I have an array drive called Photos and an unassigned drive called Photo Backup. I also have a specific share of Photos that I see on Windows 11.

I created a folder in Unraid in the array drive Photos called "Test."

My User Script created the folder "Test" to my unassigned drive called Photo Backup. Perfect.

I created a simple text document and put it in the share Photos. Opening both the drive Photos and the unassigned drive Photo Backup, that simple text document does not show up. Why?

I assume it has something to do with a share vs the actual drive. So is the simple text document really not in the array drive Photos? Where is it then? I can open and delete it in windows, but the array and drive where that share is pointed to, it is not there.

AND, when I delete the "Test" folder out of the array drive and run my script, the "Test" folder is still in the unassigned drive Photo Backup. I expected it should have been deleted! Why was it not deleted?

My script is simple, rsync -avh --progress /mnt/disk3/Photos/library "/mnt/disks/4TB Easystore/Immich"

How would I point this to the Photo share instead if need be?

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by RaidPC
Question about why the folder was not deleted after running the script.

41 minutes ago, RaidPC said:

when I delete the "Test" folder out of the array drive and run my script, the "Test" folder is still in the unassigned drive Photo Backup.

Unless you use the --delete option, files that are deleted in the source are not deleted in the destination location

The rsync command uses the --delete option to remove files from the destination directory that are no longer present in the source directory. This ensures that the destination mirrors the source, including deletions.

You would need to add the --delete option to your rsync command, so, rsync -avh --delete --progress /mnt/disk3/Photos/library "/mnt/disks/4TB Easystore/Immich"

45 minutes ago, RaidPC said:

How would I point this to the Photo share instead if need be?

mnt/diskX path references a specific disk. If you want to reference the share, which can span disks depending on how you set it up, replace the /mnt/diskX/folder path with mnt/user/Photos.

I created a simple text document and put it in the share Photos. Opening both the drive Photos and the unassigned drive Photo Backup, that simple text document does not show up. Why?

A share can exist across multiple disks. When you setup a share you can limit it to one or more disks if you wish. How is your Photos share configured. Also, do you have the share set to use a cache drive? If so, any files created in the share will actually exist o the cache disk until the mover moves it to the array. Just some things to check with your Photos share.

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by Hoopster

/mnt/disk3/Photos is the folder on the array drive. Single drive disk 3. - My share is /mnt/user/Photos. This share is only allocated to disk3.

So my share Photos in reality is not pointing to the exact same place even though Windows sees the files in /mnt/disk3/Photos, but not vice-a-versa as mentioned above?

Yes I have cache setup and understand how that works.

I appreciate your input!

4 hours ago, RaidPC said:

So my share Photos in reality is not pointing to the exact same place even though Windows sees the files in /mnt/disk3/Photos, but not vice-a-versa as mentioned above?

Since your Photos share is only on disk3, the /mnt/disk3/Photos and /mnt/user/Photos paths reference the same location. If Photos share were on more than one disk, the /mnt/disk3/Photos path would reference only those photos on disk 3. There would potentially be a Photos folder on other disks (depending on your allocation and split level settings) and the contents of the Photos folder across all disks would be referenced by the /mnt/user/Photos path.

Shares (user or disk) are visible to WIndows if they are set to be exported. Since Windows can see /mnt/disk3/Photos you have disk shares set to be exported. I have five disks in my array and here are the setting for disk1 as an example:

Export Yes (hidden) means that the shares are potentially visible in Windows, but, they don't show by default, you have to know and type in the network path in the Windows Explorer. In the case of the disk share above, as you know, I enter /mnt/disk1/ to see folders and files on that disk.

You have to be really careful not to mix /mnt/disk paths and /mnt/user paths as this could result in data loss should they reference the same file. A move would copy a file, write it to the new location and then delete it from the original location; however, if /mnt/disk3/Photos/photo1.jpg and /mnt/user/Photos/photo1.jpg are referencing the same file, the result will be that it will not exist in either location as the delete step deletes what was just "moved" on top of itself.

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by Hoopster

Perfect, that further helps my understanding. I appreciate the clarification!