Control Synology FileBot with MacOS FileBot?

[BlackWitchMoth]

Hello,

I've been trying to figure out how to create hard links so that I can rename and redo the directory structures of files from torrents without touching the originals, so that I can continue to seed yet also have Plex properly see the structure. This is a common problem and FileBot seems perfect for handling all steps of that process. Thank you for your work on it!

I use MacOS but have Plex and the files hosted on my Synology NAS. I first tried to use FileBot on Mac, accessing and outputting the files on the NAS connected via SMB, but it threw an error message. This isn't overly surprising, given what I've read about hard links (what little I understand, anyway). I have FileBot set up on the NAS and have been able to use it, but the GUI does not have quite as many options and does not seem as user-friendly as the MacOS instance. It got me thinking... is there a way to have FileBot on MacOS direct the instance of FileBot (or I suppose technically it would be the Node service) on Synology?

[rednoah]

What Synology NAS model are you using?


If it's a higher-end model, then you can use docker to run the GUI inside a container (i.e. filebot-xpra) on device.


If it's a low-end model, then you can mount files onto your Mac via NFS protocol and thus get all the Unix-y filesystem features. You may need to enable NFS on the NAS first.

[BlackWitchMoth]

Thanks for the reply! This is a DS1621+. I've tried to use Docker for various applications before and for reasons I can't explain, usually had difficulties with them in some form (usually something with connectivity or local file access). It sounds like mounting over NFS and then trying to use FileBot on the Mac side may be the way to go - I'll give that a try. (Initial effort just showed a permission denied error on trying to mount via NFS, and now my small children now won't leave me be, so evidently it's not as easy as just enabling it on the Synology side and then mounting the usual way - will need to look into it a bit more after they're asleep.)

[rednoah]

I recently ran tests with Windows 11 machine and DS120J Synology NAS and creating hardlinks remotely via the Windows client / FileBot Desktop application did work out of the box. Synology DSM seems to enable the SMB unix extensions by default, and Windows seems to support the SMB unix extensions by default. Not sure about macOS though. I'll try to remember to run extra tests from macOS next time around.