Long term problem: Zidoo Z9X not seeing certain folders in SMB share from time to time

I have shared a number of external drives over SMB - In just about any of these shares, from time to time the zidoo can't see certain folders. As a temporary solution what I did is I would either make a copy of that folder that zidoo was not seeing in the same location or make a new folder and copy the content (of the folder that zidoo was not seeing) in the new folder - these approaches did not solve the actual issue, but allowed me to get access to get to the content I wanted to access through another way, i.e., by the new folder i created (or by making a copy of the folder zidoo was not seeing)...so a band-aid solution not a complete solution

However, now I have a case when Zidoo is not seeing the root folder that all my media is in in one of my drives...I can't possibly get around this one using above mentioned method, and if I make a shortcut the zidoo does see the shortcut but of course zidoo cannot open windows shortcuts..

I have tried refreshing - did not solve issue.. Restarting zidoo did not solve issue.. Removing smb share and re-adding it, did not solve issue.

Any help is appreciated..

 

it sounds very much like you have an issue with changing IP addresses. It is certainly not normal behaviour.
Do you have fixed IP's for both the Zidoo and whatever your hard drives are attached to (PC/laptop/NAS/Router)?
If not, this may fix your issues.

 

Well, I have had no such issue with other devices I own (nivida shield, my cell phone) - on them I use the same technique to share smb drives as i do on zidoo and any new folders appear. What's odd is that the Zidoo shows the "System Volume Information" folder of that drive, but not the actual root folder I made on it - in constrast on windows, I don't even see the "system volume information drive" but of course I see the folder I created.

To answer your question more preciesly - my router assigns IP addresses, and as far as I understand, these ip addresses remain permanent for a long time....otherwise, if they changed I presume that Zidoo would be unable to see any of my smb shares to begin with.

Just to make it clear I will attach a screenshot of what I mean. The "E2" folder that is at the root of my hard drive in the screenshot, the Zidoo does not see it....but the Zidoo is able to access the drive and it shows the folder "System Volume Information" (which i presume is a hidden folder, hence why i don't see it in windows as i have not enabled hidden folders). Now if I create a new folder in the same path, let's call it "E3" - then the zidoo will see it, but it just cannot see "E2".

Also, I am wondering, if your theory is correct, shouldn't removing the share from zidoo and re-adding it fix this issue? Any other tips you have would be greatly appreciated. I am on the latest firmware too, i.e., v6.4.65

I have attached the screenshot to this post, but here is an alternative link for it as well @Phil181 : https://postimg.cc/4mmNH0ZT

 

I think the problem is the sharing of the whole drive. Zidoo seems to ignore the first folder or file in this case. On my disks i use this folder structure:
\Dummy.txt
\movies
\tvshows

I have mounted all my drives to subdirectories (junctions) under c:\share and export only c:\share. But with this method you can not see the remaining space on windows, so i additionally mount them normally with letters.

 

But zidoo does see the first (i.e. root) folder in many of my shares. Furthermore, as I mentioned, if I create a folder named "E3" in the root of the I: drive, the Zidoo will see the "E3" folder. But for some reason, it refuses to see the E2 folder which has all my content in...This is despite the fact that both E3 and E2 folders are in the root of the drive.

However, I will see if I can use your method as a work around...I even tried re-sharing the drive and changing permission settings, but no luck.

 

@Z49845
Hi, your suggestion of creating a junction has resulted in a new work around - i created a junction named E3 in the root of the drive linked to the "E2" folder that zidoo does not see which is also in the root of the drive - voila, the zidoo sees the E3 directory! I had created a symlink before but it seems that zidoo does not see symlinks but sees junctions. Of course this is a temporary work around, but it also does solve my problem - though it doesn't address the problem itself of course. Thank you!

 

I was often losing my shares nearly every time I powered off and then on. Mark Swift advised me to assign fixed addresses for all my sources. Did so removing DHCP from addresses above 200 and making all my sources and the Zidoo in the plus 200 range. Problem solved. Don’t know if this would work for you but worth a try

 

Thanks, I may give your suggestion a go, but as you know my issue is not the shares themselves per se - it is folders within shares, sometimes some folders don't appear in the particular share...it could be any type of folder. For example, i may have 100 folders on my C drive, but see 99 of them on my zidoo - why i don't see the 100th one is beyond me - one work around is to simply recreate a copy of that folder which the zidoo sees...but i can't do this with root folders which have everything in them - so hence, the junction trick provides a work around.

 

Is that C drive the main drive on your PC?
Maybe all your 100 folders are not shared? or at least number 100 that you can't see.
If it was me I would move my media files onto a separate drive from the drive having the PC operating system

 

No that's the I drive, it's just an external hard drive..

However, other devices, ex, nvidia shield and my cell phone see that 'SAMBA' shared folder just fine - it's just the zidoo that's having trouble.

 

And ZDMC on the Zidoo also has no problems seeing all folders. The problem is the SMB software in the Zidoo firmware with its really bad implementation for SMB2 . ZDMC has its own SMB library and uses SMB3.
I have sent log files to the support about this and other SMB problems, but after "we tell this the developers" i have never heard from them again.

 

DHCP will change IP addresses and cannot be relied upon the give the same one each time. The simple fix will be to go into your router and allocate fixed IP's.
I've had printers, other media players and NAS's all get lost when IP addresses are changed by the router. I now fix IP's for everything on the network (except mobile phones) and have had no issues.
I would really recommend you try this for yourself.

 

I did what you said - but didnt solve my issue though. I also sent logs to zidoo.

 

Is it just the same folder? If so remove it, delete any NFO files and image files. Change the name if the movie slightly, say adding in after the name the date and say 1080p or whatever. Add back to drive and let HT rematch etc and then check ( with fingers crossed )

 

In this particula rcase it is the root folder, so i can't do that - but your technique is what i apply to 'ordinary' folders, i.e., non-root folders that i can move around, or I simply make a copy of them.

However, the work-around i am now using is the one provided by @Z49845 - i just created a junction link, so i recreated the same folder as a link in the exact same and zidoo sees the link no problem - see image attached --> zidoo sees "E3" which is really "E2" but E3 is a link and not real, E2 is the real folder..

 

This a bit above my pay grade! Why would one put something in the root folder? Like one of my many sources I only have one where I have designated the whole drive as the source but that was a mistake on my part at the time. Inside I have a movie and tv folder and an archive folder when I move stuff I no longer want on HT. Still accessible from media manager.

 

Well regardless of why, the issue does not only affect root folders....