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  1. TrueNAS 25.10 (Early)
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  3. TrueNAS Tutorials
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  5. Shares
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  7. Windows Shares (SMB)
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  9. Using SMB Shadow Copy
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This content follows TrueNAS 25.10 (Goldeye) early release versions. Pre-release software is intended for testing purposes only.
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Using SMB Shadow Copy

  3 minute read.

When creating a share, do not attempt to set up the root or pool-level dataset for the share. Instead, create a new dataset under the pool-level dataset for the share. Setting up a share using the root dataset leads to storage configuration issues.

TrueNAS automatically enables shadow copies for SMB shares, exporting ZFS snapshots as Shadow Copies for Microsoft clients.

About SMB Shadow Copies

Shadow Copies, also known as the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) or Previous Versions, is a Microsoft service for creating volume snapshots. You can use shadow copies to restore previous versions of files from within Windows Explorer.

By default, all ZFS snapshots for a dataset underlying an SMB share path are presented to SMB clients through the volume shadow copy service or are accessible directly with SMB when the hidden ZFS snapshot directory is within the SMB share path.

TrueNAS 25.10 and later does not support per-share disabling of SMB shadow copies on non-legacy shares.

If you need to completely disable shadow copies and prevent client access to ZFS snapshots, disable the ZFS snapshot directory for the shared dataset. Go to Storage > Datasets, select the shared dataset, and click Edit on the Details widget. In the Edit Dataset screen, select Advanced Options and set Snapshot Directory to Disabled. When the snapshot directory is disabled, Samba automatically turns off the shadow copy feature.

Deleting Shadow Copies

Users with an SMB client cannot delete shadow copies. Instead, the administrator uses the TrueNAS web interface to remove snapshots.

Managing Shadow Copies (Legacy Shares)

Enabling or disabling shadow copies is an available option in pre-25.10 TrueNAS releases or for legacy shares in 25.10 or later.

TrueNAS sets a share Purpose to Legacy Share after upgrading to 25.10 when shares created in a release before 25.10 have Purpose set to No Preset. See Legacy Share Settings for more information.

To enable shadow copies for a compatible dataset go to Shares > Windows (SMB) Shares and locate the share.

Click on the Edit option for the share.

If not listed, click Windows (SMB) Shares launch to open the Sharing > SMB screen. Select the share, then click the more_vert for the share, then click Edit to open the Edit SMB screen.

Click Advanced Options, scroll down to Other Options, and then select Enable Shadow Copies.

Click Save.

Windows 10 v2004 Issue

Some users might experience issues in the Windows 10 v2004 release where they cannot access network shares. The problem appears to come from a bug in gpedit.msc, the Local Group Policy Editor.

Unfortunately, setting the Allow insecure guest logon flag value to Enabled in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation in Windows does not affect the configuration.

To work around this issue, edit the Windows registry. Use Regedit and go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters. The DWORD AllowInsecureGuestAuth is an incorrect value: 0x00000000. Change this value to 0x00000001 (Hexadecimal 1) to allow adjusting the settings in gpedit.msc. You can use a Group Policy Update to apply the edit to a fleet of Windows machines.

Disable shadow copies for an SMB share by clearing the Enable shadow copies checkbox on the Edit SMB screen in the Other Options on the Advanced Options screen for the SMB share. Disabling does not prevent access to the hidden .zfs/snapshot directory for a ZFS dataset when it is within the path for an SMB share.

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