MinimServer, Synology & External USB Drives

[davidavdavid]

A curious scenario. I have Mimimserver installed on my Synology, and it runs as it should, and I have configured it correctly to scan external USB drives attached to my 420+. Alas, here is the rub:

I have it scanning the first drive: /volumeUSB1/usbshare and then proceeded to extract the properties for the second drive: /volumeUSB2/usbshare, and this is where things run afoul. Your software sends this error message:
"Directory name conflict; correct highlighted value and retry"
The name of drive 1 is usbshare, the name of drive 2 is usbshare2 - different names, however, the properties for each, as you see above, are USB1/usbshare and USB2/usbshare. Synology differentiates USB1 and USB2 but employs "usbshare" for both, and Minimserfver sees them as being the same and will NOT let me scan that 2nd drive.

According to Synology, the folder "usbshare" for external drives hanging off the Synology cannot be changed at the system level. I can rename the drive for my purposes, but if two drives are externally connected, it will see them as:

/volumeUSB1/usbshare
and
/volumeUSB2/usbshare

Minimsever scans the first one without issue, I just want it to scan the second one as well.

[simoncn]

MinimServer uses the last name of the path for various internal purposes and it is not possible to change this. Because of this, the last name of the path must be unique among the paths used in the contentDir setting.

Likewise, Synology sets the name usbshare as the last name of the path for external USB drives and it is not possible to change this.

The solution is to create Linux symbolic links for the USB drive path names, as follows:

1) Enable the Synology user home service if it isn't already enabled
2) Enable the SSH service in Terminal & SNMP settings if this isn't already enabled
3) Login to the Synology using ssh (on Windows, use putty)
4) From the terminal command line, enter this command:

Code:

ln -s /volumeUSB1/usbshare volumeUSB1

5) This creates a symbolic link in your home directory to the /volumeUSB1/usbshare USB drive. The full path for the symbolic link is /var/services/homes/myuser/volumeUSB1.
6) Enter the full symbolic link path in the MinimServer contentDir property
7) Repeat steps 4 and 5 with volumeUSB1 changed to volumeUSB2
8) You should now be able to access both your USB drives from MinimServer

[davidavdavid]

(09-11-2025 16:37)simoncn Wrote:  MinimServer uses the last name of the path for various internal purposes and it is not possible to change this. Because of this, the last name of the path must be unique among the paths used in the contentDir setting.

Likewise, Synology sets the name usbshare as the last name of the path for external USB drives and it is not possible to change this.

The solution is to create Linux symbolic links for the USB drive path names, as follows:

1) Enable the Synology user home service if it isn't already enabled
2) Enable the SSH service in Terminal & SNMP settings if this isn't already enabled
3) Login to the Synology using ssh (on Windows, use putty)
4) From the terminal command line, enter this command:

Code:

ln -s volumeUSB1/usbshare volumeUSB1

5) This creates a symbolic link in your home directory to the volumeUSB1/usbshare USB drive. The full path for the symbolic link is /var/services/homes/myuser/volumeUSB1.
6) Enter the full symbolic link path in the MinimServer contentDir property
7) Repeat steps 4 and 5 with volumeUSB1 changed to volumeUSB2
8) You should now be able to access both your USB drives from MinimServer

Thank you, Simon. This is what I had actually done as my workaround earlier today; I was hoping that there was a system-side, rather than a client-side solution. Again good that you got back to me. A minor alteration:

Code: ln -s /volumeUSB1/usbshare volumeUSB1
ln -s /volumeUSB2/usbshare volumeUSB2

both drives are now scanning, given their respective sizes this will take a fair bit, but I can be patient ... read that to mean, I have no choice in the matter.

[simoncn]

Thanks for pointing out the typo in my previous post. I have edited the post to show the correct command so that other users following the instructions don't have a problem.