Weird folder icon?

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Darkmaster006
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Weird folder icon?

Post by Darkmaster006 »

Image
So lately I've been seeing this weird icon (first one) that I'd never seen before. What does it mean? It appears after a while for some reason. If I reboot, it's not there anymore until it appears for some reason. Any ideas? Thank you.
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Jo-con-Ël
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Re: Weird folder icon?

Post by Jo-con-Ël »

That icon is telling you that folder contents are linked to another device and it is mounted. The folder is the mount point of that device/partition. It wont be shown or will be shown as a normal folder when that partition is not mounted.
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Darkmaster006
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Re: Weird folder icon?

Post by Darkmaster006 »

Jo-con-Ël wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:20 am That icon is telling you that folder contents are linked to another device and it is mounted. The folder is the mount point of that device/partition. It wont be shown or will be shown as a normal folder when that partition is not mounted.
Oh, then I linked some files without knowing? How can I check which files are linked and delete the links? Thank you.
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Jo-con-Ël
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Re: Weird folder icon?

Post by Jo-con-Ël »

It would be useful for better explanation to know lsblk or mount result but It looks like you want to keep on secrete that folder name and path. :D

When device/partition is unmounted, be sure that folder (if exists) is not empty. If it is empty, all contents are from that device when mounted. If it is not empty, depending on the way that device is mounted, contents would be mixed when mounted.

Be aware that folder contents are real files and folder on that mounted device. If you create, delete or change files inside that folder they will be created, removed or changed on device.

If that folder is in your user directory ( i.e /home/your-user/) it does not happen w/o knowing. Maybe you just do not remember or do not understand what you did.
Auto-mounting a partition on a particular (user) folder on starting is possible but you need to create a custom line in /etc/fstab file (see cat /etc/fstab result) with that mount point.

Also, w/o modifying fstab, you can create and run an script to do it .
Screenshot from 2021-10-22 11-56-15.png
Auto-mount happens when browsing devices (i.e. with file browser) or when connecting external devices depending on file browser (nemo, caja, thunar) configuration. Folders/mount points are created out of your user home directory, by default on /media/your-user/ directory.

Certain applications can auto-mount a device/partition (by examp. Timeshift can auto-mount a dedicate partition on /run/timeshift/backup folder) when executed, on starting or depending on scheduling but only if they have been previously configured to do it.

...
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