[Help] how to add folders to Personal Space

[maccad]

Hello,

I recently purchased an F4-424 Max, which comes equipped with 64GB of RAM, a 500GB WD Red SSD for the system and VMs. I also installed two HE10 10TB drives in RAID 0 to test speeds for now.

I also have other NAS devices, such as QNAP and Synology, which I have been using for many years.

I would like to switch to using this Terramaster as my main NAS. However, there are some differences in managing private folders.

My first question is how can I add more folders to the Personal Space without using the system disk?

I have TNAS Mobile backing up photos and videos from my smartphone to a folder on the RAID volume, and I would like them to appear in the Photos app in my Personal Space.

I've already tried setting this folder in media folder indexing, but it appears in the Public Space, and as such, all folders are available via DLNA on the network.

Is there something I'm missing?

Also, after setting up 3 users, I, as the administrator, cannot access the Home folders of each user on windows explorer as I can on my other NAS devices.

[TMzethar]

We have understood and are trying to optimize the needs you mentioned.

Currently the personal home directory can only come from 1 Volume. It is not possible to add space from other volumes to a personal directory.

Regarding the personal space in Photos, it only corresponds to each user's personal home directory. Therefore, files you upload to the RAID0 Volume cannot be placed in Photos' personal space.

When accessing NAS through Windows, you can only access the personal folder of the currently logged-in user and authorized shared folders, and cannot view other users' personal files.

[maccad]

Any development on these subjects?

[Gremlin]

I rather like the idea that sys admins don't have access to user's home folders. On the one hand, users can be reassured about personal privacy and, on the other the admins can make it quite clear that they have no access and, hence, no responsibility for maintaining that space - ie do your own backups!

DLNA is another matter. I have in mind that, on balance, it might be better to provide separate shared folders for individual user space and disable the home folders which is quite simple with the current setup. It means more work for the admin(s) in creating a user (which might be "handled" by appropriate scripts I think) but that depends on the number of users and 'churn' rates. I'm sure @TM could come up with something appropriate. ooooh AI springs to mind.

It might also be a consideration to utilise remote folders in some manner but that might also have some restrictions.

[CursaYang]

We plan to add a homes directory migration feature, allowing users to change the storage location of the homes directory — migrating it to another volume or moving it to a larger storage space. This feature is still being implemented, so please wait for a future version update.

[maccad]

Thank you for your answers,

Regarding the home folders, if the administrator can access them through the file manager on the TerraMaster desktop, I don't see why they wouldn't be accessible through Windows as well.

While migrating the home folder isn't possible, perhaps it would be possible to add a folder to the personal space of the Photos application, or even install the application on another volume.

[TMnight]

These two access methods are designed differently. The File Manager runs locally on the NAS with administrator privileges, so it has permission to browse the home directories of all users. Windows access, however, uses the SMB protocol, and users’ home directories are not published as regular SMB shared folders.

When accessing the NAS via SMB, each account can only see its own home directory and the shared folders that have been authorized for that account. This is intentional and is designed to prevent a user’s personal files from being accessed over the network by other accounts, including administrators.

In other words, the directories visible in the File Manager are accessible based on local account permissions rather than shared-folder permissions. Therefore, the same directories will not appear in Windows File Explorer when accessing the NAS via SMB.

If you do need to browse all users’ home directories from a computer, there is a workaround:

First, enable the WebDAV service in TOS: Control Panel > File Services > WebDAV.
Then use WinSCP to connect to the NAS. Select WebDAV as the file protocol, enter the NAS IP address as the hostname, use the port configured on the WebDAV settings page, and log in with an administrator account.
Once connected, you will be able to access the homes directory and browse the home directories of all users, as well as upload and download files.