Strange behavior - Auto mount network drive

Now that I am using QRecall as my main backup solution (no more Time Machine), I attempted to set up a recurring capture to a compacted archive on a drive connected to my Airport Extreme.

I was able to test a 1 minute interval capture that would work as expected; mount the drive, then capture. However, when using the 'Assistant' to set up the schedule I cannot get it to auto mount. What I ended up doing was creating the recurring schedule manually, ejected the volume with the archive, then started the capture and sure enough it mounted the volume and started.

I tried to make the assistant do this for me twice with no success so perhaps there is something odd with the way it creates the timers?
Chris

Chris Caouette wrote:I was able to test a 1 minute interval capture that would work as expected; mount the drive, then capture.

A one minute interval? I hope that was just for testing.

However, when using the 'Assistant' to set up the schedule I cannot get it to auto mount. What I ended up doing was creating the recurring schedule manually, ejected the volume with the archive, then started the capture and sure enough it mounted the volume and started.

I tried to make the assistant do this for me twice with no success so perhaps there is something odd with the way it creates the timers?

That's very odd. An action document contains an alias (identical to a Finder alias) to the archive. QRecall uses the alias to auto-mount the volume, exactly the same way the Finder does.

I just reviewed the code and as far as I can tell the Capture Assistant and the action editor create aliases to the archive in exactly the same way. So I wouldn't expect there to be any observable differences. Was there no other differences in the actions or how they were run?

Strange indeed. I set up QRecall on another machine yesterday, used the 'Assistant' and was successful at having the external volume auto mount.
I don't know what was up with that other system, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with Qrecall.

Thanks!
Chris

I tried again on my iMac and once again it failed to mount the drive. I discovered that the 'Hold While No Archive" was causing the issue. Once I removed that the volume would mount right away.

Chris

Chris Caouette wrote:I discovered that the 'Hold While No Archive" was causing the issue.

Duh, I should have thought of that.

When you choose "Yes, the archive is on a removable volume" the assistant adds the "Hold while no archive" condition to all of the actions. It's intended for volumes that are only "occasionally" connected (external FireWire drives, USB thumb drives, network volumes for laptops that aren't always connected to the network, etc.). The idea is that QRecall will start the action (alerting you that a capture wants to start), then wait for you to physically connect the volume, allowing the action to proceed.

I can see where the wording in the Capture Assistant could be confusing. I'll make a note to reword it in the next version.

Ah, that explains it. I guess this situation I should select 'always connected' seeing as even though the volume isn't mounted, it is active on the network.
Thanks
Chris

Chris Caouette wrote:Ah, that explains it. I guess this situation I should select 'always connected' seeing as even though the volume isn't mounted, it is active on the network.

Correct. Mounted is not the same thing as connected. For networked volumes, these terms are vaguer since you'll often hear people talk of "connecting" to a network file server — meaning that they mounted the shared volume.