Strange problem I’d never noticed, but for some unknown reason one file folder located on the public share of my mycloud drive has been set to “hidden” and windows won’t let me unhide it. It says I need admn permission but doesn’t ask for an admin login. And of course I am the admin for the computer and mycloud anyhow.
When I go to the mycloud dashboard and go to shares, the Public share is set to “On”, although I notice that the “User Access” settings are geyed out, even for admin.
What do I need to do to be able to change the “hidden” attribute for this one folder in windows?
On the single bay/single drive My Cloud the “Public” Share is set to Public and it cannot be set to Private using the Public Access slider option. That explains why the User Access section for it is grayed out.
Some suggestions.
Do not use a period (.) or dollar sign ($) or other special characters at the beginning of a file/folder name on the My Cloud. (Rename the file to remove the offending character)
Move the affected files/folders to another Share and see if the issue persists.
Copy the affected files or folders to a Windows PC, then change the attributes for the file(s)/folder(s), then copy the files back and see if that fixes the issue.
Access the My Cloud using SSH (using programs like WinSCP or Putty) and see if changing the user/group ownership and permissions using Linux commands fixes the issue.
The following WD Knowledge Base Article may be relevant to your issue.
I think the no “.” to begin the folder name could be the issue as that folder does begin with “…” It’s unfortunate that causes a conflict for mycloud as the folder name is a correct album name so to change it could cause issues with my media player database. Do you think your suggestion of copying to a windows location and changing the hidden attribute then recopying it to mycloud would work or will that folder name always trigger mycloud to “hide” it by default? Otherwise I’ll have to look into my options on the software end. Your suggestion to use linux commands is beyond my ability level.
Also unfortunate that mycloud doesn’t allow full control to manage the folders in windows. I looked at the link you sent and it’s mostly greek to my non-techie brain, but it doesn’t seem to provide a solution to the issue. Am I understanding correctly this is just an incompatibility that can’t be resolved?
What program or application are you using to view the My Cloud and it’s files? Windows File Explorer or some other program, software or app?
Often some programs will use a folder icon followed by two or three periods (… or …) to indicate one can select it to move up one level in the directory tree. It doesn’t mean the folder is hidden rather is a method of indicating one can move up one level in the folder structure. An example of this from the WinSCP program:
It is simply a troubleshooting step. It may work, it may not. You will have to try it to see if it fixes your issue(s).
If you continue to have problems it may help others to diagnose your issues if you post a screenshot of what you are seeing; and what or how or why you think the file or folder is hidden.
@dark_cloud
Have you already set up your WDMYCLOUD as part of your local network? I have mine setup and have a shortcut to open it on my desktop. The image below shows how the address/location looks when I open it and then open the Public folder.
Bennor:
I’m using windows file explorer to view the properties and the hidden setting. I see what you mean about the icons in some software, in this case though I know it is the actual folder name. In file explorer the folder is visible but screened lightly which is what prompted me to look at the settings and find that it is set to hidden.
My media player is Media Monkey, which uses a database to manage the files/folders and all the tags. Currently the software won’t find this folder and now it seems likely due to the fact that it’s hidden. So I could change the folder name in Windows file explorer assuming that will keep mycloud from triggering the hidden setting, allowing Media Monkey to find it. Technically that would be an incorrect album name but I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I may try your copy and relocate trick first though just to see if I can get away with it. Unless you have any other suggestions to try…
Cat0w:
The mycloud is part of my local network although the paths I use look a little different from your setup. In file explorer I can access it via it’s IP address, and I also have the Public share mapped as a Drive. If I try to access via “Network” as in your example the mycloud links take me to the Twonky site rather than to the mycloud device. I’ve never tried to understand that because it didn’t seem necessary if I can access it in the other ways I noted.
Apparently Media Monkey requires access via static IP address so I have it set to look via that path and it has always worked except for this isolated problem.
See the image for the problem I’m having when I uncheck hidden. It says I need admin permission to change the setting, which is odd because I am the admin and also it implies it actually could be changed but based on the above discussion the “…” in the filename will always trigger it to be hidden. If I click Continue it just tells me I don’t have permission and that is the end. In any case, I have 1000s of folders on the drive and this is the only one I seem to be having the problem with.
Yes that Metallica album may cause a problem. However on my single bay My Cloud (first gen v4.x firmware) I don’t get an error opening up the “…And Justice For All” folder even though the My Cloud indicates its a hidden folder.
If I try to change (uncheck) the Hidden attribute in the properties dialog it doesn’t actually change the hidden attributes because of the periods used in the folder name. I don’t get an error when trying to change the attributes. Here is what the album looks like without the three periods.
Like suggested in my prior post, try copying the album off the My Cloud to your computer, then copy it back and see if the administrator error issue persists. It only affects the album folder name, you can rename the album folder name, and keep the proper album name (…And Justice for All) for the album tracks metadata and in the track file name if you put the track number first.
Yes, MediaMonkey won’t find the folder on the My Cloud because of the three periods. Your option is to remove the three periods in the album folder name. Then the album will appear in MediaMonkey. Example:
On a side note. Something to consider. A Synology NAS doesn’t exhibit the hidden folder issue that the My Cloud does. And MediaMonkey finds the album as well.
Thanks for checking through all those details. Tonight I’ll try to take it off the mycloud, uncheck the attribute, then bring it back to the mycloud and see what happens. If that doesn’t work I will remove the “…” and go from there with Media Monkey.
Looks like we spend time in the same circles and you found my thread over on the Media Monkey forum! I was trying to work through the issues over there and it wasn’t until last night that I noticed the hidden attribute conflict, so I jumped over here because I realized the permissions for that folder were governed by the mycloud. Then around the same time today you and someone over on the Media Monkey forum came to the same conclusion about the “…” folder name issues so its nice to have that validation.
Anyway, I do plan to make the move over to a synology NAS soon. I’ve got some other things to set up first and I wanted to make sure this issue was straightened out in the meantime. Sounds like it won’t be an issue after all over in the synology world though.
This all started with me recently getting a new router and having to direct Media Money to find a new IP address for the mycloud. Everything but this album was able to work. Now that I’ve gotten the router up and running I’m hopeful once I can get the synology set up I’ll be able to just assign it the same IP address as the mycloud has now and the transition will be smooth from the perspective of media monkey.
From the looks of it, you have two separate issues happening. One is likely some sort of network or computer configuration issue that is causing you to have to use an IP address to access the My Cloud. The other is with MediaMonkey itself.
Because you are using Windows you should double check that SMB1.0 is enabled in Windows. Microsoft disables this setting in recent patch updates or in new Windows installs. Not having SMB1.0 enabled usually causes the My Cloud not to show up properly in Windows File Explorer and for one to use the My Cloud IP address rather than it’s name to access the My Cloud. As my example screen capture above indicates MediaMonkey does find the My Cloud by it’s name on my local network without having to use mapped Shares.
On the using a period in the folder and file name issue, even though the (custom) Linux OS the My Cloud uses is treating the folder/file as hidden, The My Cloud Twonky Media Server along with Windows File Explorer can still view that folder and access files within it. Network clients that access the My Cloud Twonky Media Server can stream the hidden album files. Because of how MediaMonkey is programed it doesn’t see the folder or file. So the issue is with MediaMonkey in this case. One has options. They can chose to find a replacement program for MediaMonkey. They can change the album folder name to remove the periods. They can spend a lot of money to buy a newer NAS that MediaMonkey plays nice with.
Personally, for metadata tagging MP3 and other supported media files I just use MP3Tag rather than MediaMonkey. MP3Tag can load a My Cloud hidden album folder/file. Example:
One can browse their My Cloud Twonky Media Server content by going to the following URL: http://wdmycloud:9000/webbrowse
or http://<My_Cloud_IP_address>:9000/webbrowse
One person over in the Mediamonkey forums found a workaround for albums like Metalllica …And Justice for All period naming issue. Their solution was to use Unicode ellipsis rather than periods in the album folder name (and possibly file name).
For albums or tracks that contain ellipses characters, I use the actual Unicode ellipsis in the title:
…
This isn’t a special character for filenames the way . is.
Using unicode ellipsis appears to fix the issue in MediaMonkey.
The image below shows my shortcut to my MYCLOUD. I do have a Static (Reserved) address for it on my router. When I want to open my MYCLOUD I use the shortcut. If I wanted to open a share using File Explorer I would use \\WDMYCLOUD\ShareName. If I wanted to create a shortcut to that share I would use the same for the Target.
Thanks for all the info here, I’m learning a lot from this experience. Even though I haven’t been able to navigate to the mycloud via the Network browse in File explorer (now I understand why) I have been able to get there via mapped drive and IP address so I haven’t had any problems with basic functionality including accessing the odd hidden folder.
The suggestion of copying the folder off mycloud and “unhiding”, then recopying to mycloud didn’t work. So I just deleted the “…” from the folder name. Once scanned into media monkey I tagged the tracks with the full correct album name without applying that change to the folder name.
Somewhere in the help pages of Media Monkey they indicate that while IP address access is not required, it is the most stable. So I’ve lived with it. I should also say I’m still using Media Monkey v4 not v5. Not sure if 5 is more flexible in that way. Since you mentioned mp3tag I’ll point out that I’ve stayed with v4 because there’s a powerful add-on tagger that connects to the Discogs database. The add on is not yet available for v5 and it is superior to the v5 on-board tagger if you are particular about accurately tagging albums with data from specific release versions and all the other info beyond just album name and album artist.
Anyway, I do plan to move over to a synology later this year so I’m hoping for a smooth transition to that platform.
If you have questions about MP3Tag see the MP3Tag documentation and the MP3Tag support forum. MP3Tag is very versatile and has a number of cover options along with various user made add-in’s (called web sources).
Thanks. I looked into mp3tag a while ago and it wasn’t obvious that it was an improvement over the Discogs tagger add on for Media Monkey 4. Since you mentioned it, is there any particular reason you prefer it?
Simplicity. I use MediaMonkey on rare occasions, but my go to program for quick tagging is MP3Tag due to its non cluttered interface when all I want to do is tag my media files for use in a Plex media library and on my mobile devices.
