Google Chrome OS on Pixelbook - Fumble, Recovery, Fumble

UPDATE: As of Dec 2018, Google has released an update to Chrome OS that includes the native ability to connect to SMB file shares like a network hard drive. However, this feature is wholly undocumented and so it's up to you to figure out how to get your network hard drive set up. I had mixed results.

No longer do we need to install the Chrome extension "Network File Share for Chrome OS" and put up with its frequent time-outs. We can use Google Chrome OS' new built-in "SMB File Share" service.

Set up

To mount a network-accessible SMB file share on a Chromebook, do this:

1. Go to the Files app and click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, and select "Add New Service".

2. Select "SMB File Share"

3. Fill in the 4 fields, which are "File share URL", "Display Name (Optional)", "Username", and "Password".

Filling in the fields

Let's break down all 4 of these fields, and give some examples, because Google won't give us end users any help here. We have to become SMB file share experts in order to just use the Chrome OS SMB file share feature as an end user. (Thanks a lot, Google!) 

Assuming your SMB file share is all set up, we still have to coax Google into connecting to it. For this example, let's assume you have an external USB hard drive plugged in to your Mac Mini, and in the Mac OS "sharing" settings you have enabled SMB file sharing of that volume. Let's say the Mac Mini's name is "CupidComputer", and the external hard drive is named "MightyDisk", and you have a document folder on the MightyDisk hard drive called "My Awesome Files". Let's assume your password login to your Mac is "SuperPassword". Let's assume that in Mac OS sharing settings you have added "MightyDisk" and "My Awesome Files" to the "shared folders" list, as shown in the screenshots below. In summary, that's:

• Mac Computer Name: CupidComputer
• Mac Computer Password: SuperPassword
• External Hard Drive Name on the Mac Computer: MightyDisk
• Your documents are stored on MightyDisk in folder: My Awesome Files

So here's how the Mac Sharing would be set up:

So now to fill out the 4 form fields:

1. File Share URL. First, you need to determine the address of your SMB file share.

What Worked the Old Way...: Under the old "Network File Share for Chrome OS", I found I had to use the IP address, because it wouldn't accept the URL if I used the computer name. For example, in the screenshot above, the Mac says the file share can be accessed using smb://192.215.35.08, so the old address form that worked for me was "smb://192.215.35.08/MightyDisk/My Awesome Files".

...Doesn't Work the New Way: But I've found the new SMB File Share capability is a bit flaky here. For one, it seems it can't always handle the direct reference to the My Awesome Files folder, even if I substitute %20 for the spaces (as in My%20Awesome%20Files). Second, it can't handle the combo of ComputerName/FolderName.

What Works the New Way: The only URL format that works for me using the new SMB File Share feature in Chrome is this format: \\ComputerName\HardDriveName. In the example above, that would be "\\CupidComputer\MightyDisk". So yes, I've lost the ability to directly reference a SMB File Share folder. I can only get it to connect to the hard disk root folder. But it is kind of nice that I don't have to use the IP address anymore, and can now use the computer name.

If your URL format is invalid, you get the following message which pops up and then disappears before you can fully read it or memorize the formats it is telling you are supported. Seriously, the pop-up message disappears in about 2 seconds. According to this message, supposedly, the new SMB File Share feature can handle both of the following URL formats:

2. Diplay Name (optional): Whatever you put in this field will be what your file share will display as within the Chrome OS Files app.

3. Username: This is the name of the Mac computer. In our example, this field would read CupidComputer.

4. Password: This is the Mac computer's password. In our example, this field would read SuperPassword.

So everything filled in would look like this:

Final Fumble:A Lack of Permanence

Make sure you memorize what values go in the fields, because you'll have to re-enter them often. Every time you power off your Chromebook and start it back up, you WILL lose the SMB File Share connection, and you'll have to go through ALL of these steps again. Even the old Network File Share for Chrome OS extension was better in this regard. It did not lose the connection after a shut down. In fact, it was the shutdown that would FIX the connection after it spontaneously broke itself.

Parting Thoughts

Google Chrome OS' new built-in SMB File Share seems to be much more reliable than the old Network File Share for Chrome OS Extension. It no longer takes me 3 hours just to copy 400 photos from my Chromebook to my network hard drive. (Yes, it really took that long. Read the original article below). It seems to copy and access files reliably so far. Time will tell. But for now, I'll have to get used to re-establishing the connection anytime I power off my Pixelbook. Seems Google can't get it fully right even if its life depended on it.

That's about it. Hope you enjoy Google's half-hearted attempt to come into the 21st century. At least they're halfway out of the 1990's now. Hopefully over the next quarter century they'll add network browsing so you can just select the network file share like you can in Windows and Mac OS, rather than having to figure out the exact name of the file share ahead of time.


-------------------------------- Original blog post below (November 2018) ---------------------

Any Operating System (OS) that can't reliably and robustly copy files is worthy on only one thing: Being permanently stomped out of existence. After 20 years of fighting the idiosyncrasies of Microsoft Windows, I thought anything else would be better. I was wrong.

GOOGE CHROME OS IS THE WORLD'S WORST OPERATING SYSTEM

What's the resulting frustration level?

I FEEL LIKE THROWING MY $750 PIXELBOOK OUT THE WINDOW TO A HORRIBLE DEATH

Why?

Because it just took me 3 HOURS to use a Google Pixelbook to import 400 photos and videos from an iphone and transfer them into a folder on my Mac Mini's attached hard drive, over the home network.

Let's examine how this process works. First, we have to install the "Network File Share for Chrome OS" application to Google Chrome OS. This Google-produced app allows the operating system's "Files" app (Google Chrome OS' equivalent of Windows Explorer or Mac Finder) to access network file shares.

Tutorial

For those of you who have never been able to get "Network File Share for Chrome OS" working with a Mac-attached external hard drive, try entering a format like this: smb://192.168.X.X/MacAccountName/NameOfMacSharedFolder.

Make sure that on your Mac, you have the following settings set in the Sharing settings:

• By the way, I first recommend your Mac's Network setting page and set the "Configure IPV4" mode to "manually", and set the IP address to the current IP address (which is listed just above where it says "Status:Connected, Ethernet (or Wifi) is currently active and has the IP address 192.168.X.X". Whatever IP that says, enter that below in the IP address field. This will prevent your router from changing your Mac's IP address every time you reboot your Mac. Having a static IP address will allow your Chromebook to find your Mac long term, because the Chrome OS is too dumb to use the Mac's network name as a reliable means to connect.
• OK. Go back to your Mac's Sharing settings and make sure File Sharing is checked. Then...
• Click the Options button: Share files and folders using SMB: Checked
• Windows File Sharing: Check the checkbox next to your account. This is the account name that you will enter in "Network File Share for Chrome OS" when setting up a new connection. Take note of it. WE will call this MacAccountName below. Now close the Options dialog.
• Shared Folders: Add the folder you want to share. Take note of it. We will call this NameOfMacSharedFolder below.
• Users: With the Shared Folder selected, ensure the account name has "Read/Write". "Everyone" can be set to "No Access" if you want. It is not needed.
• Before you shut the Sharing Settings, take note beneath the "File Sharing: On" indicator, which should say something like: "Other users can access shared folders on this computer, and administrators all volumes, at smb://192.168.X.X". Take note of that smb IP address. You'll need it to set up your Chromebook because the 2018 Chrome OS is dumb as a 1990's Windows OS that cannot browse your local network for available file shares, so you'll have to manually type it in.

Then, to set up the "Network File Share for Chrome OS" on your Chromebook:

• Open Files app
• Click the three dots on far upper right
• Select "Add New Services"
• Select "Network File Share for Chrome OS". If you don't see this option, get the app here.
• In Share path, enter your file format like this:
• smb://192.168.X.X/MacAccountName/NameOfMacSharedFolder
• In Display Name, just put NameOfMacSharedFolder
• Check "My file share needs a password"
• Username: Enter MacAccountName.
• Password: Enter your password that you use to sign on to your Mac
• Check "Store Credentials"
• Click "Mount"

After having done all that, you will have access to your shared external hard drive on your Mac. You will see that the Chrome OS "Files" app now displays NameOfMacSharedFolder on the left side. As long as this has a "greater than" sign or a "carat" sign next to it, you are connected. The second it has issues, this sign goes away, and the most reliable way to get access again to your network files is to shut down and restart your Chromebook or Pixelbook which only takes a few seconds.

But here's the issue: FILE ACCESS AND TRANSFER OVER THE NETWORK IS NOT RELIABLE! GOOGLE CHROME OS FILE SYSTEM IS NOT RELIABLE. IT IS NOT ROBUST. WHEN IT FAILS, IT DOES NOT FAIL GRACEFULLY. IT WILL CORRUPT YOUR COPIED DATA AND WILL NOT LET YOU KNOW. Note that this is on a network where a Windows 10 PC can reliably copy and access files on the file share (assuming you have first spent 10 hours getting the right settings in Windows 10 so it can "see" the Mac's smb share).

The Arduous 3 Hour Process To Copy 400 Photos/Videos

Here's what it's like to import a few hundred photos and videos from iphone's Photos app to the Mac hard drive:

1. Plug in iphone to Pixelbook using a USB-to-USB-C adapter.
2. On your iphone, select "allow" to let the computer see your iphone's files
3. The iphone files show up in Chrome OS finder, so open finder.
4. Copy the iphone files into your downloads folder. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES FROM NOW TO THE END OF THE WORLD SHOULD YOU BE SO FOOLISH AS TO TRY TO COPY DIRECTLY FROM YOUR IPHONE TO THE MAC EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE VIA THE CHROME OS FILES APP. This would be like asking Condorman to fly across the English Channel. This file copy should go relatively smoothly. If not, see item #9 below to complete this file transfer.
5. Open up a separate Files app window by clicking on the three dots at the upper right and selecting "New Window".
6. In one window, navigate to the photos you just copied to your downloads folder
7. In the other window, navigate to the Mac external hard drive's folder where you want to copy the files to.
8. Do a copy and paste of about 50 files at a time.
9. When the file copy fails mid-stream, you'll know because you'll get a useless pop-up notification that says it is taking a long time and asking if you would like to abort. There is no recovery from this. At this point Google Chrome OS has lost its connection to the network file share. This is not the fault of the network file share. This is the fault of Google Chrome OS' poor programming. Just reboot your Chromebook after which the access to the network file share will be reliably re-established, then reopen the two Files app windows, and look at the file size of the last few files that it copied. They are probably not the same size as the originals, so you'll need to delete the copies on your Mac external hard drive and re-copy them from your Chrome OS downloads folder. This is because GOOGLE CHROME OS IS SO DUMB THAT IF IT FAILS COPYING A FILE MID-STREAM, IT WILL COPY HALF THE FILE BUT NOT LET YOU KNOW THAT THE FILE IS ONLY HALF-COPIED AND THEREFORE CORRUPTED. BE VERY CAREFUL BECAUSE THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO PERMANENTLY LOSE YOUR PRICELESS DATA IF YOU DON'T CATCH THIS!
10. Spend about 3 hours as you restart your Pixelbook about 15 times in order to get all the files successfully copied. 
11. Compare the number of files in both folders to make sure you got them all.
12. Compare the size of both folders to make sure the contents take up the same amount of space. Any difference is probably indicative of a half-copied file that was in the middle of copying when Google Chrome OS dropped its connection to the file share. You'll need to find the discrepancy and recopy to replace the corrupted files.

Yeah, I paid $750 for this Pixelbook. I will be asking for a full refund and going with a Macbook. There are things I don't like about the Mac file system layout, and yes, it's twice as expensive. But a piece of hardware that is sold to you as a computing device that can't even handle file copy/paste or move is not worth even driving over with your Jeep. I would understand if my Pixelbook was free, like many Google offerings. Then I would lower my expectations. But I paid $750 for this thing, and cant' even reliably access my files. I have to use Chrome Remote Desktop on my Pixelbook to remotely operate my Mac (because I have a Mac Mini hooked directly to my TV which makes a great HTPC but a bad computing platform because you can't see the small font from across the room and one of Apple OS' idiosyncrasies is you cannot increase the font size of the entire OS across the board in any other way than to decrease the screen resolution, which of course then has a negative affect on your Plex-streamed media when watching it on your TV when your Mac is set to less-than-HD-screen-resolution. I mean, I can't win for losing here!

Another Google Chrome OS file FATAL system issue is this: If you try to copy a file into a folder where a file of that name already exists, rather than asking if you'd like to overwrite or create a new file with a modified filename, it simply does the latter. This means that if you copy 400 files, then you'll get 400 DUPLICATES, all named with a "(1)" added at the end. And they show up as every other file when sorted alphabetically. There is no OS notification that a file with that filename already exists. COME ON GOOGLE, THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF 1990 MS-DOS FILE MANAGEMENT! GET YOUR HEAD IN THE 21ST CENTURY!

Google had an opportunity to take over the world from Microsoft, just as OS/2 had in the 90's. And like OS/2, Google Chrome OS has blown it. They haven't learned that in order to take over the world, you need to produce a ROCK SOLID ROBUST OS THAT CAN GRACEFULLY RECOVER FROM ANY ERROR AND THAT DOES NOT LOSE OR CORRUPT ANY FILES IN THE PROCESS, AND THAT DOES NOT TIME YOU OUT PREMATURELY DURING FILE TRANSFER.

Goodbye, Google Chrome OS. Since you give me the same stress and frustration that Microsoft Windows has for 20 years, may you and Microsoft suffer the same fate when someone truly brilliant comes along and makes a rock solid OS that actually WORKS. WITH. FILES.