F2-210 File Manager damaging file names

[AndyB]

New user here. I've had a F2-210 running for about a week now, running TOS4.2.43.

I usually access shares on the TNAS using SMB via Windows 10/11. This works fine, and I've got OneDrive sync running too.

I did notice that for some reason I had some broken office document links, where previously accessed files were showing as no longer available. Looking into this, I discovered that for some filenames that had apostrophes in the title, the filename had been changed to remove the apostrophe.

Windows doesn't mind the apostrophe, so after a bit of digging I realised that it's the File Manager on the TNAS itself that's changing the filenames without warning if the corresponding folder is browsed.

To be clear, I don't have to open the file using File Manager. Simply using File Manager to browse to a directory that has any files with apostrophes in the title results in the file being immediately renamed. This means that any Office files are potentially unavailable (or an Office file that pulls in data from another file can find the date is no longer there), music playlists are broken, code I'm writing that pulls in external files no longer works as it should.

I can't believe that simply browsing a folder can result in filenames being changed. A NAS is there to store files, not make unwarranted changes to the file structure.

I know this isn't the first time this has been raised, and I did see a thread that suggested that the issue was resolved in TOS5, but as I'm using a device with an ARM processor, the option of upgrading to TOS5 isn't currently available. However, as this is a device that is still on general sale, and therefore still supported, I think the issue needs to be resolved.

[AndyB]

*sigh*

Yesterday I quickly tried to use the File Manager on a couple of "safe" directories (ones that have no apostrophes in the file or folder names), but must have inadvertantly clicked in another folder for a brief moment, because my NAS spent most of overnight syncing to OneDrive with another 50GB or so of "new" folders that it found.

Is there any alternative to the built in File Manager? This is really annoying.

[AndyB]

I did get a response from TerraMaster technical support:

"After verification, we have found that this issue does indeed exist. This is a compromise approach, and we will submit it to the project team to find a reasonable solution"

Hopefully there will be a fix at some point on the horizon.

[mowy]

Desgraciadamente TOS5 no es lo que esperabamos, algunos seguimos en la versión 4 que parece ser la que menos problemas da.

[Budo68]

Same problem on an F4-210.

The problem has been occurring for several years (it is not the only one) and has never been resolved.

***

[AndyB]

So, six months on from reporting this to TM, and nothing has been done. I guess it's something they've no intention of resolving?

So, to come back to an earlier question I raised - Is there any alternative way of performing file management on the device itself, rather than using a client computer? Would a file manager running via Docker be viable?