Finder Tags with Network Drive

[brian82788]

I was very excited for finder tags in Mavericks. I immediately started tagging a collection of videos found on my network attached drive. I have the WD MyBook World Edition (white light) and although I can create tags for the files, I cannot search this drive using these tags or access them using the finder sidebar. I have tested the functionality of tags on my computer using files on my internal HD and it works as promised. Has anyone had this same problem or does anyone have advice or a solution? Also, if there is already a thread on this feel free to direct me; I couldn't find one.

Thanks Mateys

 

[petsounds]

I was very excited for finder tags in Mavericks. I immediately started tagging a collection of videos found on my network attached drive. I have the WD MyBook World Edition (white light) and although I can create tags for the files, I cannot search this drive using these tags or access them using the finder sidebar.

Is the external drive formatted with HFS+? Most of them are formatted with FAT32 or something like that. I believe tags require HFS+ on the filesystem to be written. (there's no central tags database AFAIK) Or maybe this is just a bug. If you disconnect the drive and reconnect to them, do the tags on the remote files still exist?

 

[brian82788]

Is the external drive formatted with HFS+? Most of them are formatted with FAT32 or something like that. I believe tags require HFS+ on the filesystem to be written. (there's no central tags database AFAIK) Or maybe this is just a bug. If you disconnect the drive and reconnect to them, do the tags on the remote files still exist?

Thanks for your reply petsounds. So, I've been searching for a bit and I can't find much information of drive formatting. From what I can find the MyBook World is a standalone machine running a broken-down version of Linux. Also, in the finder sidebar it shows it as a computer, not a drive. I've poured through all of the settings and all I can find a protocol settings. I can create a folder share using the following protocols and systems. The Standard configuration uses CIFS and AFP only.

CIFS (Common Internet File System) Access - Allows access to share files via the CIFS protocol. The access control for CIFS is set as share folder-based. This means that a user must enter a valid account and password for accessing the share, and users can only access the shares to which they have been granted access rights (Read Only or Full Access). CIFS is the recommended file sharing protocol for Windows platform, and allows users to access shares through My Network Places. Mac OS X or later also supports the CIFS protocol support.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Access - Allows access to share files via the FTP protocol. Access control rights for the FTP protocol are the same as the CIFS protocol for each share folder. The FTP protocol is a platform-independent file sharing protocol, so the user can use any FTP client program to access shares.

NFS (Network File System) Access - Allows access to share files via the NFS protocol. NFS protocol access is controlled by a set of accepted IP addresses for each share folder. NFS is recommended for users of UNIX and similar systems.

The AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) is a network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and the original Mac OS. AFP is one of several file sharing protocols that support mounting remote file-systems on the local machine.

I've also found this which, according to my understanding, allows more control over drive formatting and whatnot. However it requires a Linux machine which I do not have access to and that much coding is far more than I think I can handle. However this could have some important information.

Just for additional info, I am attaching some pictures. In the picture showing the drive in the finder, "Public" is one of the shares on MyBookWorld and MyBookWorld is the drive (system) itself. It should also be noted that the tab "Time Machine Backups" under the devices section of the sidebar seems to be mounted to my computer as it is listed as a device and not a shared computer. It is fully explorable and I tried to tag something on this to test functionality however it would not allow me to add tags. However the files within the "Public" share will allow me to add tags, but just not respond to these tags in a search or appear if the I click on a tag in the sidebar.

Thanks to anyone who can provide any help. I can provide any info or screenshots that can provide any info. Also, here is the user manual for the drive.

 

[petsounds]

Thanks for your reply petsounds. So, I've been searching for a bit and I can't find much information of drive formatting. From what I can find the MyBook World is a standalone machine running a broken-down version of Linux. Also, in the finder sidebar it shows it as a computer, not a drive. I've poured through all of the settings and all I can find a protocol settings. I can create a folder share using the following protocols and systems. The Standard configuration uses CIFS and AFP only.

It's probably coming up as a "Mac" because it's running a full CPU. The default filesystem on those (from what I could find while googling) is ext3, which is a common Linux format. OS X cannot read/write ext3 natively though, so the WB unit is acting as a middle-man in the protocol to provide access.

I believe the reason the tagged files on the WB unit aren't showing up is the fact that smart folders use the Spotlight database for searching and filtering. So, if Spotlight is not indexing your WB unit, either by default or you explicitly told it not to, then that's why the remote files wouldn't show up in your tag searches. As an aside, you might want to read the tags section of the Ars Technica Mavericks review for some interesting info on how tags are stored.

One thing I came across while googling for info about your WB unit is this Apple Support thread about your MyWorld drive having severe problems with Mavericks. Apparently many people are reporting their drives becoming unaccessible, most likely due to using WB's software under Mavericks. You might want to take a look at this before you do anything else with it.