Update: Check this link first for getting AFP started again. http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10216&guideid=10374
If you are using a LaCie EDmini NAS server and have experience a power outage or an unexpected shutdown of the drive, you make loses the ability to connect with Mac using Apple’s file share protocol.
LaCie usual keeps the Apple file share database in the memory of the NAS server. So, when the power flickers or you accidentally pull the plug on the drive it will destroy the apple file share database.
If you can’t connect at all to the LaCie EDmini after a power failure, you can access the drive with a web browser by ip address. You can then change the ip address of the drive and your afp connection should work, but you will notice you can’t add or see all your data until you rebuild the apple file share database. Here are the instructions.
1- Stop the Apple server (AFP):
Connect to the EDmini’s administration web page and go to the “Status” tab. From there, “disable” the “Apple Server” (i.e. AFP protocol)
2- Start the FTP client
3- Connect the FTP client to the EDmini
4- Once, you have connected to the ftp share you will be in the directory of “/”. You will need to changed directory to a hidden folder called “share“. (The LaCie Support tech did NOT provide this information).Once you are in the share directory you will need to Go to the ‘.AppleDB‘ folder which is also hidden.
Command will look like this:
“cd share/.AppleDB”
5 – Delete all the content of the ‘.AppleDB’ folder.
6 – Restart the Apple server (AFP):
Connect to the EDmini’s administration web page and go to the “Status” tab. From there, “enable” the Apple Server (i.e. AFP)
One more phase before you are complete ready to go. Now you need to reset the NAS server back to factory settings. You will NOT lose your data. This has been tested.
Below are instructions for a total reset of the device:
1. Switch OFF your EDmini
2. Switch ON your EDmini but HOLD DOWN the power button.
3. After a few seconds (~15s) the button’s LED should begin blinking. RELEASE then the button.
4. Quickly after having released the button (~3s), it’s LED will continue to blink but with a different rhythm. PUSH AGAIN the power button and HOLD IT down.
5. A few seconds after having pushed again the button, it’s LED will continue to blink but with a third different rhythm. You can now definitely release the button.
At this stage, your device should have been configured back to its factory default settings.
6. You will need to go rename the share to whatever it was called in the first place. The ip will probably change so download the LaCie IP Configurator from the Lacie website, it will find it and report back with the ip address is now using.
You will need to set it back to a static ip before you install the shares on the workstations. If not it will use DHCP.If this post helped you in anyway please leave me a comment. I want to see if it really helps.
Really worked! Thanx a lot for the precise instructions. (Lost AFP connectivity after a power outage, Would connect over AFP but the Finder showed “0 Files”)
Great tip, you saved me. I want this drive to work badly and having little fixes like this will help my mac muddle through.
Thanks,
ACW
hi, well I must say I am very grateful to you. Took some time to find you, but after reading your post I got it working again. Although a computertechnician myself, without your help I couldn’t have solved the problem. Only the deleting of AppleDB was enough to get it working again. The (default factory) reset I did already before and it wasn’t necessary to do it afterwards again… how the hell did you find out about these files in AppleDB…..I dont know where you live otherwise I would have sent flowers, This relieves me of a lot of work…so thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Regards Wim Harms
Mostly worked – but I had three different shares on my LaCie. The most important one is the one that has disappeared. Gigs of data gone.
Not your fault at all, but you might want to temper the assurance you give in the posting (“You will NOT lose your data…”)
My advice for people having a problem with AFP is to switch to SMB on Mac if you can. And but a different NAS in future
After updating the Lacie firmware, I found my shares again – was shaking for a few moments there. Had to make new shares with exact same names as well as user/pwds but all is well now, except for AFP which is still extremely slow
Hi and thanks to all for your contributions!
I had the mean “no space left on device” error on my EDmini V2. Sporadically I was able to connect to the Administration and to the shares but recently even that blacked out….
So I resorted to the total reset mentioned above and got the drive to respond again! It was set to the original settings, with the original firmware and no users or shares defined except the original called ‘share’. So my media was not accessible, but the disk diagnostics stated that the space was still occupied and I was frantically looking at many sites with hints and hacks on how to retrieve the data…
Well, when hope was already fading I came across this page and have to thank Markus Lindell for his comment. I found my shares, too!!
Now I can enjoy the EDmini again…
Cheers!
When setting the static IP address I have entered the wrong numbers, which are outside the IP (255) range. My BAD!!! was not concentrating
I’ve tried the factory reset procedure above many times and I’m not sure that I have go the sequence correct. Is it meant to power down after the third rhythm?
I also have tried connecting to the device via usb and it wont mount on the PC
I just need to get to the administration page to set up the IP address correctly. I have download the Lacie IPConfigure software but the device is not visible on the network. I have checked connected devices on the router and it’s not there either..
Any help would be appreciated!
Good post.
spot on…thanks a million !
Thank you so much
I have been without AFP access to my EDmini for months. I have Mac fonts on there that wouldn’t open when copied via SMB or FTP so you’ve saved my life!
Thanks again,
Matthew
Thanks for the post. The first time this happened I reformatted the mini and was able to restore AFP. This time I had too much data (archived backups only) and used your solution with great effect. Thanks! I have to agree with Graham – get another device for NAS. Sorry La Cie bye bye
BTW Fetch makes a great FTP access ap for this fix.
Many thanks, it worked, fantastic info. Was very concerned but it went like a charm.
Have a very good evening.
hi,
i had a power failure and can;t connect to the shares anymore (ridiculous that this can happen, the noise level of my NAS already made me buy a new NAS, shame this happened before i could get everything copied over…) this infolooks very solid, but looking at Graham Anderson’s comment, i’m afraid of loosing one of my shares.
any way i can be sure that this won’t happen?
all response on your experience is greatly apreciated!
best,
gimliim
btw,
how do i stop the afp server on 10.5.5? i’m not running osx server…
thanks
Gimlim, have you tried to FTP the files over to your mac?
burchwords
hi,
sorry to trouble you again,
i was able to stop the afp, start the ftp and then access the .AppleDB folder with the connect to server command (appleK) using this line:
ftp://admin:password@10.0.1.198//share/.AppleDB
i see the files
__db.001
__db.002
__db.003
cnid2.db
unfortunately, i’m not able to erase the files, seems i don’t have access.
it seems i don’t follow the instructions right,
once i’m connected, how do i change directory, and how do i erase files?
can anyone please help me here? i’m 600 gigs away from having my new setup running… lacie NAS is a big pain in the..
thanks,
gimliim
I believe I used the terminal in mac os x to ftp to the laCie Nas server and then I was able to delete the files. I really trully believe you are close to resolving this.
Jacob
hi jacob,
thanks for chearing me up there.
i used an aft client (transmit.app) that allowed me to erase the .Apple DB files.
strange thing though is that i had two shares called “media” and “backup” before the powerfailure, and i believe also the evening i started looking via ftp, but now when i logon via ftp, one of the shares seems to have been renamed
i now see 3 shares: “share”, “backup” and usbdisksdc1″
i could get to the hidden share logging on to the disk using the initial path “share/.AppleDB but i’m afraid that the “hidden” share folder and the visible share “share” that used to be called “media” get mixed up after the reset.
i have been able to copy stuff via ftp as you suggested, but it’s slow and not stable enough to get me through 600 GB…
the other issue is that i’m getting a lot of error-35 and -36 messages (ofcourse half way through a 100 gig copy action rendering the waiting useless)
would you know a way to do a file check on a NAS server?
Anyway, i’ll keep copying some smaller folders via FTP until i’m more sertain that resetting is safe in this case.
thanks alot.
best regards
gimliim
I had the problem mentioned here:
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=24259&pid=242115&mode=threaded&start=#entry242115
As per the forums, I disabled the media server, and cleared the log file. The command:
http://192.168.your.ip/cgi-bin/admin/log?do=clearlog
didn’t seem to work so I had to go to:
http://192.168.your.ip/cgi-bin/admin/status and then click the “clear log button”
when i restarted, both my shares were not there but the users were still there. Also, the file space was still being used so i knew it wasn’t erased. I had the latest firmware so I recreated the shares with the same name and then gave the users back their rights and was able to connect.
sigh of relief.
[...] sourced from: Help needed with Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini: No space left on Device – Discussion@SR Burchwords LaCie EDmini Cannot Connect With AFP: Apple File Share Protocol Hope none of you run into this [...]
You’re my hero. This worked. Thanks!!!!!!
This worked perfectly for me without having to do the default factory reset. What a lifesaver!
Hi – thanks for posting the detailed instructions, but I’m getting stuck at the point of trying to access the .AppleDB folder. I used Cyberduck to FTP to my EDmini. It’s showing I’m connected to” ftp:admin:16x.xxx.xxx.xxx” per my newly refreshed IP address, and it seems I’m in the directory of “/”.
If I Go To Folder.. and put “/share” it looks like I get to the the Share folder, although no files show up, which perhaps indicates I’m off track? I try getting to .AppleDB to delete files with no success. I’ve tried a number of things:
1. Going to Send Command and entering cd share/.Apple DB – that gets me this message: “cd share/.AppleDB
500 CD not understood”
2. I can do the Go To Folder option and with “/.AppleDB” get to folder. This has the “/”, “/share”, “/.AppleDB” path. So I thought I was getting somewhere.
However there are still no files showing in this folder – I’ve not seen any files at any stage, which suggests I’m doing something fundamentally wrong.
Any tips? Sorry if there’s a blindingly obvious thing I should be doing. And I’m silently cursing my houseguest for ruthlessly pulling out the power cord last weekend which created this mess.
Thanks
Greg
Hi again – after posting the above I found another page on the Lacie site which helped me solve the AFP issue using Terminal – for others looking for an alternative approach:
http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10216&guideid=10374
Thanks again for your post and advice – it got me on the right path.
Greg
if you lose your shared folders after the reset :
user ftp to the folder /
you'll see the list of your old shares, you can redefine them on the admin web page.
Dude, you’re a lifesaver.
I got a LaCie 5big. Same problem. solution works all the way. No need to factory reset the unit.
Thanks.
R.
Hi,
I am having issues enabling the ftp server from the edmini backend. I click the button and it doesnt change the status. Therefore I cannot get in to delet the files. Any one got any other ideas? I have tried accessing it via smb too – no luck.
Cheers,
B
Genius! This worked on my Apple MacbookPro system. I thought I’d lost the files but I’ve not
very happy. Thanks
i reset the edmini to the original factory settings and set up the share with same name as before but when i try to access it says "The operation cannot be completed because the original item for mbbackup cannot be found" did i loose my data :S??
no, the data should still be there, only a reformat will delete the data. What was the original problem that forced a factory reset?
a power failure caused the prob with Apple file share db abd i couldn't access my files through AFP, only through FTP and HTTP. I tried your first suggestion but coulnd't find the hidden files. so i then tried resetting it and putting the share back there with same u/p but i still cannot access the share
Mario, did you put the same user name and password on the share as before?
Hi! I have the same problem with a 'LaCie 2big Network'. No AFP acces after a power failure. What is the solution for such kind of drive? All the files are there. I can browse and download them in Safari.
I did stop the AFP server. But I cannot find the hidden folder 'share' with my FTP client. (Transmit)
Thanks!
Yay ^^ I'm so 'appy! First I tried your Update link, didn't work. Then tried resetting the drive to factory default settings. and it worked! you're a real livesaver
I had this happen a few months ago and I was able to enable hidden files on my mac, connect to the drive and delete the AppleDB file and everything came back as normal. Now it's happened again and I can't remember how to connect the drive straight to my disk…
some people can get the usb which will connect with an ip. just connect something than appletalk
Here's how I fixed this in Mac OS X: Connected ethernet straight to computer.
Changed network setting to be on same subnet as drive. Mounted via SMB. Enabled hidden files in finder (google it) with Terminal command. Trashed AppleDB folder. Restarted drive via admin page, turned off hidden files and rebooted. Now I've got AFP again.
I wrote about enabling hidden files in a mac os x machine a long time ago.
or you can do a search for "hidden files" on my site.
http://www.burchwords.com/archives/53
Hi I am ion windows and can't connect to my edmini. I had a power outage and when the power came back on I couldn't connect. Have tried shutting it down using the blue botton, no response. My router cannot see it at all. HAve tried turning off at the power and using you sequence above to reset and still noithing. I run the IP config and it cannot find it either, even when I plug it directly into my laptop using the usb or the ethernet cable. Help Have so much important data on this drive.
the drive maybe still good, but the controller for the case might be bad. Is the blue light responding to you at all?
New problems with ED Mini… My power supply died and after some heated emails I got a new one sent under warranty, great! I hooked it back up and my transfer speed is about 30KB (was 10MB). I'm wondering if something happened when the power supply gave out (was reading from disk at the time). I'm going to try resetting it to factory settings like you mention in this post, otherwise, any suggestions?
Sorry to bug you, but you are better than LaCie tech support!
what was your speed before you got the new one?
I'm back to 15MB/s. I connected the EDmini directly into my computer and it worked fine, so I troubleshot and it appears that moving it from the first to the third port on my router (D-Link N router) got it working again. Maybe it needed a crossover port? I don't know, but for now everything is working…
These steps worked pretty well, except that when I went to rename the share to what it was before I watched as all of my files started disappearing right in front of me while I was in Finder – all 600+GB. What? How? Why?
I’m pretty sure that they are unrecoverable at this point, right? If not, what can I do?
My EDmini is having the exact same problem. I am trying to perform the total reset of the device, but when I hold down the power button on startup, I never get the first blinking light. No matter how long I hold it down, the light just stays on. Any suggestions on how I should proceed?
I've seen 3 of these nas server fail and every time it was when I couldn't get a response from it. The drives inside were still good, but the controller card went bad. When this usually happend I couldn't get the lights to respond to any of the commands.
This is Amaaazing you are awesome. I tried to fix this for ages with no luck.
thank you so much – hours of searching … and here is the solution …
Hello – thank you very very much! I lost my afp protocol on the shared disc and then i repaired it step by step like your instruction. It was GREAT! My shared disk with all my data is going on. All of your steps and the new configuration are running by using your support! Thanks a lot. Greetings form Simbach a. Inn (Bavaria / Germany) Markus
Fantastic! Used Fetch to connect to the ftp which allowed me to delete the .AppleDB files (to be honest I copied them to my desktop, just in case). Reset the disc to factory settings as per instructions and then connected up via ethernet, took a deep breath and there was my 'share' folder back within my AFP connection. All my files untouched and as they were yesterday. I am still waiting for a reply from LaCie techie dept – who needs them thanks to J.B. Thanks for sharing your knowledge – the world is a better place with folks like yourself around. Regards HughsieG5, UK.
Thank you so much, Jacob. I had beed struggling with my EDmini for so long!