[Ron Schemen]

I would not be surprised if Apple is using some private API’s in the Files App.
Since Nitro works fine on some NAS brands, the difference between them is IMHO the Samba configuration of the NAS.

I have been looking in the smb configuration files of my Synology box and the only Vfs config line I see is : vfs objects=dirsort
I have minimal SMB version 2 and Max version 3.

I cannot find anything on specific issue with iPadOS and uGreen or empty SMB folders.
Do other applications have the same issues ?

A workaround might be ‘Secure Shellfish’, it can make sshfs connection available to other apps, as were they mapped SMB shares, using the ‘Browse for File’ UI.
I do not know if it works with the way Nitro requests the information, it uses the same API as cloud sync apps, as it is listed in that heading and not as an external server connection.

[Ron Schemen]

I did some more searching, but could only find some postings regarding ‘empty directory’ using SMB from an iPad, but no solutions.
The Synology NAS has no issues, so is there is difference in the SMB configuration of Asustore ?
Is AFP filesharing enabled on the Asustor ? I have it disabled since it is an obsolete protocol.

There is also a ‘fruit’ VFS module in Samba to improve/fix issues with Apple’s SMB3 implementation and seems to be incompatible with Netatalk AFP :
https://groups.google.com/g/linux.samba/c/qEw8TS1rG-E

I saw references to this ‘fruit’ module as fixes for read-only files on SMB shares from macOS.

[Ron Schemen]

Hello Nik,

Sorry for the confusion, I did not try the solution myself, as I use Synology NAS boxes. I was interessed in the issue and searched for it, so I could maybe supply an answer or atleast a direction for the solution.
Regarding the prefix “WORKGROUP\” this is AFAIK the default setting for a Samba configuration and the Samba package is used by by NAS boxes for the SMB functionality.

[Ron Schemen]

I am not using an Asustore NAS, but did a search for SMB issues on Asustore and iPadOS and found this :
https://www.reddit.com/r/asustor/comments/1koetng/iphone_files_app_thinks_shared_folder_is_read_only/

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I hit the same problem with my SMB share. On macOS I could copy files just fine, but on iOS the folder always showed up as read-only.

What fixed it for me was adding the SMB domain to the username when logging in from iOS. So instead of just username, I had to use WORKGROUP\username. I hope that helps.

It is not the same, but might be related to the same cause in the Asustore Samba configuration, the page below is about a Samba ‘configuration’ issue :
https://nramkumar.org/tech/blog/2025/08/31/fixing-read-only-access-to-smb-shares-on-ios-18/

In iOS files app, you can connect to a SMB server over LAN and use it for storage (read and write). After an upgrade to iOS 18, it looks like Apple changed something where default settings for my samba server on Linux no longer allowed write access to the share from iOS – the share was always showing up only as read-only.

The fix is to add the following to the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:

vfs objects = streams_xattr

After this, run sudo systemctl restart smb and now you should have read/write access to the share from iOS devices.

If I read the Samba documentation regarding this settings, it makes sense :

The streams_xattr Virtual File System (VFS) module enables applications to store information in Alternative Data Streams (ADS). Certain applications, such as the Microsoft Edge browser, require ADS to operate correctly. For example, if you use Edge to download a file to a Samba share that has no ADS support enabled, the download will fail.

Samba stores ADS in the user.DosStream.ADS_name extended attribute of a file or directory. Therefore, the file system of the share must support extended attributes. For details, see your operating system’s and file system’s documentation.

[Ron Schemen]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I assumed the keywords were hierarchical since when I select a child keyword in the tree, the parents are added automatically to the keyword list.

[Ron Schemen]

Regarding structured keywords and the xmp sidecar file, I notice that the tag lr:hierarchicalSubject is not used by Nitro.

Searching on the web, I found the info below in a discussion regarding hierarchial/structured keywords in XMP sidecar files :
https://forum.dxo.com/t/photolab-8-and-xmp-keywords/50638

  <dc:subject>
   <rdf:Bag>
    <rdf:li>Fruit</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>Orange</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>Satsuma</rdf:li>
   </rdf:Bag>
  </dc:subject>
  …
  <lr:hierarchicalSubject>
   <rdf:Bag>
    <rdf:li>Fruit</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>Fruit|Orange</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>Fruit|Orange|Satsuma</rdf:li>
   </rdf:Bag>
  </lr:hierarchicalSubject>

The rules state that all components of a hierarchy must be written, separately, to the dc;subject tag, along with any other standalone keywords.
Then the lr:hierarchicalSubject tag should contain the full “paths” of all levels in the hierarchy, delimited by |

[Ron Schemen]

Hello Nik,

Sorry for the double posting, I got an error after the first submit.
I have looked at handling of XMP keyword synonyms by other metadata editing applications and only a very few do support them.
So it is not a big deal.

[Ron Schemen]

Hello Nick,

Thanks for looking at it.
Can it be that a Synonym of a keyword is not recognised as such ?
Below is a part of a structured keyword list I’m building and the synonym between {} does not seem to be recognised as such, but is displayed as a normal child of ‘Buiten Ee’.
Below is a screenshot of Photomechanic that displays the cild item {Bûten le} as a child with a different colour. When selected, the synonym is just added after the parent to the keyword list.
Sudwest-Fryslãn
Buiten Ee
{Bûten le}
Gaasterland

See https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001144666-adding-keyword-metadata-to-photos#Vocabulary-File-Format

[Ron Schemen]

Hello Nick,

Thanks for looking at it.
Can it be that a Synonym of a keyword is not recognised as such ?
Below is a part of a structured keyword list I’m building and the synonym between {} does not seem to be recognised as such, but is displayed as a normal child of ‘Buiten Ee’.
Below is a screenshot of Photomechanic that displays the cild item {Bûten le} as a child with a different colour. When selected, the synonym is just added after the parent to the keyword list.
Sudwest-Fryslãn
Buiten Ee
{Bûten le}
Gaasterland

See https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001144666-adding-keyword-metadata-to-photos#Vocabulary-File-Format

[Ron Schemen]

Hello Nick,

Yes, that is how Photomechanic and other metadata applications behave, in order to preserve the hierarchy.
When I activate the ‘keyword tab’, do not even change anything and leave it, it also sorts and writes the sorted keywords to the xmp sidecar file.
Just editing a photo and not activating the ‘keywords tab’ leaves the order of the keywords intact.

[Ron Schemen]

Thanks for the structured keyword feature that has been added.
Would it be possible to add an option to not sort keywords when displaying and writing to the XMP sidecar files ?
When I search the keyword list and select a keyword, the parent keywords in the hierarchy are added, as they should be as the list is structured.
However, when keywords are displayed, they are sorted, and they are also sorted when written to the XMP sidecar file, and thus removing the structure of the keywords.

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