On my iphone SE I have, in the files app, a connection to an smb server. This always allowed my to place places on that server.
Since updating to ios 18 however, the folders on this server are read only, preventing me from creating new files.
The server itself, as well as the credentials, are not changed.
Is there a solution for this?
Thank you.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone SE, iOS 18
I seem to have found a workaround. Try this at your own risk and make backups of configfiles you change! Make sure you know what you are doing.
Somewhere in your config on your server (perhaps in /etc/samba/smb.conf) there is probably a
[global]
section.
In that section, see if there is a line that starts with
vfs objects =
If it is not, add this line:
vfs objects = streams_xattr
If it is, add
streams_xattr
to that line
Restart samba service
Reconnect your ios device to the smb server
I seem to have found a workaround. Try this at your own risk and make backups of configfiles you change! Make sure you know what you are doing.
Somewhere in your config on your server (perhaps in /etc/samba/smb.conf) there is probably a
[global]
section.
In that section, see if there is a line that starts with
vfs objects =
If it is not, add this line:
vfs objects = streams_xattr
If it is, add
streams_xattr
to that line
Restart samba service
Reconnect your ios device to the smb server
No luck after various troubleshooting with Western Digital Support. We basically confirmed it is an issue with Apple’s Native Files app. Here is what they said:
“Thank you for your patience.
I have tested with iPhone iOS 18.1., and I also experienced the same issue.
We also got feedback from our engineering team. Since the iOS Files is third-party software/third-party app, we cannot guarantee it will work properly.
Western Digital Support cannot help with third-party software or hardware.
Please accept my apologies to inform you that our recommendation is using My Cloud app to access My Cloud”
So we have to keep raising tickets with Apple Support so they “might” fix the issue in future iOS updates. But with my Apple Tech Support response of “The manufacturer must update their firmware to resolve this issue” leaves me less than optimistic.
in the meantime I will use 3rd party software which still gives me read/write access to the NAS.
Today I called the AVM Hotline and they gave me a precious hint:
if you access your drive via the Safari Interface of your iPhone, then you will be able to write/modify. It works for me, see screenshot. Also they are working on a fix.
Consistent with other solutions, I've remedied this using the streams_xattr VFS Object.
My QNAP ships with a limited set of modules, but I've confirmed that the following commands work in my scenario:
setcfg Samba "VFS Objects" "streams_xattr"
setcfg global "VFS Objects" streams_xattr
setcfg global "VFS Objects" streams_xattr -f /etc/config/smb.conf
This third command doesn't persist across a Samba service restart (or QNAP restart) but takes effect immediately; the share must then be reconnected on all affected devices.
If you tend to restart your QNAP often or would struggle to replicate this as needed, this is probably worth dumping in a script or cron job.
If on iphone, you can install ES File Explorer, which has a bunch of nice features otherwise. Then instead of Share/Save To Files (which will give an error when trying to write to the SMB share), you can use Save in ES File Explorer. You'll have to connect to the server first just as in the Files app. But having done that, you can then use this Share/Save To ES File Explorer alternative.
If you're using Open Media Vault adding the "vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr" line mentioned above does not work. You need to edit the SMB share in question from the web interface to enable the "Time Machine Support" option. From the dash click "Services > SMB/CIFS > Shares" Hope this helps someone because it took me an hour of frustration to figure out.
Same problem on iPad Air — this seems to be a Files app issue. No problems copying files from iPad to SMB server with File Browser app.
I'm running samba on a Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi OS "Bookworm" lite) and shares from it work fine to a Mac, another Pi and x86 Linux but are read-only in Files on my iPad running iPadOS 18.5. "vfs objects = streams_xattr" fixed the problem on my iPhone running iOS 18.5 but not the iPad.
On Debian 12 (bookworm) a package named "samba-vfs-modules" needs to be installed.
I can confirm that this issue occurs with iPadOS 18.0 (22A3354) when attempting to connect to any SMB server (tested with Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016). For security reasons, I cannot share the full capture file, but as shown, the tree connect response grants full access, whereas file openings are restricted to read-only.
Having the same issue with my WD MyCloud on OS 5 with latest firmware.
Contacted Apple support and said the Manufacturer needs to update their firmware.
Now, I am waiting to hear back from Western Digital.
Had this issue with iPad on 18 and 26 versions. The smb.conf vfs addition fixed it
it just happens only with iPhones only.
the same Samba config works with Android and even with MacOS also.
So adding vfsobjects parameter as mentioned solves the issue. try it.
Same issue when connecting from iPhone to Unraid media server, was working fine prior to iOS update, now all files/folder show as read-only.
Does anyone know Unraid server enough to know if/where to update mentioned attribute? Thanks!
Same issue when connecting from iPhone to Unraid media server, was working fine prior to iOS update, now all files/folder show as read-only.
Does anyone know Unraid server enough to know if/where to update mentioned attribute? Thanks!
How to resolve SMB server read-only access on iPhone?
