Hi there -

I have a Time Capsule that I'm using as a remote store for QRecall. Everything works great if that volume is mounted. I've set up a scheduled backup, however, that's supposed to run at 2am, with the "wake before" option selected.

For some reason I can't figure out, QRecall isn't mounting this remote volume, so when I return later, I see a bunch of actions "waiting for archive".

Any ideas where I can start troubleshooting this?

Neil,

For QRecall to mount a network volume while unattended, it requires two things: (1) the user name and password for the volume must be stored on your keychain, and (2) your keychain must be open.

The later also implies that you're logged in. Taken together, your computer must be logged into your account, and everything the system needs to mount that volume must be readily available without having to ask. If any of these things are missing, QRecall won't be able to mount the volume.

You can test this simply enough. Mount your network volume and create an alias to any file or folder on that volume. Save the alias on your local desktop and eject the volume. Now open the alias. If the volume mounts automatically, then everything should work. (The Finder and QRecall both call the same framework to mount volumes that contain the target of an alias, so if it works in the Finder it should work for QRecall.)

There is one last caveat. The alias stored in the action that points to your remote archive must be up to date. If not, QRecall might not be able to identify the volume that needs to be mounted. If you suspect this, mount your volume, open the Actions window, open the capture action, reselect the target archive, and save the action.

Now if all that goes well and QRecall still isn't mounting your volume, send a diagnostic report.

Neil,

Thanks for sending a diagnostic report. It reminded me that there's one more requirement for QRecall to auto-mount your archive's volume:

(3) The action does not use the "Hold While No Archive" or "Ignore if No Archive" schedule conditions.

These conditions are intended for archives on volumes that can't be automatically mounted. They depend on you to mount the volume (such as physically plugging in a drive or connecting to a VPN) and then the action will proceed automatically.

The side effect of setting these conditions is that QRecall won't even try to mount the volume.

Some years ago James Bucanek wrote:

For QRecall to mount a network volume while unattended, it requires two things: (1) the user name and password for the volume must be stored on your keychain, and (2) your keychain must be open.

and

(3) The action does not use the "Hold While No Archive" or "Ignore if No Archive" schedule conditions.

Operating Systems have moved on since this thread started and perhaps the conditions have changed, so I'm resuscitating the question.

I'm trying to use ControlPlace (a freebie available at http://www.controlplaneapp.com/) to handle the mounting of a NAS drive. It uses Rules to trigger Actions. The Rule that I've tried is to name the application which will trigger the drive mount. So far I've tried QRecallMonitor and then QRecallScheduler. Neither appears to work; I say 'appears' because I'm getting a 'NetAuthSysAgent wants to use the "login" keychain' message when I login. Setting that problem aside, I'd appreciate knowing what application should be named. I don't have to use the application in the rule, I could use 'Time of Day' but the former would be more elegant in case I decide to change QRecall's schedule.

On the third point, I guess that I don't need to cancel the "Hold While No Archive" condition if ControlPlane has done its job?

Charles Watts-Jones wrote:Operating Systems have moved on since this thread started and perhaps the conditions have changed, so I'm resuscitating the question.

Not much has changed since this feature was first introduced. When QRecall starts an action, and the archive for that action isn't online (it isn't reachable, in the language of the filesystem), it requests that OS X make it available. OS X then looks to see if the archive was originally on a volume that's physically connected to the system and can be mounted, or if it was on a network volume that the OS can reconnect to. Encrypted and networked volumes might require supplying a password from the keychain.

If any of these things are not true (the drive isn't connected, the server isn't online, the devices driver doesn't understand filesystem mount requests, or the keychain can't be accessed), then the volume won't be mounted and the action can't run.

I'm trying to use ControlPlace (a freebie available at http://www.controlplaneapp.com/) to handle the mounting of a NAS drive. It uses Rules to trigger Actions. The Rule that I've tried is to name the application which will trigger the drive mount. So far I've tried QRecallMonitor and then QRecallScheduler. Neither appears to work; ... I'd appreciate knowing what application should be named.

I doubt this rule will be useful. QRecall actions are performed by an executable. This is binary executable file, but it is not a Cocoa application bundle, which is what is generally referred to as an "application" in OS X. The OS X workspace manager posts notifications when a Cocoa application (like Mail) launches or terminates, and this is probably what ContolPlace is listening for. I highly doubt it's capable of determining when an executable is spawned, but if it is the executable is named QRecallHelper.

I say 'appears' because I'm getting a 'NetAuthSysAgent wants to use the "login" keychain' message when I login.

No clue.

Can ControlPlace be set up to mount your volume when you execute a shell script? If so, you might look into Growl 2.0.

Growl is a notification manager that long preceded—and was probably the inspiration for—the built-in notification manager added in OS X 10.8. Growl 2.0 (available from the Mac App Store) adds the ability to perform various actions when it receives specific notifications. This includes turning the notification in an email or SMS message, or even turning it into an iOS push notification via Prowl (available in the iOS App Store). That last one is the feature I use the most. I have all of my servers push their "Action Failed" notifications to my iPhone.

QRecall sends four different notifications to Growl (and OS X's built-in notification center): Action Started, Action Complete, Action Failed, and Archive Needs Repair.

You can set up Growl to run an ActionScript when it receives any of these notifications. The script can be passed the notification's name (Action Started, etc.) which it could use to determine if the volume should be mounted or unmounted.

You'll still want to the keep the "Hold While No Archive" condition, to avoid the race condition between the action (that will immediately try to open the archive) and the script (that's simultaneously trying to mount the volume that archive is on).