[Issue]: Mega 6.1.0 Unable to sync and backup from an NFS mount

[GeoffClements]

Issue

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Attempting to sync an NFS mount gives an error saying the filesystem is not supported. The same happens when trying to backup the same directory.

Previous to version 6.1.0 this has worked without a problem.

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Steps to Reproduce (For Bug Reports)

Add a new sync or simply use a previously setup sync (as I did) which points to a local NFS mounted directory.

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Environment Details

Operating System: KDE neon User Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.21.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.14.0-37-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.6 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600M

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Helpdesk Support

Have you already contacted our support team?
If so, please provide the ticket ID to help us track it:

Ticket ID: N/A

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[vtmateos]

Hi,
The MEGA SDK no longer supports network drives as a synced root folder. This is due to issues with certain filesystem properties that the sync algorithm relies on, which are not fully reliable on SMB/NFS mounts.

Support for these types of setups is under evaluation for future releases.

We will provide updates on this topic as they become available.

Thanks for your feedback.

[GeoffClements]

Thanks for the reply.

This is quite nasty for me, I have data on a networked drive that I need to sync, I guess an answer might be to sync from the server itself.

However, It's not just sync that won't work it's backup as well, unless I've misunderstood, shouldn't backup be a simple update as the data only moves in one direction?

[vtmateos]

Hi @GeoffClements ,
Backups work in a similar way to sync, relying on the same mechanisms that the sync algorithm uses (such as inotify and inode numbers). Therefore, they are also not supported.

As an alternative, you can use our MEGAcmd product. It allows you to configure backups either on the server itself or on the client. You can set this up by following the documentation provided.

These backups work differently, using periodic recursive scans at user-scheduled times. I think it’s worth giving this option a try.

[GeoffClements]

Hello @vtmateos,
Thanks for the information, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

As an alternative, you can use our MEGAcmd product. It allows you to configure backups either on the server itself or on the client. You can set this up by following the documentation provided.

These backups work differently, using periodic recursive scans at user-scheduled times. I think it’s worth giving this option a try.

I did look in to this but, as far as I can tell, MEGAcmd is not available for armhf (32 bit) architectures, at least not at its latest version. In the end I used Rclone and set up a systemd timer to run a sync service every night.

I'd like to take this opportunity to express my frustration with this issue. It came without warning and I've been using MEGA for years and never had a problem syncing over NFS. My use case is simply to backup my family photos, not that important in the grand scheme of things but they're precious to me, especially when they include family member no longer with us. The time-scheduled approach is less good than the immediate response I used to get but it will have to do for now.

[vtmateos]

Hi @GeoffClements ,
We have packages on armhf for rapsbian, but not sure which linux system are you looking for? Could you provide some extra feedback? Thanks.

[GeoffClements]

I have an Odroid HC1 running Armbian. This is set up with Debian stable (trixie).

cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor       : 0
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 36.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 1
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 36.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 2
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 36.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 3
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 36.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 4
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 120.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0xc0f
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 5
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 120.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0xc0f
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 6
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 120.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0xc0f
CPU revision    : 3

processor       : 7
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 120.00
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0xc0f
CPU revision    : 3

Hardware        : Samsung Exynos (Flattened Device Tree)
Revision        : 0000
Serial          : 0000000000000000

cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:        2035384 kB
MemFree:          191332 kB
MemAvailable:    1244876 kB
Buffers:           34740 kB
Cached:          1053220 kB
SwapCached:          244 kB
Active:           800004 kB
Inactive:         807568 kB
Active(anon):     181128 kB
Inactive(anon):   395944 kB
Active(file):     618876 kB
Inactive(file):   411624 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
HighTotal:       1288192 kB
HighFree:          21636 kB
LowTotal:         747192 kB
LowFree:          169696 kB
SwapTotal:       1017688 kB
SwapFree:         917336 kB
Zswap:                 0 kB
Zswapped:              0 kB
Dirty:                56 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:        519404 kB
Mapped:           220636 kB
Shmem:             57460 kB
KReclaimable:      84760 kB
Slab:             133144 kB
SReclaimable:      84760 kB
SUnreclaim:        48384 kB
KernelStack:        4784 kB
PageTables:         7220 kB
SecPageTables:         0 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:     2035380 kB
Committed_AS:    3741328 kB
VmallocTotal:     245760 kB
VmallocUsed:       26328 kB
VmallocChunk:          0 kB
Percpu:             2016 kB
CmaTotal:         131072 kB
CmaFree:             108 kB

If you need any more information please let me know, thanks.

[daniel-byers]

I've just run into this regression to. I'll stick to 6.0 until it can be fixed. Would you happen to have a time-frame of when that will be?

[vtmateos]

Hi @daniel-byers , which linux distro are you using?
Thanks!

[daniel-byers]

Hi @vtmateos! 🙋‍♂️

I am on Arch Linux x86_64 with kernel: 6.18.3-arch1-1 and Plasma 6.5.4

Cheers!

[TheRec]

Hi, The MEGA SDK no longer supports network drives as a synced root folder. This is due to issues with certain filesystem properties that the sync algorithm relies on, which are not fully reliable on SMB/NFS mounts.

Support for these types of setups is under evaluation for future releases.

@vtmateos How is this kind of regression possible without even announcing it to users? That feature was part of what convinced me to purchase services from MEGA. Now I'm left with the inability to backup files although backups/restores with SMB shares have been working perfectly for months before this?

I really hope this feature will be restored in the next version, otherwise I will lose the use for my current Pro II membership and will likely cancel it at that point.

We will provide updates on this topic as they become available.

Where will this "update" be provided? There was no information provided to users that this feature was going to be removed.

[U2EZNeko]

You guys need to reverse this.

Or maybe at least give people a heads up so they can unsubscribe on time.

[vtmateos]

Hi everyone,

After further discussion within the team, we have decided to re-enable support for this feature. In future versions, we will add a warning to inform users about potential issues, as some filesystem types are not reliable for syncing. Use of this feature will therefore be at the user’s own risk.

Over the next few days, we will prepare and release a patched version, 6.1.1, which will include the aforementioned adjustments.

Thank you for your valuable feedback.