Missing files on Synology

[DavidHB]

Thank you for your reply, which takes this useful discussion a step further.

To respond first to your final point, from what you say I doubt very much that the issue you encountered is specific to the Synology. Indeed, I even wonder whether the problem is at the Linux end of things at all.

Just to explain, Samba is the component of Linux which enables folder and file sharing between the two OSs. It is what enables your Windows file system to think that a Linux folder is a normal Windows shared folder, and Linux likewise to see Windows shared folders as part of its system. Samba gets its name from the SMB file sharing protocol, which it implements, and the folders shared in this way are called "SMB shares". SMB has been going since the mid-1980s, and Samba is often now so transparent that we tend to take it for granted.

Because the translation process from Windows to Linux tends to be so reliable, it is in fact an open question whether the problem you encountered actually has its origin in Windows and then has been mirrored across to Linux on your NAS. Moving files around in Windows can sometimes generate unexpected problems with permissions.

To make sure that Windows is not causing the problem, there is a way of ensuring that permissions in the top level folder are replicated in all its sub-folders. In the Properties for the top level music folder, you ensure that the Sharing tab has the share set in the way you would wish (on a local network, there's no harm in giving 'Everyone' read/write access). Then youdrill down from the Security tab (via Advanced -> Managing Permissions entries) to the Advanced Permissions dialog, where there is a tick box to make all sub-folders inherit the permissions of the parent, which is what you want.

Another approach is to reset the permissions on the NAS itself. It sounds as though your Synology has better file management capabilities than my Netgear NAS, but even with the latter I can reset permissions on individual folders. In case it is of interest, the permissions set on my media folder, and recursively on all sub-folders (including all music) are:

Folder Owner: nobody
Folder Group: nogroup
Folder Owner Rights: Read/Write
Folder Group Rights: Read/Write
Folder EveryOne Rights: Read/Write

While I'm hardly an expert, I do know that these are standard Linux permissions, and they work for me, so they should be applicable on your NAS also.

As you may currently have some problems, I'd do the inheritance thing (on your Windows computer, or on the NAS, or on both) this once in any case. But my own normal procedure is simpler and less technical. I don't move the music files to my NAS; I create a Chinese copy of my main music folder using the Windows SyncToy. As it's an exact copy, permissions are also copied, and Linux on my NAS has no difficulty seeing the files. The copies act as backup for each other, and I can work on the master copy while playing the music from the NAS.

I hope this is useful.

David