[Bug] Cannot connect to SMB network shares that work in Windows File Explorer

[theyv]

Hi!

I found another issue related to network root paths.

In Windows File Explorer I can access my Mac without any problems using either:

\\dave-mba
\\192.168.1.98

However, accessing the network root in SpanFinder doesn't work correctly.

What I tried

1. Adding the SMB path to the sidebar

The first time I added \\dave-mba, SpanFinder correctly showed the Windows credentials dialog. I entered the login/password and the network location was successfully added to the sidebar.

However, trying to open it from the sidebar gives:

Cannot access network path: \\dave-mba

2. Entering the root path directly in the address bar

With Default File Manager enabled in SpanFinder settings, entering \\dave-mba or \\192.168.1.98 and pressing Enter does nothing.

If I enter a full share path, however, it works correctly:

\\dave-mba\lanshared

So SpanFinder can access the SMB share itself — the problem seems to be browsing the network root.

Another interesting case: WSL

If I enter:

\\wsl.localhost

into SpanFinder's address bar, it actually launches Windows File Explorer, even though Default File Manager is enabled.

Direct WSL paths such as \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\... work correctly inside SpanFinder.

So it looks like network root paths are handled differently from direct share paths, and in some cases they either do nothing / show an error or fall back to Windows File Explorer.

One more issue: network shares don't auto-refresh

I also noticed that opened network shares don't seem to refresh automatically.

For example, if I have \\dave-mba\lanshared open in SpanFinder and add/remove/change files on the Mac, SpanFinder never reflects those changes until I manually press F5.

[LumiBearStudio]

Three separate problems. The first two are fixed in v2.0.3.

Server root — Windows doesn't treat \\server as a directory, so Directory.Exists is false and navigation was gated on that. Shares are now listed with NetShareEnum. Works from both the sidebar and the address bar. An unreachable host errors within 3 seconds.

\\wsl.localhost — same cause. When the address bar can't resolve a path it falls back to a shell execute, and UNC paths went there too. SPAN now lists your distributions itself.

Auto-refresh — not yet. The UNC exclusion turned out to have no basis (watchers work fine over UNC), but the error path does: when a watcher is recreated after an error, the change notification fires even if the recreation failed, so a brief drop would blank the listing. Fixing that first. Tracking separately.