When connecting to my NAS (WD My Cloud) via SMB asks for credentials at every directory change

[Msprg]

Yeah, so this error was bugging me for a few years now, and I've always hoped tall fix it guys, even without my help, but as said, few years already and still nothing. Sometimes I just lost patience, and use MX Player (in which this works correctly, that is max. one creds. request at the first connection), but always eventually try VLC again.

So yeah, VLC is asking me for username and password every single time I change directory. BTW no matter the remember credentials/password checkbox. VLC just forgets. Noting that this wasn't always the case, in older versions this worked ok. But it isn't working ring for a few years now. Also it's only with this one NAS device, but on the other side, no other device on the LAN, or other applications experience this kind of problem. It really looks to me like the NAS does "things" "standard enough" for most (basically all I tried) applications to not experience problems but "not standard enough" for VLC on Android. This also happens on other phones with VLC access Ing the same NAS through SMB. So not my phone either...

VLC revision in use: 3470199f8 VLC commit: 28eddab6e

Sorry for bad formatting, as I'm writing on phone.

[Aza]

Could you please share some logs?
Reproduce the issue and then go to: Settings > Advanced > Debug logs. Then share the logs with the sharing service you prefer (Google Drive, Dropbox, pastebin...).

[Msprg]

This time, I've actually tried to play some of the movies I've had on my NAS (usually I would just try to browse NAS, see the second widow asking for credentials, and just use other player at that point...). It just got me into the player interface and never actually started playing anything, I don't think it even got the metadata.

https://pastebin.com/TtVtPdKV


Edit: got you some more logs https://pastebin.com/RyQMg6zC

Here I tried to play music - that worked ok (except those unnecessary authentications) then I tried to play a movie again (right before playing I got few times name/password combo wrong it seems - no surprise though if I have to manually enter it every damn time) and movie wouldn't play still.


One difference that may be important: when I opened the music track, I was asked, again, to authenticate. When I am trying to play a movie though, I was not asked to authenticate again after opening movie file. In both cases I was asked to authenticate for every directory above anyways.

[Aza]

Could you please give us your device model and Android version?

[Tatsh]

I have a similar issue. I get asked user/pass if I do not have my directories set to 755 and files 644 for my system running Samba. That includes the root of the share. Entering the user/pass does not grant me access. I have resorted to setting the min client to SMB2 and using `guest ok = yes` on some shares.

[Nivin]

This issue is happening on all Android 10 devices i have multiple Android 10 devices. This is regression and was not happening on a version older.
Let me know if you need any specific information.
I have side loaded older APK file and samba v1 works fine. Do you have web link for older versions of APK files ?

Edit: I got hold of 3.2.9 from official repo get.videolan.org/vlc-android and it is the version which samba v1 mount works fine.
Regression is noted in 3.3.0 and 3.3.1.

Can someone identify the fix ?

[Msprg]

Could you please give us your device model and Android version?

The logs were generated on Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 running MIUIOS.cz ROM (eq to the Xiaomi.EU ROM) on android 9, but honestly, It has been bappening to me on all kinds of devices, with android versions varying from 7 all the way up to 10 as far as I've tested...

[Aza]

We made some changes on the SMB support. Could any of you try with the latest nightly version and see if this issue is solved?

[Msprg]

On it!

[Msprg]

Yeah, I still get prompted for the Uname/Pass unnecessary every time... I would attach the logs now again, but I doesn't see the option to show logs in settings/advanced. (I have only verbose logcat, and libVLC params there)

[Aza]

After some more investigation, it's a different issue than the one we solved.
Could you please give us your device model and Android version?

[Msprg]

Could you please give us your device model and Android version?

The logs were generated on Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 running MIUIOS.cz ROM (eq to the Xiaomi.EU ROM) on android 9, but honestly, It has been bappening to me on all kinds of devices, with android versions varying from 7 all the way up to 10 as far as I've tested...

Need any more information?

[nickp221]

I had the same problem with a WD MyCloud (an older first gen model) and accessing it with VLC for Android on a FireTV Gen2 device. My FireTV Gen1 device worked fine, put in the user/pass one time and no issues ever again.

My new FireTV Gen 2 kept asking for a password on every attempt to access the device. But I was able to get around this:

I had to specify the username in the format of DEVICENAME\USERNAME (and password) and it would accept this, but then keep asking for credentials every time.

So, I tried in the form of IPADDRESS\USERNAME (and password) and then it worked.

And fully reproducing what happened was, at the first prompt for credentials I put DEVICENAME\USERNAME (and password) and then it prompted again and I put IPADDRESS\USERNAME (and password) and then it was connected and never asked again.

The problem was specific to the WD MyCloud device because since then, I have moved to a Synology NAS and did not have any issues connecting to it from any device, with any app on any platform.

Maybe give this a try, I hope it might help.

[Msprg]

Hi,

I've tried using username in form you are suggesting, but unfortunately, I never pass authentication if I use any other form of name and password than just simple plain... name and password... Thank you for your suggestion though.


Additionally, I would like to ask, does VLC actually support NFS? I haven't seen it there, or I've might just overlooked it...

[Aza]

Does the new beta help with this issue? You can download it here: http://get.videolan.org/testing/android/3.3.2-Beta-2/

[Msprg]

Unfortunately no, still repeatedly asking for credentials :/

[Aza]

We made other fixes in the new beta (3.3.2 beta 3). Could you please try it and see if this issue is fixed?

[Msprg]

Hello, I've just tried on version 3.3.3 beta 3. Still no luck for me. (It.. rhymes... Yay...).

I also just noticed - but it likely has been like so before - that when I'm browsing in between files and folders on my NAS, there should be count of files inside the folders - under folder's name - but on all folders it displays just "empty" so the vlc "losses" credentials before it peeks into the folders looking for media files.

[Aza]

Could you please try to go to the settings > Advanced > uncheck "Prefer SMB 1" and see if it works better after that?

[Msprg]

Hello, and thank you for assisting me still.

I did uncheck "prefer SMB 1" checkbox, but everything went without change. So it's still broken for me. Btw in the NAS settings, there is a "max SMB protocol" setting, that is - and was - set to SMB 3.

[end-user]

FWIW, I'm seeing the same behavior - every directory I traverse requires a login. This is with version 3.3.1 off of Google app store. I don't have an "SMB 1" option under advanced settings.

[Msprg]

FWIW, I'm seeing the same behavior - every directory I traverse requires a login. This is with version 3.3.1 off of Google app store. I don't have an "SMB 1" option under advanced settings.

Yes, I think that's only in beta.
https://get.videolan.org/testing/android/3.3.3-Beta-3/

[Aza]

"Prefer smb 1" was introduced in 3.3.2.
@end-user: if you still get issues with 3.3.2, please let me know.

@Msprg: i'll send your issue to the person in charge of that

[tguillem]

@Msprg: could you tell me what is the server / NAS you are using?
Could you send us your SMB configuration also, tell us if your local network have ipv4/ipv6.

Meanwhile, we will do a new vlc build with more logs that could help us understand your issue (the current beta from the playstore won't display the logs we are interested in).

[Msprg]

Hello,

My NAS is WD My Cloud, 4TB with the latest firmware currently 2.31.204. I have an SSH access to it if needed.
There is not much I can set in SMB configuration on the NAS at least through web interface.

I have pretty standard home network 192.168.0.1/24. In my LAN I use only IPv4, my ISP doesn't even provide IPv6 for me, currently.
NAS has assigned an static IP in the DHCP server.
Feel free to ask for more details...