Evaluation - Does this support Metadata?

[BenW]

Hi, 

 

I've setup a test server running the evaluation version - everything is looking great so far! 

The only problem I've come across is the share doesn't appear to preserve the file metadata in macOS Catalina once copied to the server (see attached image) - the finder get info screen on the left is after the file has been copied to the share, and the one on the right is before it's been copied. 

 

I've setup both a SMB and AFP share and tried it on both - is this something that is supported or am I doing something wrong here? 

This kind of metadata is very important to my business as I need to search a music library to find appropriate tracks for video production. 

 

Any help is appreciated here! 

 

Edit: I've just realised that the screenshot is showing two different files - however this is exactly what happens when the file has been copied to the network - all the info under the more info: display disappears. 

 

Cheers

Edited December 8, 2019 by BenW

[trurl]

I had hoped someone with Mac experience would respond, and maybe they will.

 

Are you sure the metadata you are concerned with is actually part of the file?

 

For example, I don't have Mac, but I have plenty of files on my Unraid which contains metadata.

 

My photos have EXIF data put there by the camera, which contains information about the exposure and other things.

 

And I have a lot of music in various formats which also contain metadata. MP3s, for example, usually have information about the song title, artist, album and other things stored in MP3 "tags" which are part of the file.

 

I have no problem at all transferring all of these files to / from Unraid with their metadata intact.

 

I also have a plex server installed on my Unraid, and it has movie files in its library which have metadata. But that metadata is not part of the files, rather it is stored in the plex database.

 

What application is in your screenshots?

[BenW]

Hi! 
 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Type way MacOS attaches the metadata I’m not 100% sure, but it seems to be linked to the attributes of the file rather than contained within the file itself. 

The reason I say this is purely speculative, however I thought that information like EXIF data are stored within the contents of the file itself - eg. in the header of the file. 

 

If I copy the file to a SMB share and read the metadata from it, it appears when it’s sitting on a Mac server, so it doesn’t seem to be a limitation of the SMB protocol. 

The screenshots I sent were using the finder - which is the equivalent view of right clicking in Windows Explorer and seeing the file properties.

 

I can’t find much on the web about the specifics, which is why I thought I’d try the super knowledgeable people here. Apparently it’s a Unix derivative, if that helps.

 

 This article is the closest clue I can get on how the metadata is stored: https://www.macissues.com/2014/05/12/how-to-look-up-file-metadata-in-os-x/

 

Thanks again!

[BenW]

Also, since writing the reply I’ve found this, which has some info on enabling metadata support for macOS in Samba; but While I can get my way around the basics of a Linux filesystem, I’m a little lost when it comes to editing a samba config, that’s assuming this is talking about on the server. And not on the client! 

 

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Configure_Samba_to_Work_Better_with_Mac_OS_X

[JorgeB]

You can enable better macOS compatibility on Settings -> SMB

 

If more options are needed you can add them to SMB extras on the same page.