DP file errors on a shared drive

[Jim]

I started a new thread, because I think I've gotten to the bottom of the issue I reported in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67296

It turns out that I cannot save over an existing DP project on any drive that is shared over my ethernet network. This suggests that there's a bug in DP concerning shared drives. I can save from other applications onto shared drives, and DP is the only app I use that's producing errors when I attempt to do so.

I've tested this on two computers connected to each other's local drives over ethernet, and the results are the same. Both computers have DP 952 installed. One is running High Sierra 10.13.6, and the other is running Catalina 10.15.2.

Is anybody here doing DP projects on a shared drive? If so, are you not getting these errors?

Or, can anybody who has two computers try to duplicate this on your system?

[bayswater]

I have a shared drive connected to an Apple wifi router and have DP running on the two macs in the signature. I've never noticed any problems of this sort with DP or other apps.

But there are constant problems with the drive being seen by these and other Macs on the network. I assume this is an OS issue because it is a frequent problem with the Finder. It usually shows up as a "xxxx not found message". This can happen even when the files on the shared drive are showing up in a Finder window and are being viewed or otherwise used.

Often, I have to take more basic action to establish a connection, like disconnecting and reconnecting wifi connection, or even restarting one or more Macs. But once connections are there, and recognized by the OS, there are no read and write problems.

[Jim]

Thanks for your reply, bayswater. I see you're running DP 10.11, so this may be an issue specific to DP 9.52.

Can you fire up your virtual Wayback Machine and recall if you were working with 9.52 on your network without issues?

If I had confidence that upgrading to DP 10 would fix this, I'd consider it.

In the meantime, I'm copying projects to a local RAID, and working off those, and then copying the project folders back onto my shared disk after concluding my work. It's not that heinous of a workaround.

[CharlzS]

But there are constant problems with the drive being seen by these and other Macs on the network. I assume this is an OS issue because it is a frequent problem with the Finder. It usually shows up as a "xxxx not found message". This can happen even when the files on the shared drive are showing up in a Finder window and are being viewed or otherwise used.

Is your drive spinning down? You may be experiencing time outs (the folders can be cached in the Finder). Don't know if your router allows you to control this, but other brands allow some control. This is from a Netgear support document:

Allowing disks to slow or spin down when not being actively used can potentially save power and extend the life of the disks, but this can also slow effective read/write speeds and can make the disks appear to be off-line or cause time outs.

As for the OP's issue - don't think spin down is it. Do you have an option on your NAS to to 'use simple shares' or something like that? Did you ever try recreating a share? If it's not this way already, try creating a share where the top level folder is the folder where all the sessions are stored.

[bayswater]

Thanks for your reply, bayswater. I see you're running DP 10.11, so this may be an issue specific to DP 9.52.

Can you fire up your virtual Wayback Machine and recall if you were working with 9.52 on your network without issues?

If I had confidence that upgrading to DP 10 would fix this, I'd consider it.

In the meantime, I'm copying projects to a local RAID, and working off those, and then copying the project folders back onto my shared disk after concluding my work. It's not that heinous of a workaround.

I don't recall anything being different in DP 9 that changed with DP 10. I changed computers at the same time, from an old 2009 iMac to a new 2018 Mini, and from High Sierra to Mojave. I'd have to say the Mini on Mojave doesn't have the same forgetful habits the other Mac have when it comes to networks.

[bayswater]

But there are constant problems with the drive being seen by these and other Macs on the network. I assume this is an OS issue because it is a frequent problem with the Finder. It usually shows up as a "xxxx not found message". This can happen even when the files on the shared drive are showing up in a Finder window and are being viewed or otherwise used.

Is your drive spinning down? You may be experiencing time outs (the folders can be cached in the Finder). Don't know if your router allows you to control this, but other brands allow some control. This is from a Netgear support document:

Allowing disks to slow or spin down when not being actively used can potentially save power and extend the life of the disks, but this can also slow effective read/write speeds and can make the disks appear to be off-line or cause time outs.

As for the OP's issue - don't think spin down is it. Do you have an option on your NAS to to 'use simple shares' or something like that? Did you ever try recreating a share? If it's not this way already, try creating a share where the top level folder is the folder where all the sessions are stored.

Yes, the drive does spin down. Most of the time, when I access it, you can hear it spin back up if you listen for it. It's reported as not found whether or not it spins up. As I mentioned earlier, it sometime reports it cannot find the drive at the same time I'm using it. Other times it just pretends the drive does not exist until I go through a refresh ritual with one or more settings.

Related to whether the OS knows whether the drive is there, and whether it is using the drive, there is the occasional message from Time Machine that will say, for example, that there has been no backup for 132 (or some other stupid number) days. Opening TM, and going to the drive will show there had been a backup within the hour, and on the hours before that, and that the backups are usable. So in general, the system doesn't seem to know what it's talking about when it comes to the presence of this drive.

[Jim]

As for the OP's issue - don't think spin down is it. Do you have an option on your NAS to to 'use simple shares' or something like that? Did you ever try recreating a share? If it's not this way already, try creating a share where the top level folder is the folder where all the sessions are stored.

I didn't. If you've been following my adventure, I ruled permissions out of my issue, as it persists on local, non-NAS RAID shared drives on both the 10.13 and 10.15 computers, and that I'm able to save docs from other apps with no errors.

And again, a fact I think is telling is that I can save once, but not save over (re-write) a DP Project file. I can Save As once, but not re-write over the newly created version.

This issue is strictly related to DP, and perhaps DP 9.52 in particular.

This is why I started a new thread. The NAS was a rabbit hole.

[bayswater]

As for the OP's issue - don't think spin down is it. Do you have an option on your NAS to to 'use simple shares' or something like that? Did you ever try recreating a share? If it's not this way already, try creating a share where the top level folder is the folder where all the sessions are stored.

I didn't. If you've been following my adventure, I ruled permissions out of my issue, as it persists on local, non-NAS RAID shared drives on both the 10.13 and 10.15 computers, and that I'm able to save docs from other apps with no errors.

And again, a fact I think is telling is that I can save once, but not save over (re-write) a DP Project file. I can Save As once, but not re-write over the newly created version.

This issue is strictly related to DP, and perhaps DP 9.52 in particular.

This is why I started a new thread. The NAS was a rabbit hole.

FWIW, I just checked this using my network drive to start up a new project, save it, edit, resave, quit DP, start DP, open, etc. All worked fine.

BTW, the quote above was not me.

[Jim]

BTW, the quote above was not me.

Sorry. I fixed the error in attribution. Not proficient in the HTML.

Your test still hasn't exonerated DP 9.52 if you're still using 10.11. But, thanks for road testing this.

[bayswater]

BTW, the quote above was not me.

Sorry. I fixed the error in attribution. Not proficient in the HTML.

Your test still hasn't exonerated DP 9.52 if you're still using 10.11. But, thanks for road testing this.

Sorry, can help with the 9.52 test. I don't have it installed anywhere anymore.

[Jim]

I'm posting a follow-up. I started a support ticket with MOTU. They reported they were not aware of an issue like this with shared disks, but suggested I install DP10 and take advantage of the demo period to see if the issue persists.

I did, and it does. DP10 still won't let me save over an existing file on a shared disk. The only difference is a different error screen that what I get on DP 952.

I've added this info to my support ticket, and am awaiting a reply. Or not.

In the meantime, my workaround is to keep Saving As, and incrementing the version at the end of the file name, and delete the numerous copies I don't plan on needing in the future after my session is over.

I still wonder why I'm having this issue and Bayswater isn't.

[bayswater]

Meanwhile I fixed the problem I was having with inconsistent connections with these drives by starting a new User. I checked to see that this still works -- Saved a project to the drive in my Airport router, edited, saved it, closed it and opened it. The edits were there. No error messages. The same thing on a drive in another Mac on the same network.

Dunno.