Upgraded from 7.1.4 to 7.2.2 and eventually 7.2.3 blindly and attempted to create a new share (something I haven't needed to do in a while); however, I got the "Invalid share name" error.

Found out this was due to adding spaces to my Share Names; however, my previous shares (I made before going to 7.2.x), which have spaces, seem to work perfectly. As a matter of fact, when I try to change the name of my old Shares that had spaces to a different name (like changing a single letter), I also get the same error. Is this a random bug or an error? My off-site running 7.1.4 doesn't have this issue, and I am seriously considering downgrading from 7.2.3 back to 7.1.4 because of it (although it looks like I am also not able to double downgrade since it doesn't give me the option, and I just get the "No downgrade available" message, but that's a different issue entirely). Any help would be appreciated.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by JetRun15
Added screenshots for clarification.

They were restricted because ZFS can't handle those correctly; I recommend just renaming those shares.

I hit something similar this morning, but worse. On v7.2.3 are we now now only restricted to the alphabet? I tried to call a share "-something-" and was rejected. Even though I have plenty of folders from earlier v7 release called "-other-" and "_this_".

It seems a backwards step to only allow the 26 letters of the alphabet when previously we were at least allowed the "-" and "_"

I use xfs and this limitation is especially frustrating when my other folders have the perfectly legal "-" in the name meaning I can actually group them as I need to.

Why was that limitation not just restricted to zfs drives?

I guess I could install an old version of v7, add the share, then upgrade again? Does anyone know when this "feature" was added?

Edited to add:

For anyone reading this, the topic is brought up here: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/197301-fix-logic-on-add-share-tab/ and the solution is just kick to the command line to get around this weird GUI only limitation.

Edited February 26Feb 26 by Batter Pudding

21 minutes ago, Batter Pudding said:

It seems a backwards step to only allow the 26 letters of the alphabet when previously we were at least allowed the "-" and "_"

You can use them, the error is about the name starting with one

21 minutes ago, Batter Pudding said:

Why was that limitation not just restricted to zfs drives?

Cause you can at any time after creating the shares add either a new array drive or pool that you decide to format as ZFS

Edited February 26Feb 26 by Kilrah

I do realise the error is about starting with a perfectly legal character like a dash. This is a system that has no ZFS drives and never will have any ZFS drives in it.

Especially frustrating when earlier in v7 life I was allowed to do this and have a collection of folders setup like this already. Perfectly working. Trying to add one more to that set was then restricted by the GUI.

This should just be an advisory. Not a forced by the GUI in case I'd put in a different format.

24 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Cause you can at any time add either a new array drive or pool that you decide to format as ZFS

I would not be able to move to ZFS. Too many of my sub-folders start with other characters like [ or ! or Japanese text. A format system restricted to the alphabet would never work for my use.

Wow - this has been a bit of a shock learning curve. I am looking at those ZFS manuals and they don't even allow accented characters? Something like an é is not allowed in a folder name. I've been so used to full Unicode since the 90s that ZFS is an amazing backward step. I could literally not adopt it with my current folder hierarchy.

I don't understand how something like ZFS can only restrict to 26 letters. I came from NTFS where for years we can use almost any letter on the keyboard and expanded into Unicode. SMB then allowed those names as folder shares. Many of my old shares started with "!Folder" and the move to a "-folder" was already a compromise for my naming scheme.

I really don't want to start naming things as "aaa-folder" as it gets messy and starts eating into my character file length. I assume at some point they will actually fix ZFS to catch up with what other disk formats have been doing for decades.

Now I have learnt it is only a GUI thing I have found a way around it in Unraid and helpfully learnt that I can never go anywhere near ZFS due to this oversight on how language works outside the US.

Edited February 26Feb 26 by Batter Pudding