The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern

New Lion bug may trouble Windows file sharing

By | August 29, 2011, 4:52pm PDT

According to a reported bug, Apple Mac OS X Lion client and server have trouble with Windows Sharing for flies including extended attributes. The issue extends to Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Steve Maser, senior systems administrator at the Univ. of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer, posted the report to the Mac OS X Server list on Monday.

It will appear to start to copy down, but then you’ll get a (more commonly for me) “the file name you specified is not valid or too long” error message  or (less commonly in my case) an “Invalid MS-DOS Function” message.

Some of the types didn’t always cause the problem, so Maser speculated that it isn’t the fault of the attribute but its contents that cause it.

But, unless you remove the meta data, you won’t be able to copy the file down to your Windows desktop. But you can open/run/delete/move the files without issue.

He offered a non-fix fix.

The problem is that *this doesn’t solve the problem*.  It only clears the metadata when you run the command. If you download another file from the internet or receive an e-mail attachment or take another screen shot (for example)? That metadata gets put back on the file and you are back in the the same boat.

Other posts in the discussion thread suggest that there are similar issues with other files. It appears that the early release of Lion Server is a work in progress, perhaps not the best choice for your prime-time use.

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David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years.

Disclosure

David Morgenstern

Freelance journalist/blogger David Morgenstern has nothing to disclose.

Biography

David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. In the recent past, he founded Ziff-Davis' Storage Supersite, served as news editor for Ziff Davis Internet and held several executive editorial positions at eWEEK. In the 1990s, David was editor of Ziff Davis' award-winning MacWEEK news publication as well as its successor title, eMediaWEEKly, which focused on multiplatform professional content creation. His byline can be found online and in print publications including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press' Mac Bible and Popular Photography.

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RE: New Lion bug may trouble Windows file sharing
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
Typically I don't chestnut ugg submit on weblogs, but I would individually want to say that this publish definitely pressured me to undertake so. Absolutely pleasant submit!
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Message has been deleted.
zadocpaet Updated - 30th Aug
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Pun intended?
UrNotPayingAttention Updated - 29th Aug
"According to a reported bug, Apple Mac OS X Lion client and server have trouble with Windows Sharing for flies..."

Will a fly-swat do the trick?

And... wow...
" It appears that the early release of Lion Server is a work in progress, perhaps not the best choice for your prime-time use."

Considering that Apple cut the rest of their back-end offerings off, just what are Apple blow-hards to do??? Run {gasp} Windows or Linux?!
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@chmod 777

it was confirmed by apple, what more do you want?
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@blazing_smiley_face
Right .. would it be a confirmed bug form MSFT your words wouldn't be the same...
@chmod 777

I'm a big Apple fan, but even I have to agree that Lion seems like it was rushed to market without thorough (enough) testing.

I mean, it's big and complicated, so I'm not surprised that a few bugs would exist -- that's par for the course for any "1.0" software release from anyone. But there do seem to be more than a few bugs in Lion.

At least they confirmed it and are, presumably, addressing it.
Please tell me this isn't based on a single bug report... that IS what it sounds like.

Please tell me you've tried (and succeeded) to reproduce this.

Because it would be too just too sad if you were basing this on a single bug report.
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It sure doesn't sound like it.
'it just works'
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A bug Apple needs to fix
Richard Flude 30th Aug
We could share the folder using AFP, FTP, NFS (even WebDAV) if only those troublesome clients supported it;-)
@Richard Flude : Why would Microsoft bother to? But MS does support WebDav and FTP.
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@Richard Flude
Right - and btw let's change all those nokia, htc, samsung, hp, dell and replace them with an apple
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Those aren't the Droids we're looking for....
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RE: New Lion bug may trouble Windows file sharing
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 30th Aug
Another Lion bug. Apple didn't do much quality testing when they released it.
@LoverockDavidson_ : That plus the other bugs - including those affecting those who use Adobe products.
New bug... Mac won't share "flies"
I'm not sure I really want to be sharing "flies".
I THINK LION TOTALLY UNTESTED. ON TOP OF 5 ISSUES I HAVE ENCOUNTERED NOW MAGNIFICATION . IT HAS MIND OF IT'S OWN!!
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@CALLOHAN

Apparently caps lock works...
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RE: New Lion bug may trouble Windows file sharing
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
Typically I don't chestnut ugg submit on weblogs, but I would individually want to say that this publish definitely pressured me to undertake so. Absolutely pleasant submit!

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