PC -> Mac Server Issue: MacOS cannot open/edit filename with special characters

Plex Media Server
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1

Bit of background first… This isn’t a Plex Server issue but rather seems to be a MacOS/Synology issue perhaps. Either way, wanted to get your all’s input as I’m completely stumped in how to proceed.

  • Been running Plex Server on a PC for years.
  • All files stored on Synology NAS
  • Recently migrated to MacOS server (new Mac Studio - weee!)
  • I have a number of media files with foreign language characters in the file names (àéèñö)

Ever since migrating the server (successfully I might add) to MacOS, the mapped network drives can display filenames with these characters but I cannot open or edit them. PC worked totally fine. It almost appears to be a permissions issue but it’s not - I’m able to do everything as expected with files without these characters.

When I manually rename the files on the NAS to replace the special characters (because I’m unable to on the Mac), poof. The files work just fine on the Mac.

Would love it if anyone else is having this issue. No idea if this is legacy or due to recent updates in MacOS, Synology. Thanks!

2

Sounds like a problem with how the share is published or mounted (given both platforms on their own are perfectly capable of handling those characters)

3

Agreed.

Many NAS/filesharing platforms go through extreme measures to flatten/preserve/translate/suppress/map different special characters for different clients.

This is particularly prevalent when using different filesharing protocols for different systems. Are you using SMB for some but AFP for others?

If so, try disabling AFP and just using SMB from the Macs, too.

4

Thanks all. For additional context I’ve had hours on the phone with both Synology and Apple Support but to no avail. I have also:

  • used different user logins with various permissions settings
  • tried SMB and AFP protocols
  • used AutoMounter to force protocol
  • tried disabling AFP completely

None of the above has changed the behavior.