TextEdit RTF files invisible on Lacie Network Drive
 

I am using a Lacie Ethernet Drive Mini and have the following problem:

If I create a file in the finder and copy it to the drive I have no problem. If I create a file in a Microsoft application and save it directly to the Enet Mini I have no problem. However, if I use a default application, like Apple's TextEdit (included with mac OS X) and save the RTF file directly to the drive, it is invisible!!! If I look in the folder using the terminal, the file is there, but it does not appear in the finder. This bug is repeatable and happens every time. I am unable to find any documentation about this.

Is the external drive otherwise empty? Is it an option to try reformating it using Disk Utility?

Does restarting the Finder or comparing the output of

ls -l

help ?

No, it is far from empty - it has about 70 GB of my iTunes music. (Which works fine by the way.)

I should note that Network Drives are formatted as FAT32 (like the iTunes Shuffle). Reformatting as an OS X drive will disable the network drive features.

Restarting the finder does not help.

Not sure what you mean by "comparing the output of ls -l". That command reveals the file as in the folder, but I'm not sure what you mean by "comparing the output" or how that might help make it visible in the finder.

I was thinking about owner/right issues.

Do you see the files with PathFinder (3rd party Finder on steroids) ?

Does unmounting, rebooting then re-mounting the NAS device help ?

rebooting and re-mounting doesn't help.

Me too! I have exactly the same problem - if I save from within an application (rather than dragging a file) to my LaCie Ethernet Mini the files are invisible in the finder. What's truly weird is that they are visible when seen within the host application's 'open' dialogue box. It also won't allow me to overwrite (by dragging) the file with another of the same name, telling me that's because the original file is invisible! :mad:

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my "ED Mini." I recently ran rsync to update various iTunes music libraries (when apple can't find the network drive it saves downloads on the local computer without informing the user that it is doing this or offering a choice). Rsync correctly uploaded the missing shows and albums to the ED Mini, and they are there when I look in the terminal, but I cannot see them in the Finder, and (as a result) when i try to rebuild my music library iTunes doesn't see them either!!!

I've wasted a day trying to solve this problem, to no avail.

Interestingly, doing a cp command in the terminal to copy the invisible files creates a visible file. But I can't figure out a way to identify all the invisible files, and I don't have the time to copy every file in the directory.

OK. I was able to solve the problem (sort of). Seems the invisibility bit needs to be set in the command line. You can do this with the command:

/Developer/Tools/SetFile -r -a v FILENAME

assuming you have installed the developer tools.

However, I still don't know how to locate the files which are invisible or how to do this recursively for an entire directory. But I went into a single directory (for a TV show) and ran the command using *.*, and all those shows became visible.

Looks like the Program File Buddy was able to do the trick, although I have to say that I was very unimpressed with this program other than it having this much needed feature. (One of the worst and most unresponsive GUI's I've ever seen on the mac.)

LACIE - invisible files
 

Hey I have a similar problem - I had about 500 mp3 files basically vanish on my external LACIE (FAT32) they don't show up in the finder but doing a locate command for individual filenames in the terminal reveals the invisible files one at a time but I can't figure out a way to identify all the invisible files and of course i don't know the name of every single song to search one by one...

If you do a Versiontracker search for invisible, there are lots of apps that will set and unset the invisible bit.

Trevor

Yes, but not so many which will locate those files for you. Or batch modify those files in a particular folder (searching recursively within that folder).

OK, then how about something like
sudo /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v /Volumes/"volumename"/*

...where volumename is the name of the Ethernet Drive Mini?

Trevor

That sounds good. Is there a way to tell it to skip files that should be invisible, such as .DS_Store?

.DS_Store is invisible because it's name starts with a period. SetFile -a v makes files visible whose invisibility bit is set.

In other words, it will not change in any way the invisibility of .DS_Store.

Trevor

Finding invisible files
 

I can't tell if my previous post "stuck" or not, so I'm posting this again.

The following command in Terminal should show invisible files:

mdfind "kMDItemFSInvisible == 1"

Also, I should add that I'm having the same problem with the Lacie Big2 Network Disk. I don't have a solution for this either (other than trying to reset the invisible bit whenever I can).

in case my last msg got eaten, I am having the same issue with the LaCie 2Big.

Worse, yes, it's got worse: connecting via AFP reveals neither files nor folders copied over now, switching visibilty has no effect and iTunes can no longer find my tunes :(

@Admins: suggest this thread is renamed to reflect that the issue has nothing to do with TextEdit or RTF files, which may deter seekers after truth...

cheers!

Update: posted a link to this thread to LaCie Support. Let's see what happens next...

compare and contrast, some other solutions listed here

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/13/3918...es-finder.html

I can't even see my files in the terminal, so chflags doesn't help. It might help s/one else though...

A solution
 

This is why I like LaCie.

If (like me) you've never had any need for SMB until now, you just preface your network box's IP address with smb:// as the Network address (duh)

Then use Show Hide Invisible Files (or similar app if you don't like the Terminal commands) to see .DS_Store etc: like they say: delete these, reconnect via AFP and you're done.


Phew.

Same problem, Textedit 1.5 circumvents
 

I have a LaCie 2big ethernet drive configured as a Raid 1 500GB, updated to 2.0.6. From OS 10.5 (on a Pro), using textedit 1.5 I can save files directly to the drive and they are visible. In 10.4 on an iMac using textedit 1.4 or 1.3 or on the Pro using 1.4 or 1.3, or a doctored version of textedit 1.4 that has root privileges, the files are invisible. Nisus saves text files that are visible. Super Get Info 1.2.2 allows me to make them visible, but I don't want to have to force my wife to do that.
Textedit 1.5 will only run in 10.5.
Has anyone gotten a hint from LaCie?

Also
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/13/3918...es-finder.html mentions deleting your com.apple.finder.plist No help there either.

Invisible answers from LaCie's Jerome
 

Posted: June 12, 2008 @ 9:15 AM
Thanks for contacting La Cie. I am not sure what may be causing the files to be invisible in some programs but not others. So long as the file gets copied to the drive and you can map a share on the desktop and either samba or afp see the drive, then we know the drive is working. It looks like you are able to see all the files from the screenshot you attached, so the drive looks to be working.
Jerome

Posted: June 12, 2008 @ 11:00 PM
The drive mechanism is working, I agree. But there appears to be a serious concern about my ability to get continued use out of it since the software interface for afp appears to have an unexplained and therefore insurmountable flaw. I can see the invisible files with a purchased third party piece of software (SGI) that I should not need for normal access. Copying does not appear to cause the problem. Opening a new file does. Resaving over the opened file, after a change, clears the invisible flag. A possible correlating annoyance is that when moving a large (20K+) number of smaller files the drive begins by moving only very small numbers of bytes, giving an indicated time to complete the copy of Thousands of hours before catching up several minutes later. My guess is it may start indexing, defragmenting, or mirroring. I'm also curious why the fan never turns off in a 70°F room. Without a resolution to these problems I will have to return the drive.

Posted: June 13, 2008 @ 9:25 AM
All that I can assist you with is ensure that we can copy data to and from the unit using finder, if you are having issues with other software, you will need to contact them for more assistance. But when copying lots of little files to any hard drive, will take a long time because it has to update the directory for each file, versus one large file. If you have any other questions, do let us know.
Jerome

Posted: July 5, 2008 @ 11:20 AM
The issue has not been resolved. Of the 5 different external drives I have recently used, 2 were NAS and only the one from LaCie has experienced the invisible file problem. From the forums I am not the only one. My software doesn't do that with any other drive except this one. It is not, therefore, just the software, but at least an interaction between the two. In all honesty, you can not just brush this off and make me chase after Apple to change both Safari and TextEdit to support your drive. It's only one bit that's being flipped. Certainly you can at least tell me where that's happening and properly pass the information to Apple yourself.

Next time I get a little silent Mac Mini and hang drives off of it in a RAID array instead of listening to this fan and reading invisible help.

Same problem saving from Apple's Mail and WebScrub
 

I have had the same problem and have tried everything including changing how I connect to the LaCie NAS. It only happens to me when saving Mail messages as text and saving html from the small utility WebScrub.

the problem is LaCie not acknowledging the problem - I have had many battles with there NAS and given up for good on their stuff.