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Anchor Version 2.7.0 - Known issues

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Tami Sutcliffe
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Issue #1 Summary

Files and folders with a trailing space or special characters in their name may not be synced.

The special characters are:

\ 

: 

* 

?

" 
< 

> 

| 

\r 

\t 

 [       ] 

backslash

colon

asterisk

question mark

double quotes

less than

greater than

pipe

carriage return

tab

trailing spaces

Prerequisites

  • A user is updating their desktop Synced Tool from version 2.6.2 to 2.7.0 
  • Windows-based operating system is being used
  • A user is subscribed to a Team Share that contains a file or folder with a trailing space or special character in the name OR a user has a file or folder with a trailing space or special character in the name in the user's Personal Root
  • A file or folder with a trailing space or special character in the name is synced down to user's local file system

When a user performs the following actions

  • On the 2.6.2 desktop client, open "Preferences"
  • On the Overview tab, click Unregister, and confirm Unregister on the confirmation dialog
  • Update the desktop client to 2.7.0
  • Click on the Synced Tool icon on the Windows task bar and click Sign in here to get started OR open "Preferences" on the Overview tab and click Register
  • Type in the user's credentials and click Next
  • Select the same destination for the synced folder used previously
  • On the Destination Conflict dialog, click Merge
  • On the Choose Folders for Selective Sync dialog, choose either Skip and do this later or Select what to sync to this device now and select folders or Team Shares that contain files or folders with a trailing space or special character in their name

The files or folders with the trailing space will be downloaded from the server with "_~09" instead of the trailing space. The local files/folders with the trailing space will be recognized as new files/folders.

More information about converting additional special characters is here: Anchor - Handling Special Characters

The following scenarios can occur

  • If those files or folders are located in the user's Personal Root or in a Team Share for which the user is subscribed as co-owner, collaborator or editor, those local files/folders will not be synced up.
  • If those files or folders are located in a Team Share for which the user is subscribed as a viewer, a sync warning will be generated indicating that the user doesn't have permission to add new files/folders. 

Solution

You can resolve the generated warning by clicking the Resolve button in the Warnings tab.

Please find the full guide on warning resolution here: Anchor - Resolving a File Sync Warning 

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Issue #2 Summary

Inconsistent experiences can occur on the desktop client and Web user interface when an Admin is accessing Team Share files to which they are subscribed with a less permissive role. 

Prerequisites

Admin has a Team Share subscription with a less permissive role  

Issue description

  • An Admin has full access to Team Shares of their organization.
  • At the same time, a subscription role applies its permissions.
  • This causes a complex mix of operations that are either allowed or not allowed.

For example, if an Admin with the "Uploader" role navigates to the list of files of the Team Share using the Web UI and clicks the "Show deleted" button,  the Admin will see a 403 error.

(From the desktop client, an Admin will be able to sync files up or down regardless of the role assigned to them.)

Plans for improvement

In future releases, the user experience will be designed to be more consistent and will be based on the permissions a user currently has, regardless of whether a user is an Admin or a standard user.

From the Admin UI of the Web Portal, an Admin has full control of a Team Share,  whenever they need that administrative experience. Permission roles are implicitly ignored. 

However, when that user is working with other interfaces that do not provide an administrative experience, the user remains aligned with a Standard User experience and permission roles are explicitly enforced.

For example, if an Admin has an "Uploader" role, they will not be able to sync down the Team Share's content using (a) the desktop agent or (b) the mobile apps or (c) the Standard User Web UI, because all three of these would be explicitly enforcing the "Uploader" role for that Team Share.

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Issue #3 Summary

On the Team Shares management page in the Admin Web UI, in the Subscribers from another organization area,  the ON and OFF buttons next to device names do not work as perceived.

Issue description

On the Team Shares management page in the Admin Web UI, there is a special area to manage subscriptions from external organizations called Subscribers from another organization.

  • This area was intended to allow a user to invite Standard Users from another organization to collaborate by providing them access to a Team Share.
  • This area also provides additional controls to select or deselect the Team Share for syncing on a selected device. These controls require the user who administers the Team Share to be able to see the list of devices of a user from another organization.

We recognize the exposure of this information as being a security concern.

Plans for improvement

We are planning to remove the list of devices from this area in the next version.

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Issue #4 Summary

A user is able to sync down the files of a Team Share using the desktop client if they have permissions to do so, but they are restricted to "Web and Mobile" only.

Prerequisites

  • A user has a registered desktop client
  • An Admin subscribed that user to a Team Share with only "Web and Mobile" access, and with one of the following roles: Co-owner, Collaborator, Editor, or Viewer.

Issue description

The user can sync down a Team Share using the following steps:

  1. Log in to the Web Portal
  2. Navigate to "Shares", and select the Team Share
  3. Click the ON button for the device name to be synced

Important note

Local sync to the desktop clients requires item-sync permission.

Four of the seven roles include this permission and will be able to sync the Team Share content locally (Co-Owner, Collaborator, Editor, and Viewer).

Three of the seven roles do not include this permission and will not be able to sync the Team Share content locally (Web Editor, Previewer, and Uploader). 

The Anchor team will include a fix for the described issue in a future release.

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Issue #5 Summary

Microsoft's Edge browser displays extra padding in the Permissions description table of the  "Permission Roles" dialog.

Prerequisites

  • Microsoft's Edge browse is in use

Issue description

Microsoft Edge browser users will see extra padding in the "Permission Roles" dialog if they perform the following steps:

  1. Log in to the Web Portal as an Admin
  2. Navigate to Team Shares
  3. Click the Manage Team Share button next to an existing Team Share
  4. Click on the View Permission Role link in the "Users or Groups" block

In the Permissions description table, the rows will be displayed with extra padding.

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Issue #6 Summary

When attempting to unregister the desktop client, the client does not delete the local folder of a Team Share in which the registered user was subscribed with the Viewer role.

Prerequisites 

  • Windows-based OS is in use
  • A user unregisters a desktop client

Issue description

The Anchor desktop client utilizes Windows Access Control List (ACL) to enforce the restriction of user's role on local files and folders of a Team Share. During an unregistration, the desktop client fails to clear the ACL restrictions on the local copy of the Team Share folder before an attempt to delete that folder.

Workaround

  • Using "Windows Explorer" navigate to the Team Share folder
  • Right click on that folder and click on "Properties" menu item
  • Using the "Security" tab allow the current Windows user the access to delete the folder
  • Delete the folder using "Windows Explorer"

The Anchor team will include the fix for the described issue in a future release.

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Issue #7 Summary

Windows Distributed File Systems (DFS) Replication performance can be affected by the update to 2.7.0.

Prerequisites 

Issue description 

Release 2.7.0 includes Team Share permissions, which use Windows ACL to keep users from making changes to files and folders which are not permitted.

During the first sync procedure after the upgrade to 2.7.0, the desktop client will align Windows ACL with the permission roles assigned to the user.

Because DFS  also replicates Windows ACL, a replication will be performed on all files/folders with changed ACLs. 

Here is an excerpt from Microsofts's DFS FAQ:

Does DFS Replication replicate updated permissions on a file or folder?

Yes. DFS Replication replicates permission changes for files and folders. Only the part of the file associated with the Access Control List (ACL) is replicated, although DFS Replication must still read the entire file into the staging area.

 Note: Changing ACLs on a large number of files can have an impact on replication performance. However, when using RDC, the amount of data transferred is proportionate to the size of the ACLs, not the size of the entire file. The amount of disk traffic is still proportional to the size of the files because the files must be read to and from the staging folder.

Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/dfs-replication/dfsr-faq

Why does Anchor's desktop client change the Windows ACL?

  • Anchor's desktop client sets the Windows ACL permissions to reflect each user's configured role.
  • When a user attempts to perform any action (including changes which are not permitted), the Windows ACL checks that user's permissions level.
  • When an action is not allowed, Windows alerts the user at the moment when the user attempts that action. 

If the Windows ACL didn’t adjust to reflect assigned permissions, a user would be able to perform actions which should not be allowed. Subsequent sync warnings would then occur. Because most users don't check sync warnings (or tend to check them infrequently),  users could inadvertently lose changes they attempted to make. 

In order to avoid changes being unexpectedly lost, we are utilizing Windows ACL to prevent users from performing actions which are not permitted.  

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Issue #8 Summary

Synced Tool for macOS 2.7.0 installer cannot be launched on macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Prerequisites

  • macOS 10.15 Catalina is in use

Issue description

Synced Tool for macOS installer is a 32-bit application, while Apple, starting from macOS 10.15 Catalina, is deprecating 32-bit applications in favor of 64-bit applications. 

Resolution plan

Synced Tool for macOS 2.7.1 is a 64-bit application and complies with this new requirement. Therefore, it does not have issues running on macOS 10.15 Catalina.

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Issue #9 Summary

After fresh installation, files fail to upload until Synced Tool service is restarted (or paused and unpaused.)

Prerequisites

  • macOS 10.15 Catalina is in use

Issue description

Starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple has changed the volume layout.

The file system has been split into two parts:

  • a read-only system
  • a writable user system

Both parts are exposed to the macOS API user.

At a high level, a user can see the contents of matching folders from those two file systems as a single folder and does not know they are two separate systems.

For example:

At a high level, a macOS API user might be manipulating the folder "/Users".

At a lower level, that would, in fact, be a composition of the following two folders:

  • "/Users" - the read-only system folder
  • "/System/Volumes/Data/Users" - the user-writable folder

Resolution plan

Handling of this scenario is included in Synced Tool for macOS 2.7.1.

 

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