External drive not shown in Filestation

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Petep74093
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Location: Sandhurst, UK

External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by Petep74093 »

Bit of a puzzler thatI hope someone can offer some guidance on.
TS-453 Pro , Version 4.3.6.1040(20/8/2019)

Two nights ago my regular weekly backup failed and indicated that the folder pairs were invalid. Sure enough when I looked at the backup job settings the source folders and the destination path details were completely messed up (external drive 3 pic)- no idea why and can't see anything in logs to indicated any errors during the days leading up to it.

I have checked the backup drive on another server and looks good with no obvious problems. When I connect it to my main NAS then I can see it as connected under the icon on the top of the admin workspace ok, however I do not have the option to open/view the drive (external drive 1 pic). In addition it then does not show in file station as being connected at all, all I see are the folders etc in my datavolume (external drive 2 pic)
I did think it might be related to the external drive but I have the same result using a different backup drive - both these work ok in the other serverI have access to.
Lastly I have tried using a different USB port in case thatwas related but no change, so it does look like there is something messed up in filestation
The NAS seems to be working ok, other nightly routines are good and no one at home has complained of problems using Plex, so I'm taking as an indication of systems being good.

So has anyone any suggestions of actions or checks to make please, I'm not a linux guru so if commands etc are needed then I'd appreciate some idea on the syntax etc as well
Thanks in advance
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Model: TS-453 Pro -- RAM: 8GB
FW: QTS 4.4.1.1117(09/11/2019)
WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 x4 Red HDDs - RAID 5
UPS: APC BG700G

Backups and maintenance routines are essential and shouldn't be overlooked. If you can't replace the data then any loss is firmly on your shoulders.

NAS is only a storage facility and not a magical place protected by knights and elves.

Back it up and secure it or lose it - your choice ! :mrgreen:
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storageman
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Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by storageman »

How you tried clearing the browser cache or connecting from a different PC?
Using Putty and "lsusb" would definitely confirm it is seen.
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Petep74093
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Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:20 pm
Location: Sandhurst, UK

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by Petep74093 »

storageman wrote: Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:28 pm How you tried clearing the browser cache or connecting from a different PC?
Using Putty and "lsusb" would definitely confirm it is seen.
Thanks storageman for the tips and for anyone following up on this I have the following update and conclusion

I did try storageman's checks without success and also tried a different docking station too in case that was a factor but to no avail. Next stage was to open a ticket with QNAP who suggested that I update the firmware to the latest version (standard expected answer) then connect the USB drive and see if allowed it to mount correctly and be seen in Filestation. Also that I check that the USB drive was shown as a shared folder (Control Panel > Privilege > Shared Folders)

I did as suggested and updated firmware successfully but still had same result when connecting external USB drive. I checked further and found that the external drive only had permissions for the main admin user - I was logging in using my secondary admin user and the permissions for that user ( which were always there previously ) had disappeared and therefore I could not see the external drive in Filestation. When I tried using the primary user then the drive showed up in Filestation ok and I was able to view the folders within.

I re-instated the permissions for the secondary admin user which can now see the drive ok in Filestation - I believe the loss of permissions occurred when I had the initial backup failure where the source folder paths were corrupted.

I have deleted and and re-created the backup job and run that successfully, so everything looks to be back to normal now.
Thanks again for suggestions storageman as it allowed me to eliminate that aspect
Model: TS-453 Pro -- RAM: 8GB
FW: QTS 4.4.1.1117(09/11/2019)
WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 x4 Red HDDs - RAID 5
UPS: APC BG700G

Backups and maintenance routines are essential and shouldn't be overlooked. If you can't replace the data then any loss is firmly on your shoulders.

NAS is only a storage facility and not a magical place protected by knights and elves.

Back it up and secure it or lose it - your choice ! :mrgreen:
jkempccm
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Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 17, 2019 12:39 am

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by jkempccm »

I just wanted to say THANK YOU Petep74093 for posting the solution! I had the same issue out of nowhere, my Sync job failed with unmatched folders and I was no longer able to see my External Drive in File Sync. I found your thread and it solved my problem!

For some reason the Admin account had a random login failure a day before this began happening, but I didn't think anything of it. Then...after that, my local sync job stopped working (but I had no idea of the correlation until you posted it). I discovered the same issue as you, that the File Folders weren't matching and in fact, the External Drive was not showing in File System. When I logged into the main Admin account I discovered that my permissions to the external drive had been removed on my personal administrative account. When I added them back in, logged back in as myself, the external drive was again showing in File System. I guess since the Sync job was created by my account, it needed to have those permissions to the external drive for the job to run successfully. I tried to run the Sync job as is, now that I could see the External Drive, but it still failed. That is when I discovered that the NAME of the external drive had actually changed! Instead of creating a new Sync Job, edited the current job, modifying to the new DriveName/Same folder as they were before and the job completed successfully!

Thank you again THANK YOU Petep74093!
mikews
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Location: Gold Coast, Australia

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by mikews »

Thanks for the tip!
thomaskng
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Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by thomaskng »

Thank you so much. I had the same problem and you've solved it.
JCsix
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Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 8:52 am

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by JCsix »

One more thank you Petep74093 for coming back and sharing your solution.

In my case I have a new HD that I'm trying to setup for external backup through USB. Using my personal admin account I formatted, mounted, could see it in Storage, etc. but it was not showing up on File Station. Turns out that even though my user formatted the drive, the RW permissions had not been set for it.

Also, the permissions for my personal admin account on my older external backup HD (another disk) had also been removed, so I was starting to suspect my HD enclosure until I read your post.

Thanks again!
TheCycler
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 3:23 am

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by TheCycler »

Hi all,
One extra big thumbs up for Petep74093 for sharing the solution.
I avoid using the admin account and work with my personal account that is part of the administrator group.
You would think this gives you the same access rights as admin, but no... not the case.
BTW, this is a security best practice and in the access log you can immediately be alerted when someone is logging in with the Admin account (successful or unsuccessful).
Thanks to the new QuLog Center, it's very easy to spot such attempts.
Zelidar
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Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:02 pm
Location: Switzerland

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by Zelidar »

(Control Panel > Privilege > Shared Folders)
I have appreciated very much reading these few words, thank you.
I was getting really nervous not being able to use my brand new external flash disk.
happythanh
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Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:15 pm
Location: Vietnam

Re: External drive not shown in Filestation

Post by happythanh »

thanks very much, I have same problem and it solved my problem too,
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