Standard Permission Fixes NOT Working on Networked Device (NAS)

A networked NAS is probably connecting via SMB and the NAS itself is likely running a custom Linux. So, the permissions you have when connected to the NAS depend on the permissions of the NAS account you are logging in as and any restrictions from the SMB config intersecting with that (not to mention if you have any custom ACL settings).

You can't rely on the Finder permissions to correctly display the permissions of a Linux system connected by SMB. You absolutely can't use finder to change those permissions.

I'd recommend logging into the NAS via it's Web Portal (or if it has a custom File Management portal like QNAP provides via File Station) as a user with appropriate permissions and making the deletions that way.

Sorry I never used Drobo products. Super-quick Google search revealed the user manual, which refers to installing the companion "Drobo Dashboard" software on your system.

So I would guess you ought to normally manage the device via that software - I would hope it includes a facility for creating users, groups, shared folders and the like, as well as general file and folder management.

A. Smythe wrote:

Thank you for your reply.

The unit I'm using is a DroboFS, which only has an ethernet connection. Yes, Drobo has gone out of business but, curious you should mention, I am intending to use it as a backup for the data on my QNAP, as my Drobo has been a pretty solid performer and so want to use it for this purpose only.

I would suggest that you retire the Drobo.

The Drobo proprietary software is needed to maintain the RAID and manage the unit. Without any updated software, then newer versions of macOS probably won't be able to run that proprietary software which means you will not be able to manage that Drobo when something goes wrong. You don't want your backups to be on a device that can cause you problems accessing that data.

Even back in the day the Drobo proprietary software and the way these Drobos work was terrible. You would only notice those issues once something starts to go wrong. There is a reason Drobo is no more.

Always be leery of any device that requires proprietary software to manage the device. In my own personal experience, that always spells trouble.

The error that comes up is "the directory is not empty", although there's nothing there (which is why I was attempting to delete the directory). I attempted to do this with an old WinXP VM I have, and the same error message comes up.

Do you have any other suggestions on how to access it?

@g_wolfman is correct that you probably need to use the Drobo proprietary software to manage the SMB access & file permissions. SMB server access & permissions take priority over any macOS permissions.