Nextcloud with existing CIFS share?

🚧 Installation
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1

I am trying to wrap my head around the best say to implement this.

I have an existing NAS (FreeNAS) set up with CIFS shares. I am primarily a Windows PC user, and 90% of my usage is with a Windows PC.

I would like to be able to use Nextcloud to give me access to files on the FreeNAS box via the web browser, and also to allow me to back up my phones and things to drives that are already spinning on the NAS box.

Does remote storage on NC allow me to do this? Or am I misunderstanding its functionality?

2

yes, via smb.

3

I see. Does this simply write to the external SMB share? Or can I also see files in NC as well?

4

you just mount the smb share into the nc, then you can manage the files there as on the nc itself

5

I mounted the SMB share on the NC GUI, and when I make a new file, I can see it on my CIFS share (via windows explorer) but under “SMB” in NC, I see “No files in here - Upload some content or sync with your devices”

6

yes that was a sync issue in older versions that nc need to rescan the files after you add them via an external connection. But since version 9 or so, that issue vanished on my installation by itself. do you see the file in explorer if you create a file in nc?

7

Current version is 11.02.

Yes, I only see file in explorer. I can make files from the NC GUI, but I cannot see them in the NC GUI. I can only see them in the SMB share via windows explorer.

8

ok thats a different thing if nc doesn’t show anything at all. I suggest you try to do a manual rescan with occ on the cli.

9

Still no luck. I set permissions to allow guests to read/write so I know it’s not a permission issues at the FreeNAS box.

10

Did you ever figure this out? I’m running into this issue right now.

11

Not completely vanished.
On Nextcloud 15 LAMP manual I have mounted an external mp3 share with subdirectories and mp3 files within. I then can see this mp3 folder as external folder in nextcloud. I can see files, if i click, they play in the browser.
But when i indicate this external folder in settings/audio player, it opens the file manager pop-up which shows me the folders inside mp3. But it DOES NOT show any file!!!
When i click on a folder, it gives me the popup “No files in here”. Well, there ARE mp3 files in there, nextcloud can see them in file mode, but not in audio player mode. Why it is not using the mounted share normally? Why it is so blind?

12

Is the User what nextcloud is running with, allowed do view the files?

13

Hello,
I dont know. I use windows username/password to access the mp3 windows share. In the settings/external storages/ SMB-CIFS folder i have successfully managed to mount \server\mp3 folder and i see the green checkmark on the left of the folder. On the windows server 2019 i have created a windows user (www-data) and i use this user/password as Global credentials in this settings page to access this windows server from nextcloud over SMB. This windows share is mounted only from within nextcloud, not on the OS level (fstab).
On the windows server i have created this www-data windows user and granted him read permissions over the mp3 folder. And also i have granted him read permissions on the sharing level.
As far as i can see, nextcloud successfully mounts this SMB share and all the mp3 files are visible in the External Storages folder, which i have named mp3. Users can open that folder and see the mp3 files in the file manager of nextcloud.
But in the setting / Audio player, when i specify that folder (/mp3/), or a subfolder, the file popup does not see any file. It sees all the subfolders, but not files. It can go several levels deep in the mp3 folders, but it never sees any file. Only folders.

14

Ah ok, yes the audio player needs to index that before it sees that, but I have to say I have a bad experience with it too.
On my site it manage to begin indexing it but went amok, and then the cpu load was at 100% until I disabled that app.
Perhaps they disabled indexing on remote shares because of that?

15

I’m guessing you’re using smb on the Freenas box to access your files form the windows machines. Set up a NFS share on your Freenas to the same folders and then use the “external sites” app to map the NFS share into Nextcloud. Works perfect! Your share shows up in Nextcloud files just as if it’s a folder.