I’ve been running TrueNAS for a number of years and everything has been fine accessing the shares from Window machines. But since replacing my Win 8.1 machine with a Win 11 machine the shares often become unavailable on Windows and Fife Explorer stops seeing the TrueNAS box altogether. I assumed that the TrueNAS machine had died but today I tried to ping it and that was fine.
My question is what is the likely cause of the TrueNAS machine not being seen in File Explorer on Windows and what should I do to fix it?
Windows 11 disabled SMB1 and the legacy computer browser service by default. To fix it, map the share directly. Open file explorer, right-click “this PC” then “map network drive”. Enter: \ (e.g., \192.168.1.100\data). Check “reconnect at sign-in”.
I don’t use Windows but … to enable SMB1 on Windows 11, control panel, open “Turn Windows features on or off”, find “SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support,” check the box next to it, click OK, and restart your PC.
TrueNAS (both Core and Scale) has SMB1 (NT1) support disabled by default because SMB1 is obsolete and insecure. Microsoft itself deprecated SMB1 and modern clients typically use SMB2/SMB3.
Windows Explorer (File Explorer) does not need SMB1, or a separate protocol called NetBIOS (sometimes called “NetBIOS over TCP/IP”), to discover and list SMB shares from a TrueNAS server. All modern versions of Windows use a newer protocol called WS-Discovery, which is more reliable and faster. TrueNAS automatically enables WS-Discovery to allow discovery of SMB shares by client devices.
Thanks Tom. That is what I thought. When I setup TrueNAS (some years ago) I did it in a hurry as my previous server failed. I set it up following one of your brilliant videos (Thank You!). The main goal was to store videos that I accessed via a small Kodi machine connected to my TV.
On the Kodi machine I set up access to the shares using the IP address and copy them on to the TrueNAS server from Windows.
When I can no longer access the shares from Windows (which I do browsing in File Explorer) I can also no longer access them on the Kodi box even though it is using the IP address.
That last bit is why I am totally confused.
I plan on replacing the TrueNAS server with a new TrueNAS server based on Scale and using an Apple TV instead of the Kodi box. On the new TrueNAS server I plan on using Jelllyfin.
I keep delaying this because I can’t find a definitive answer whether I can run the NPVR satellite software running on TrueNAS Scale. It’s listed but no one on satellite forums seems to have done it.
That is all probably irrelevant to my current issue but I’d like to work out what is going on before I move to the new server. I will still use a Windows machine to edit the recordings before putting them back on the TrueNAS server.
I hope all that makes sense and explains why I’m confused.
Have you checked if you have an IP conflict? How certain are you that every device, including your NAS, Windows PC and Kodi device have unique IP’s?
Also, you keep mentioning you’re using File Explorer from the Windows host, which is fine. But from the Windows Explorer, are you using the NAS hostname (\\MyNas\Dataset), FQDN (\\MyNas.mydomain.arpa\Dataset), or the IP (\\192.168.x.x\Dataset, or whatever the IP might be) to access the file share?
I don’t have any conflicts. All my main devices have their IP set in my DHCP server based on their MAC address. Other devices are allocated from a separate pool
On the Windows machine I’m just browsing the network but it’s not the Windows end that I’m most concerned about. That is annoying, and I know I can map a drive letter to the share using the IP address.
What I am most concerned about is why the Kodi machine stops seeing the NAS. As it is using the IP address it shouldn’t be an issue, should it?
I always thought the NAS had died until the other day when I couldn’t be bothered to go start it and decided to ping it. I was surprised when it replied.
To put the question a different way. At the moment the Kodi device is playing videos off the NAS without issue. But some time soon it won’t.
As restarting the NAS fixes the issue the problem must be on the NAS. Right? But what? What has failed on TrueNAS and why? That’s what I’m trying work out.
Even on the Windows machine the fact that I can access the shares fine most of the time means that the configuration of everything is okay. Right? So again, something on the TrueNAS box is dying. No?
Thanks for the details. And yes, it could very well be your NAS; either the OS/software or the hardware.
Do you still have the installer for the version you’re on, or access to one? I know you mentioned you’re planning on replacing it and all, but before doing that, have you tried reinstalling TrueNAS on your current host? Obviously, make sure you have a full configuration backup that you can apply to the newly installed instance.
I posted on here because I want to understand what is going on, and I hoped people could help with that. If I just re-installed TrueNAS on the server it wouldn’t help my understanding why it is happening.