working on.
Same thing out there. Opens up a new blank folder and gives the free space left on the NAS drives as the total space. And it creates a sub folder I can see in the TrueNAS webui under the “File Storage” main folder that wasn’t there before.
Since TrueNas is Debain and you reinstaled Windows , I believe you will need to setup the permissions between the two. Sadly it has been too many years since I have done any of this. Hopefully it will trigger a thought to get you there
The TureNAS is on a separate computer just connected over the network. I can map the network drive easily. I just cant get it to stop creating this new folder. As far as I can tell I have all of the permissions set but its just not working like it should for some reason.
That doesn’t ‘sound’ like a permissions thing to me, considering that the windows-to-linux part is probably just via Samba.
So when it was working before, the same NAS storage block was shared amongst a bunch of PCs? So you could see the same files and any changes from each PC? Or was it that each PC had its own space?
I’m not familiar with TrueNAS at all but it seems a little odd that you can’t get to the storage areas via the web interface. Are there separate user accounts set up, like a root/admin user and a personal user? If there’s a user account with elevated permissions, can that get into those files?
It sounds to me like some kind of configuration issue where trying to map that drive is automatically creating a segregated space for each user/machine combo or something. I’d be trawling through the TrueNAS config to see what’s going on there.
This likely isn’t the greatest time to mention this but often there isn’t a good time… Do you have anything like an off-site backup for the data on that NAS? I ask this because often people get something like a NAS, put a couple of drives in a RAID array on it and then call it a day there. That still leaves you vulnerable to difficult-to-predict issues like misconfiguration or malware etc. as well as more mundane failures like a power supply issue killing all connected drives, flooding/fire/theft/vandalism etc.
I just helped a family member recover 10 years of photos of their kids that they ‘backed up’ on an external drive. The good thing was that they had the backup when their main macbook died. The bad thing was they couldn’t get it to work to get to the files on the drive when they tried. It was also stored in a drawer at the desk they used their main macbook at. So many ways for that to go wrong! They’ve now got a cloud service and I’m trying to convince them to get a newer external drive to periodically back the cloud service stuff up onto and keep as an offline copy.
You could see all of the files from each PC. You could only write into folders that were created at that particular PC. But you could see and read the files from anywhere on the NAS.
I have only ever logged into the webui using the root. I know that is not set up as a SMB user so maybe if I login with my user credentials it will let me?? Hell that log in wont let me get to it either probably lol.
It is doing that same thing from all 3 computers now. 2 Win 11 computers and 1 Win 10 computer. It names the new file whatever the user name is. I can see all the data in the data set, the old folders and such, but not in a way I can copy them over to my computer or anything.
No offsite. Nothing on there is THAT critical. Do I want to lose it? No not at all. Is it worth paying for offsite storage? No not at all.
My point wasn’t so much ‘pay for off-site storage’, more like ‘consider what’s on there and maybe add another layer of disaster recovery’… If it’s not critical, maybe that’s copy it all to a USB key every few months and stash that somewhere in your house. Or encrypt it and leave it at work, or with a family member, etc. etc. Even if you don’t use it, I find just knowing it’s there and that worst case I’d be losing a couple of months worth of stuff, not all of it is a huge comfort while figuring stuff like this out!
Weird… So I’m just trying to understand the old behaviour… Before this it had a single mapped drive on each PC? You could see all the files from all PCs and they were in separate folders? But each folder was created by a specific PC and only that PC could edit those files? Were there multiple folders created as you went or just a folder that was created ‘per PC’ automatically?
Are all the PCs being logged in via the same user? You say there’s a new file based on the user, is that common across all the PCs and editable by all of them?
When you say you can ‘see all the data in the data set’ but can’t copy it, can you elaborate on that? The files are visible in explorer but error if you try to access them? If so, that is back to sounding a lot like a permissions issue.
Within the TrueNAS interface, is there any way to work the the file/folder/data store settings? If so, I’d be looking through it for anything like ‘permissions’, ‘owner’ or read/modify/write type settings.
It seems unlikely that this behaviour just changed by itself, though. With the other PCs, I assume they haven’t been re-imaged, they’re still configured the same as they were and now can’t access those files?
Multiple folders created by me at each PC. None created automatically.
So I would work on a laser project down here at my main computer. Save it from lightburn to the NAS. then Go up to the garage and open it on the computer connected to the laser from the NAS. But if I made a change to that file at the garage computer, I could not save it to the same folder I did down at my main computer. I would have to save it to a folder I created at the garage computer.
Hopefully that gives a little better insight.
Originally they were all on different users. Some of the stuff I read says I can get them on the same user and it will clear up that not being able to save to a file that computer didnt create. But at this point I would be happy just getting back to what I had LOL. If I could just get this one computer connected I could then copy everything off and wipe the whole NAS and start over fresh.
No this is in TrueNAS Webui I can see it. But I cant access the actual data there, I can just see the folders.
This is what I have been messing with all day trying to figure this mess out. at this point I wish I knew someone that knew what the heck they were doing and let them just remote in and fix it for me LOL
Oh I am sure this was me making a mistake somewhere along the way today trying to get it to work on this computer.
OMG I FINALLY GOT IN!!! It was damn sure to do with permissions. But I wish I knew exactly what I did to mess it up. What I just changed to finally fix it I am 99.9% sure I never changed. But right now I am just happy to be back in LOL
That one. That’s what I changed. Still need to go see if the other computers can log in with the same username, if not ill just create 2 more usernames and get them in that way hopefully
I tried no presets first and that would let me see the NAS but not connect, the moving to the default one worked. Originally it was on “private SMB Datasets and Shares”
All 3 computers logged in under the same user name now. So now any computer can write into any folder on the NAS. No more needing multiple folders for the same stuff!
I’d be using that feeling to motivate myself into getting a USB key or external HD and set a reminder on my phone to copy it all to the USB key every few months
I have a truenas server my son set up as our backup and his remote backup. The other day it just disappeared from the network. It hosts jellyfin to stream my mp4 collection as well as file storage. Not sure what its issue is. May be a hardware failure or a bad network cable.
You get so used to it that when it doesn’t work your out of sorts lol. I am actually happy that it broke this time. Its much simpler now that all 3 computers can read and write from anywhere on it. The headache to get this far sucked but I am glad its over and back running like it should. The only other thing I run on it is Tailscale so that I can get into the network from work and look at things if need be. But so far I have just used it to get around the complete lockdown of the boat wifi LOL
This machine was a repurposed case with all new hardware. Had to move it to connect to an hdmi input. Closest thing was a tv. Motherboard won’t post - no display output at all. I’m guessing likely ram or processor.
