Unexplained local storage problem

Configuration
1

The local storage shows behaviour that shouldn't be possible and I have no idea since when or after which update this started.

I will try to explain the situation as clear as possible.

  • Installation method: Home Assistant OS
  • Core 2026.7.0
  • Supervisor 2026.06.2
  • Operating System 18.1
  • Frontend 20260624.3

HA Nuc
HD: 80GB
IP: 192.168.1.84

Network Storage
Name: PiNas (a RPi with and usb HD)
HD : 1TB (400 GB still free)
IP: 192.168.1.70
smb access
Share at \backup

I have a few Reolink security camera's that when detecting movement they stream some footage. I do not want that to end up on the HA HD but on the network storage. For that I created a network storage in HA. This storage also shows up in HA media and is accessible from there. The storage is also accessible from a windows PC via a file explorer outside of HA because it is just a NAS.

I have added this external storage to HA via Setting - system - storage - network storage
And like this it is working for almost a year now

ext-storage
ext-storage587×740 17 KB

In HA going to media and following the links then the folders on de NAS appear.

media-folder
media-folder1074×491 38.2 KB

In a file explorer the folders also appear

file-explorer
file-explorer676×283 11.9 KB

The Reolink camera's uploads their stream via FTP to the HA server and stores it in the network storage link.

ftp
ftp839×683 24.3 KB

Now, this all was working for about a year now. The files where on the NAS and accessible via HA media. But now comes my struggle..

Yesterday I got a warning that my HA HD had only 0,6Gb left. I looked at the disk metrics and Media took more room then expected.
(this screen shot is of today and media is cleaned now because in didn't want a system crash)
The disk metrics is showing the HA disk (80Gb) and NOT included the NAS ! (that's okay)

disk metrics
disk metrics874×322 19.3 KB

There wasn't any excessive storage on the HA HD, I've checked it remotely and locally. However when I started to remove recordings from the NAS I noticed that I got free space back in the HA disk metrics. So how can storage on the NAS occupy diskspace on the HA HD.?

But now come an even more disturbing issue.
After cleaning things up I started to do some testing
If I go on the HA server via media and go to where the files on the NAS are stored I find the files there.as expected.
Also when I take a file browser on a different machine.and go to de HA server and look at the media folder and follow that onto the location on the NAS the files are there too.

BUT, if i go directly to the NAS then there are NO files there.!?!

whatisthis
whatisthis862×517 30.2 KB

So the files are stored on my HA HD despite it following the path to the network storage.
And I have no clue what is going on here.

2

Your installation is virtually identical to mine, so of course I am interested.
The main difference is that I have not installed core 2026.7 yet.

Just a shot in the dark.

This is what you would have if the mount to the NAS was down. I don't know the internals of HAOS, but assuming a normal Linux system, you make a folder, /mnt/raid for example. Then you mount the CIFS volume. Anything you write to /mnt/raid will go into the CIFS mount. If the mount goes offline and new files are written to /mnt/raid, they physically go to the folder /mnt/raid on the local filesystem because that folder still exists. And you won't know it until you umount the CIFS and look directly at /mnt/raid and see files there. Linux will not mount to a folder with anything in it. This is normal Linux behavior: if the CIFS mount drops, writes fall back to the local directory.

Your other symptoms, however don't mesh with this explanation.

Use SSH for your probing instead of Windows File Explorer. You have more control of where exactly you are looking.

SSH into the Home Assistant NUC and create a temp file: (touch /media/temp.xyz).
Now SSH into the NAS, wherever your media share is located, and you should see temp.xyz there. If not, then your share is down. If it is there then I am equally baffled.

3

I followed your suggestion and created a test file. Checked with ls -al and yes it was created.. Next i went to the NAS and the files wasn't there.
So your conclusion that the share is down may be correct. I am not sure because I have limited knowledge of linux. I will try to activate the share again. Not an idea how but I will get there hopefully.

4

This helped me to solve the problem.
A power cycle on the RPi had damaged the backup user account.

On the RPi a new password set, restarted SMB, corrected the rights of the user account.
On HA I had to delete the old network storage share, clean up the on HA local stored file and folders before I finally was able to make the share again. Tested is and now the files are saved on my network storage again.

6

I had it marked already. But it seems the bug ghost is haunting me :squinting_face_with_tongue:. I try it again