Can I mount a SAMBA drive that includes an RClone mount?

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I have a SFTP remote server holding data that was uploaded using rclone+crypt using "copy". Next, I mounted that SFTP with rclone+crypt in a middle Linux server (Ubuntu 26.04) using:

rclone mount --vfs-cache-mode full --allow-other mysftpcrypt: /home/myserver/myftpdata

Being "mysftpcrypt" a crypt rclone based on the remote "mysftp"

Next, I have mounted this server with SAMBA (no RClone) on multiple devices, sharing the root "/home/myserver", which includes the rclone mount at "home/myserver/myftpdata"

But, when accesing the folder, even if I can see the files and folders, I can't do anything with them, when trying to open a document or copy, the copy job never progress more than 0 bytes. Also, the server IOWAIT jumps from 0-1% to 12-15%, even if I'm not getting a file open (just tried to, but it doesn't open).

rClone version:

rclone v1.60.1-DEV

  • os/version: ubuntu 26.04 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 6.1.115 (aarch64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: arm64
  • go/version: go1.26.0
  • go/linking: dynamic
  • go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

The RClone mount on the server is using a SFTP service. Then, I'm mounting that server in devices using SAMBA (without rclone, pure SAMBA).

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

rclone mount --vfs-cache-mode full --allow-other mysftpcrypt: /home/myserver/myftpdata

Also tried:

rclone mount mysftpcrypt: /home/myserver/mysftpdata   --vfs-cache-mode full   --allow-other   --umask 000   --vfs-read-chunk-size 1M   --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit off   --buffer-size 16M   --sftp-concurrency 4   --dir-cache-time 30m   --vfs-cache-max-size 20G

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

Usage:
  rclone config [flags]
  rclone config [command]

Available Commands:
  create      Create a new remote with name, type and options.
  delete      Delete an existing remote.
  disconnect  Disconnects user from remote
  dump        Dump the config file as JSON.
  file        Show path of configuration file in use.
  password    Update password in an existing remote.
  paths       Show paths used for configuration, cache, temp etc.
  providers   List in JSON format all the providers and options.
  reconnect   Re-authenticates user with remote.
  show        Print (decrypted) config file, or the config for a single remote.
  touch       Ensure configuration file exists.
  update      Update options in an existing remote.
  userinfo    Prints info about logged in user of remote.

Flags:
  -h, --help   help for config

Additional help topics:
  rclone config edit       Enter an interactive configuration session.

Use "rclone [command] --help" for more information about a command.
Use "rclone help flags" for to see the global flags.
Use "rclone help backends" for a list of supported services.
Command config needs 0 arguments maximum: you provided 1 non flag arguments: ["redacted"]

A log from the command that you were trying to run with the -vv flag

When adding -vv to the mount process:

rclone mount mysftpcrypt: /home/myserver/mysftpdata   --vfs-cache-mode full   --allow-other   --umask 000   --vfs-read-chunk-size 1M   --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit off   --buffer-size 16M   --sftp-concurrency 4   --dir-cache-time 30m   --vfs-cache-max-size 20G -vv

2026/08/01 18:02:15 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.60.1-DEV" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "mysftpcrypt:" "/home/myserver/mysftpdata" "--vfs-cache-mode" "full" "--allow-other" "--umask" "000" "--vfs-read-chunk-size" "1M" "--vfs-read-chunk-size-limit" "off" "--buffer-size" "16M" "--sftp-concurrency" "4" "--dir-cache-time" "30m" "--vfs-cache-max-size" "20G" "-vv"]

2026/08/01 18:02:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "mysftpcrypt:"
2026/08/01 18:02:15 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/myserver/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2026/08/01 18:02:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "mysftp:"
2026/08/01 18:02:15 DEBUG : mysftp: detected overridden config - adding "{nkusg}" suffix to name
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : sftp://userftp@myserverftp.com:22/: New connection 192.168.1.2:60246->90.80.70.60:22 to "SSH-2.0-mod_sftp"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : sftp://userftp@myserverftp.com:22/: Shell type "unix" from config
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : sftp://userftp@myserverftp.com:22/: Relative path resolved to "/"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : sftp://userftp@myserverftp.com:22/: Using root directory "/"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "mysftp:" to be canonical "mysftp{nkusg}:"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 INFO  : Encrypted drive 'mysftpcrypt:': poll-interval is not supported by this remote
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : vfs cache: root is "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : vfs cache: data root is "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfs/mysftpcrypt"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : vfs cache: metadata root is "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfsMeta/mysftpcrypt"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfs/mysftpcrypt/"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfs/mysftpcrypt/" to be canonical "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfs/mysftpcrypt"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfsMeta/mysftpcrypt/"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfsMeta/mysftpcrypt/" to be canonical "/home/myserver/.cache/rclone/vfsMeta/mysftpcrypt"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : Encrypted drive 'mysftpcrypt:': Mounting on "/home/myserver/mysftpdata"
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=3600000000000, emptyOnly=false): item Data/Data.docx not removed, freed 0 bytes
2026/08/01 18:02:16 INFO  : vfs cache: cleaned: objects 1 (was 1) in use 0, to upload 0, uploading 0, total size 0 (was 0)
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : : Root: 
2026/08/01 18:02:16 DEBUG : : >Root: node=/, err=<nil>
2026/08/01 18:02:27 DEBUG : /: Attr: 
2026/08/01 18:02:27 DEBUG : /: >Attr: attr=valid=1s ino=0 size=0 mode=drwxrwxrwx, err=<nil>
2026/08/01 18:02:29 DEBUG : /: Attr: 
2026/08/01 18:02:29 DEBUG : /: >Attr: attr=valid=1s ino=0 size=0 mode=drwxrwxrwx, err=<nil>
2026/08/01 18:02:29 DEBUG : /: ReadDirAll: 
2026/08/01 18:02:30 DEBUG : /: >ReadDirAll: item=3, err=<nil>
2026/08/01 18:02:30 DEBUG : /: Lookup: name="Data"

welcome to the forum,

that is a custom compiled, dev version from an out of date linux repository, that is almost four years old.

try rclone selfupate

if that does not work

  1. remove that ancient version
  2. https://rclone.org/install/#script-installation
  3. test again

and then check out my howto guide about samba and rclone
https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-access-smb-samba-with-rclone/42754

It was that! Reinstalled RClone with that guide, new version, and it works. Slower than I thought (it goes at about 4MB/s, when mounting the RClone Crypt (SFTP) directly in my laptop goes to 50MB/s), but at least it works. Thanks a lot.

I will keep this open for some minutes to try more and in case something is amiss, and I'll check the "Resolved" flag. Thanks.

EDIT: Done, everything works. Thanks a lot

welcome


not sure it applies to your exact situation.
in most cases, rclone verifies file transfers using checksums.

with sftp - after the file is transferred, rclone client sends a ssh command to the server, asking the server to calculate the checksum. no network bandwidth is used.

Running remote command: md5sum /path/to/file
Remote command result: e3e5d816962358a187d80cadb1e63731 /path/to/file

with smb/samba, rclone client has to re-read the file on the server, which users more bandwidth.
as a test, could try --ignore-checksum

My bad, it seems I was running by error a "sftp connnections = 4" flag, and by deleting that, everything goes full speed (30-40MB/s), it seems rclone manages it all by default fine, so only this just works:

rclone mount mysftpcrypt: /home/myserver/mysftpdata --vfs-cache-mode full --allow-other --dir-cache-time 30m --vfs-cache-max-size 10G

Thanks!