Renamed share - and it was deleted

[Andrewch]

Hi guys,

 

I just renamed a share through the Dynamix GUI and it deleted it! All I did was renamed it and pressed "apply". I was going to try and re add the share to see if it would bring back the data but I wanted to ask first.

 

My system is back up and running since swapping a failed disk but that's the only change since upgrading to v6 approx 1 month ago.

 

Running 6.1.0.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Andrewch]

After some more  reading its become clear that deleting the share will delete all the contents of the share.

 

Is any of it recoverable? To be honest I don't think I'll bother but it would be nice to know why the share deleted when all I did was change the name.

[SSD]

After some more  reading its become clear that deleting the share will delete all the contents of the share.

 

Is any of it recoverable? To be honest I don't think I'll bother but it would be nice to know why the share deleted when all I did was change the name.

 

I can't comment on whether renaming a user share via the WebGUI removes the content. If it does, it sounds like a serious bug IMO.

 

I can comment on how to rename a user share in another way that would not result in data loss.

 

Before doing this, I'd suggest stopping any programs that might be using (reading or writing) the user share at that moment.

 

The approach would be to rename the top level folder on each disk that participates in the user share. For example, say you had a user share called "Media", and wanted to rename that share to "MyMedia". The "Media" share is on three disks - disk1, disk2, and disk4. You could browse to \\tower\disk1 (assuming server name is default "tower"), and simply rename "Media" folder to "MyMedia". Repeat for disk2 and disk4.

 

If you have not configured disk shares to be shared, you could do this from the unRAID command line -

 

mv /mnt/disk1/Media /mnt/disk1/MyMedia

mv /mnt/disk2/Media /mnt/disk2/MyMedia

mv /mnt/disk4/Media /mnt/disk4/MyMedia

 

Or I'm sure there is a way to rename them with midnight commander (mc) if you prefer.

 

However you rename them, the MyMedia share should appear as one of your shares. To confirm that all disks that participate in the old Media share have been updated, you should try to access the "Media" share. It should be empty. If files are appearing, there is another disk that has "Media" as a root level folder that would need to be renamed.

 

Once the Media share is empty you can safely delete it (it may delete itself if you stop and restart the array if you have not altered its configuration manually). And the share previously known as Media is now known as MyMedia.

[Squid]

After some more  reading its become clear that deleting the share will delete all the contents of the share.

 

Is any of it recoverable? To be honest I don't think I'll bother but it would be nice to know why the share deleted when all I did was change the name.

 

I can't comment on whether renaming a user share via the WebGUI removes the content. If it does, it sounds like a serious bug IMO.

 

I can comment on how to rename a user share in another way that would not result in data loss.

 

Before doing this, I'd suggest stopping any programs that might be using (reading or writing) the user share at that moment.

 

The approach would be to rename the top level folder on each disk that participates in the user share. For example, say you had a user share called "Media", and wanted to rename that share to "MyMedia". The "Media" share is on three disks - disk1, disk2, and disk4. You could browse to \\tower\disk1 (assuming server name is default "tower"), and simply rename "Media" folder to "MyMedia". Repeat for disk2 and disk4.

 

If you have not configured disk shares to be shared, you could do this from the unRAID command line -

 

mv /mnt/disk1/Media /mnt/disk1/MyMedia

mv /mnt/disk2/Media /mnt/disk2/MyMedia

mv /mnt/disk4/Media /mnt/disk4/MyMedia

 

Or I'm sure there is a way to rename them with midnight commander (mc) if you prefer.

 

However you rename them, the MyMedia share should appear as one of your shares. To confirm that all disks that participate in the old Media share have been updated, you should try to access the "Media" share. It should be empty. If files are appearing, there is another disk that has "Media" as a root level folder that would need to be renamed.

 

Once the Media share is empty you can safely delete it (it may delete itself if you stop and restart the array if you have not altered its configuration manually). And the share previously known as Media is now known as MyMedia.

I just tried renaming a sharing via the webUI (6.1.2), and it works as expected -> the share is properly renamed, and the files within the share are still present

 

[Andrewch]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's good to know there is anot her way to alter the name.

 

Anyway. I won't be renaming any important shares anytime soon. Maybe I should upgrade to the latest version of unraid too

[SSD]

I just tried renaming a sharing via the webUI (6.1.2), and it works as expected -> the share is properly renamed, and the files within the share are still present

 

Good to know, but I have to say I am cautious about using features that I consider to be rarely used, and I'd say this one qualifies. Swap / disable is another one - which I never use as I think it is rarely used and may not have been fully tested in the version I am using. The implications of a bug would result in a lot of data loss. A test like you have done would be a good idea if trying anything you've never done before.

 

I personally treat user shares with kid gloves since discovering the user share copy bug, and would not be trying to rename them using the GUI. Even if it works as advertised, I'd have a bunch of questions about how it works. For example, if a disk participates in the user share for reads but not for writes, would that disk's folder get renamed? I like my method better.

[Andrewch]

I'll be staying away from renaming now. It would be good to know what features are less reliable.

 

I really like unraid and have used 4.7, 5 and now 6. The gui us great and it allows more casual users like me to perform things that I might not have tried via the command line.

 

Unfortunately it may have also helped me to unintentionally delete some data. Hopefully it's a one off (or my own fault but I don't think so) but I won't be renaming anything again soon.

 

 

[jonp]

User shares are really solid and a key feature of unRAID.  No data is deleted when a share is renamed and shares that are not empty cannot be deleted (the webgui prevents this).  The issue is that when you rename a share, the message you are prompted with in the webgui is that it was deleted.  That is the bug (bad message prompting) and we will fix.

[Andrewch]

Thanks john. I've always found sharea to be very reliable but in this case my share was actually deleted. It wasn't just the message

[trurl]

Are you really sure the files are gone from the actual disks? Maybe try stopping and restarting the array. If the top level folder is there on the disk then unRAID will automatically see it as a share when the array is started.

[Andrewch]

Well there you go. Its funny because I already stopped the array multiple times last night while I was trying to work out how to enable disk shares in v6. I thought I might be able to see the missing files/folders via the disks

 

Just did it again and it worked! (Or I didn't notice it in the lodge last night)

 

Thanks for everyones suggestions and help

[limetech]

The issue is that when you rename a share, the message you are prompted with in the webgui is that it was deleted.  That is the bug (bad message prompting) and we will fix.

 

Just to close the book on this: the 'bug' Jon mentions was fixed long ago during beta series.

 

Not sure what OP did, but it is not possible (and never has been possible) for webGui to delete files on user shares, via share rename or any other method.

 

Re: bjp999 comments: please disregard these instructions.  No need to use command line to rename a share.  Also swap/disable is indeed well tested with caveat: it cannot fix issues caused by bad h/w.

 

 

[SSD]

The issue is that when you rename a share, the message you are prompted with in the webgui is that it was deleted.  That is the bug (bad message prompting) and we will fix.

 

Just to close the book on this: the 'bug' Jon mentions was fixed long ago during beta series.

 

Not sure what OP did, but it is not possible (and never has been possible) for webGui to delete files on user shares, via share rename or any other method.

 

Re: bjp999 comments: please disregard these instructions.  No need to use command line to rename a share.  Also swap/disable is indeed well tested with caveat: it cannot fix issues caused by bad h/w.

 

There was just the one outstanding question or user share renaming - does it rename the user share folders on all drives, or just on the drives that are included / not excluded via the configuration setting?

 

As for Swap / Disable - sorry was not trying to say it was not tested by LimeTech. I just don't think it is used extensively by other users and I am, perhaps, overly cautious. I have found other ways to accomplish the same net result the few times I might have considered using it.

[jonp]

The issue is that when you rename a share, the message you are prompted with in the webgui is that it was deleted.  That is the bug (bad message prompting) and we will fix.

 

Just to close the book on this: the 'bug' Jon mentions was fixed long ago during beta series.

 

Not sure what OP did, but it is not possible (and never has been possible) for webGui to delete files on user shares, via share rename or any other method.

 

Re: bjp999 comments: please disregard these instructions.  No need to use command line to rename a share.  Also swap/disable is indeed well tested with caveat: it cannot fix issues caused by bad h/w.

 

There was just the one outstanding question or user share renaming - does it rename the user share folders on all drives, or just on the drives that are included / not excluded via the configuration setting?

 

As for Swap / Disable - sorry was not trying to say it was not tested by LimeTech. I just don't think it is used extensively by other users and I am, perhaps, overly cautious. I have found other ways to accomplish the same net result the few times I might have considered using it.

 

There are two sets of include/exclude settings:

• The set on the Global Share Settings page, and
  
• The set on each share's Share Setting page.
  

 

Renaming a user share will rename that top-level directory on each disk that is not masked via the Global Share Settings page, regardless of the share's Share Setting include/exclude masks.