.DAV Folders all over the place

I keeps seeing .DAV Folders all over MY Book Live with a File of 49,152 bytes for every real file copied in the real folder. I think this has something to do with WebDav? Don’t know what that is but can I turn it off?

In windows explorer I don’t see the .DAV Folder and FIles but in FreeFileSync I do. Wierd. Unless I browse to explorer in a .DAV folder through FreeFileSync. I am not using Remote Access. Is this becuase I turned FTP on?

No, it’s most likely because you are accessing your MBL from your PC via WebDAV, whereas FileSync is accessing it via Samba (normal network share.)

It might also not be showing the .DAV folders if your PC is configured to not display hidden files.

I used Map Network Drive in windows 7. Windows Explorer is set to show hidden files but I don’t see them. With Free File Sync I browsed to this folder and in it’s own UI it shows all the .DAV Folders. If I browse from the Free File Sync UI into windows explorer. Then windows explorer DOES see the .DAV stuff.

Anyway is there a way I can map the drive to NOT use webdav?

When I run the app as an Admin I see the .WebDav Folders. When I run as a non Admin I do not. As an Admin I think the app uses Volume Shadow Copy API so I think it sees more of what is always there.

I am seeing the same behavior that I found in the following post where the share shows up as FAT.

http//community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Problems-with-WebDAV/m-p/277002/highlight/true#M5155

I followed instructions here

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/How-can-I-increase-private-folder-size-Default-is-17-4GB/td-p/305556/highlight/true/page/2

And disabled webclient service.

But now I can’t delete anything. Keeps Saying I need permissions from Unix User\www data to make changes to this folder. So are entitlements tied to the connection type?

Can'tDelete.jpg

OK so here is what I think is happening. I connected using webclient service using webdav protocol. Backed up some files and somebody (windows or my book live) created all of these .DAV folders as part of the webdav protocol standard. Now that I disabled webclient service I connect using SMB/CIFS or whatever and I see all these .DAV folders and can’t delete them.

I can delete other files and folders just not the .DAV stuff.

It seems some mysterious Unix User account was used to create these .DAV folders. Shouldn’t these still be owned by the login that created them usign a webdav connection?

Does this mean the only way to clean up the mess is to try to log back in using webdav?

flagrant99 wrote:

 

It seems some mysterious Unix User account was used to create these .DAV folders. Shouldn’t these still be owned by the login that created them usign a webdav connection?

 

Does this mean the only way to clean up the mess is to try to log back in using webdav?

No and no.  The .DAV is a hidden data structure used by the MBL’s apache webserver.

You might need to log in via SSH (search the forum) and manually delete them via the MBL’s shell.

Even logging in via DAV would not likely let you delete them, because you’re still using DAV and thus they’d be recreated.

Thx that worked for me.

I don’t understand how this is not a bug. I mean if a user creates a folder remotely (using webdav) and then trys to delete it using a “Windows Network” local connection it will fail when it gets to the .DAV subfolders.

Hopefully in the next firmware they’ll make it easier to clean this mess up. Would be nice if Western Digital added an option to just disable webdav for those of us that don’t care about remote access.

It’s not a bug because .DAV files are part of the WebDAV data structure.  They are SUPPOSED to be there if you’re accessing the drive via WebDAV.

If a user creates a folder remotely, they CAN delete that folder via WebDAV.

But you are asking about deleting the .DAV folders themselves, which are NOT folders the “user” created.

Let me clarify. I create a folder called MyFolder remotely.

\MyShare\MyFolder

This generates a hidden .WebDav SubFolder inside it. That a user doesn’t even know exists.

[\MyFolder](file://%5C%5CMyFolder)

\MyShare\MyFolder.WebDav

When I connect to the same share locally I try to delete MyFolder. I still don’t see .WebDav yet. But It fails with the error I showed on the previous page. So you are saying once I create remotely that is the only way I can delete and that is by design?

That’s still better than using ssh I guess.

Yes, it is by design.   It’s not just a “WD” thing. 

ANY WebDAV fileserver will see the same thing.    You’d see the same thing if you were using the NetGear STORA for example, or Microsoft’s Cloud servers, etc.