Volumio 4.19 on RPI 4. USB disc is write protected!

Help and Support
1

**Volumio 4 Issues
Volumio 4.19 on RPI 4. USB disc is write protected!

----------------------------- Delete here & above before posting below -----------------

2

Hey @Subhash,

How did you obtain 4.19 never released build? It predates public alpha. Are you sure about the version?

I think we (community) do not have enough information about your system, build version, network etc, to help you effectively. We are dealing with a vague excerpt similar to a “Doctor, I sneezed - now I need prescription”.

This is the actual minimum that we, correction - I need, to start looking into problem affecting your system:

Kind Regards,

3

Sorry for that. The version is 4.119
I flashed this version to an SD card using RPI imager after formatting it to exFAT.
My external SSD drive connects to RPI 4.
With the previous version (3.9), everything worked well. However, with 4.119, I cannot write to disk or modify existing track information. Since I am not a Linux expert. I would not know offhand what I can do. I have tried erasing the SD card, formatting it with other FAT without success. I am now using my previous sc card with V3. 9 till this issue is solved. Hope you can help.
Thank you and a good day.
Subhash

4

Hey @Subhash,

Thank you for the version number. 4.119 makes more sense.

Before we go further, a small note: formatting the SD card to exFAT (or any other filesystem) before flashing has no effect. Raspberry Pi Imager overwrites the whole card with Volumio’s own partition layout. You can skip that step in future.

Now to the actual problem. Your description mixes two devices, and I need to separate them:

  • SD card: holds the Volumio operating system
  • External SSD: holds your music library (I assume - please confirm)

“I cannot write to disk or modify existing track information” does not tell me what you are doing, from where, or what happens when it fails. Please answer each point below. Short answers are fine, but every point needs an answer:

[1] Raspberry Pi board: exact revision code, not just “RPI 4”. Use this guide:

[2] SSD: make and model, and how it is connected (directly to a USB 3 port, through a powered hub, through an adapter or enclosure - which one).

[3] SSD filesystem: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, ext4 or other. If you do not know, tell me which computer and operating system you used to format it.

[4] How are you writing to the disk? For example:

  • copying files from a Windows or Mac computer over the network (Samba share)
  • a tag editing program - which one, running on which computer
  • something else - describe it

[5] What exactly happens when it fails? Copy the exact error message text from your computer. “Write protected” in your title - where did you see those words?

[6] Log link. Reproduce the problem first (try to write to the SSD and let it fail), then immediately generate the log:

The log must be taken from the 4.119 system, after the failure, without rebooting in between. A log from your 3.9 card is of no use for this.

Without these details there is nothing to investigate - I would only be guessing, and guessing does not fix disks.

Kind Regards,

5

The RPI4 SSD is accessed through a Windows 10 PC in LAN.

6

http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/IuzHak5.html

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Hey @Subhash,

Thank you, the log is exactly what was needed.

What the log shows

  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4 (4 GB), Volumio 4.119
  • Your SSD is a Samsung T7 Shield, 4 TB, formatted exFAT, connected to a USB 3 port
  • Volumio mounts it read-write. The kernel reports the disk as not write protected, so this is not a hardware write lock.
  • The disk is mounted without any owner or permission options, which on this system means every file and folder appears as owned by the system administrator account (root), with write access for that account only.
  • When Windows opens the “USB” network share, it connects as a guest account, not as root.

My current thinking, based on the above (not yet confirmed): the guest account from your Windows PC is allowed to read the files but not to rename or change them, and Windows reports that as “Access Denied”.

To confirm this I need one piece of information from your system. It requires a single command over SSH:

  1. Open http://192.168.2.137/dev in your browser
  2. Find SSH and click “Enable”
  3. On your Windows 10 PC, open “Command Prompt” and type:
    ssh volumio@192.168.2.137
  4. Answer “yes” if asked about the host key, then enter the password: volumio
  5. Copy and paste this command, press Enter:
    ls -lnd /mnt/USB/Media_SSD /mnt/USB/Media_SSD/*/ | head -5
  6. Paste the complete output here (text, not a screenshot)

Please do not reformat or change anything on the SSD in the meantime. It holds almost 3 TB of your data, and we do not yet have a confirmed cause.

Something else I noticed

Between 14:05 and 14:25 the log shows the SSD stopped responding five times while Volumio was scanning your library. Each time the system reset the USB connection and reported read errors, then recovered. This is separate from the write problem and did not cause it, but it needs looking at afterwards. One question for now: is the SSD plugged directly into the Raspberry Pi, or through a cable extension or hub?

Kind Regards,

8

Thank you so much for taking the time to help. I really appreciate it.
The SSD is conneced directly to RPI 4.
I enabled SSH and tried to access the RPI with SSH from Command Prompt, but the box just flashed and vanished. After several tries, I downloaded PuTTY and tried. This time I could reach RPI, but got Access Denied message back. After several tries, I gave up. Inbetween, I got a message from RPI saying network closed.
Since everything worked with v3.9 and the same setup, I now suspect the SD card may have an error. I do not wish to overwrite the other SD card with v3.9 for now.
What would you suggest?
Thanks again.

9

Hey @Subhash,

It is hard to tell without MicroSD diag tolls what went wrong. Bad flash is fairly frequent, especially when a customization is used.

Here is beginners friendly guide:

I would try first carefully re-flash VolumioOS first, then purchase A2/A3 class10 type if still causes problems.

Kind Regards,

10

Good day!
I finally found a solution by formatting another usb drive with NTFS and it worked! There is no access denied anymore.

11

According to Microsoft AI,
The real cause
Volumio 4.119 mounts exFAT drives using udisks2 with root-only permissions:

  • exFAT does not support Linux permissions
  • Volumio mounts it with no uid/gid override
  • Result: the volumio user cannot read/write → “access denied”

This is why NTFS, ext4, FAT32 work fine, but exFAT fails.

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Would there be a fix for exFAT in Volumio 4?

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Hey @Subhash,

Good to hear you have a working setup with the NTFS drive.

A word of caution about the “Microsoft AI” explanation you quoted. AI tools produce text that sounds confident and reads well, but they do not know how Volumio works internally, and they do not check facts. Part of what it told you happens to be right, part of it is simply invented, and it gives you no way to tell which is which. I have checked it against your log and against the Volumio source code:

  • “Volumio mounts exFAT drives using udisks2” - wrong. Your log shows Volumio mounting the drive directly with the standard mount command. udisks2 is not involved at all and is not even running on your system.
  • “no uid/gid override” - correct. This one is confirmed in the Volumio code and in your log.
  • “NTFS, ext4, FAT32 work fine” - only partly supported. FAT32 and NTFS are mounted with different settings than exFAT, which is consistent with your NTFS test. ext4 has not been tested by you or anyone in this thread; the AI made that part up.

Please treat these tools as a starting point for questions, never as an answer. Had you acted on a wrong claim, for example by reformatting your 3 TB SSD on the strength of it, you could have lost your data for nothing.

To your question: “Would there be a fix for exFAT in Volumio 4?”

I cannot promise anything. What I can say:

  • Your report matches other reports from Volumio 4 users with exFAT drives.
  • The code that mounts exFAT drives has been identified, and it is the same code involved in those other reports.
  • What is still missing is a controlled test that proves this code is what causes the “Access Denied”. I will run that test.

Until then, your NTFS drive is the safe way forward. If you decide to reformat the Samsung T7 later, copy everything off it first - formatting erases all data on the drive.

One question, because it matters for the separate USB problem I mentioned earlier: is the Samsung T7 Shield still connected to your Raspberry Pi, or has it been replaced by the NTFS drive?

Kind Regards,

@volumio - FYI

14

Thank you for the detailed explanation.
I had used a Toshiba 1TB drive with NTFS and a few audio tracks for testing access. I habe replugged the Samsung 4TB SSD to RPI and will wait for further news on exfat for 4.119 or simply use the older SD card with V3. 9. Formatting the Samsung SSD is a challenge since I have over 3 TD of media.
Yes, you are right about AI. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Thanks again.