BEAR DataShare FAQ

When adding a member to a folder, it is only possible to do this from the top-level folder viewed from the 'Home' page that you get to when you first login. All sub-folders created within a top-level folder will have the same file permissions, so it is not possible to invite members to a sub-folder only. We have requested the option for more granular file sharing with our Suppliers and it is on the roadmap for a future release later this year (2020). 

 

Problem

You have received notification that you are close to or have exceeded the quota for BEAR DataShare and need to clear space.

Solution

The quota for BEAR DataShare is 50GB and cannot be increased - we also have the BEAR Research Data Store which provides up to 3TB of storage space.

BEAR DataShare stores deleted files in an archive in each folder. Deleted files and file versions can use up a lot of your quota. Follow the steps below to clear your file history:

1. To view your account profile, login to the web portal (https://beardatashare.bham.ac.uk) and go to the top right-hand corner where there is a person icon. If you click on the drop-down arrow you should see a link to 'My Account'. Clicking on this will take you to your account and you can see how much space your file versions are taking up (the orange part).
2. To clear up your file versions to make space, go to the left-hand side menu and click on 'Recycle Bin'. You should see a list of folders with deleted files in them. You can either selectively delete folders or files by navigating to the relevant area and then clicking on the 'Purge' icon on the right-hand side or;
3. You can clear all your file history by clicking on the 'Purge' icon at the top next to 'Name':  

Problem

Sometimes folders do not reach the 100% synchronisation mark, synchronisation does not complete and the folder stays in an unsynchronised condition.

There are three possible reasons:

• A transfer mode has been configured which does not allow automatic synchronisation.
• Files within the folder are permanently in use by other programs and therefore block access to those files by the client.
• The internal folder database has been damaged.

Solution

Below are some possible solutions, for which you will need to use the DataShare desktop Client:

• Check for files which have not been synchronised: Click on 'Show Folders' and then click on the folder which is not fully synchronised. From the internal file browser, which should have opened up to the right of the client user interface, select 'Unsynchronised files' from the filtering drop-down selection and also enable the 'Flat View' check-box. Now you should see a list of all files which have not synchronised. Please check if those files are in use by any other program.
• Check if the transfer mode for the folder has been set to anything other than 'Auto Sync': Enable Advanced Mode. Click on 'Show Folders' and then click on the folder which is not fully synchronised. Click on the 'Settings' tab in the panel, which should have opened up to the right of the client user interface, and check if the transfer mode is NOT set to 'Auto Sync'.
• If the problem has not been identified after the first two steps, then try the following:
  • Right-click on the folder/s which is/are not syncing and go to 'Stop sync'. Important: Make sure the two 'delete data' boxes are left unchecked and then click the box 'Stop sync'.
  • The folder will now turn grey.
  • Double-click the folder, click 'Next' in the pop-up window and then 'Finish'. The folder should re-sync.

Problem

Files have been deleted by mistake and need to be recovered.

Solution

BEAR DataShare stores deleted files in an archive in each folder.

Using the web portal

1. Click on 'Recycle Bin' in the left-hand main menu.
2. Click on the folder which contains the deleted file and browse through the directory structure to the sub-directory where the file was originally located.
3. Click on the 'Restore version' icon on the right-hand side (blue circular arrow going anti-clockwise).
4. The file should now be available again.  If you have the Client installed on your device the restored file will also be available to synced devices.

Using the desktop Client

Please follow the section entitled 'Restoring deleted files' in the main User Guide on the BEAR DataShare website.

Problem

You've been invited to share a folder but when you enter your University username and password it does not allow you to login.

Solution

If you have been invited to use BEAR DataShare by someone else at the University and you are not a researcher (either research staff or research student), then the system treats you as an external user. Therefore, you cannot login to BEAR DataShare with your University username and password. You will need to create a password through the link in the welcome email you will have received (or go to 'Recover password' on the login page at beardatashare.bham.ac.uk).

Problem

You've been invited to share a folder but when you click on the link you are asked to login and you don't yet have a password.

Solution

You should have received a 'Welcome to BEAR DataShare' email which contains a link to activate your account where you will set a password. Sometimes this email is filtered out as spam and does not arrive. 

Instead, you can go to beardatashare.bham.ac.uk, ensure your email address is entered, click on 'Recover password' and you should receive an email. Click on the link in the email to reset your password. For further information, see our 'BEAR DataShare Quick User Guide for External Users'.

Using the BEAR DataShare Client (software) allows users to sync files between devices. Our supplier releases new versions of the Client regularly, often just to fix minor bug fixes but sometimes the release will provide new features. We will notify you of major new releases via the beardatashare-announce mailing list, which you will be added to when you login to BEAR DataShare for the first time.

To upgrade your Client depends on how your computer is configured:

1) University-managed PCs will be upgraded automatically through the Software Centre when a new version is available.

2) Macs will require an admin account to install the new software – follow the instructions for Mac installation. 

3) Non UoB-managed Windows machines will also require an admin account to install the new software – follow the instructions for Windows installation.

PowerFolder is the supplier of the BEAR DataShare and it comes with a wide range of security features such as:

• Industrial standard AES/RSA encrypted transfers between servers and clients
• RSA device authentication and verification
• TLS support for mobiles apps, web and WebDAV
• Built-in granular permission system
• Password protected/centrally controlled access to preferences in the client
• Admin-controlled remote deletion (Remote Wipe command)

The DataShare servers and storage is located within University of Birmingham data centres. 

Problem

I have patient-identifiable and/or sensitive data that I need to share with others.  

Solution

We are not able to store patient-identifiable data on BEAR storage. Please talk to your local College IT team and see 'Guidance on storing sensitive data with BEAR Services' available from the User Guide section of our BEAR Datashare webpage for further information. 

Problem

Unable to successfully upload large files using the web portal.

Solution 

There are usually two reasons for this issue:

1) Working off campus with a poor internet connection.

2) Using the web portal to upload files with a poor internet connection.

When uploading large files, it is best to use the BEAR DataShare Client which would then allow you to upload files by dragging and dropping between drives using File Explorer (or Finder on a Mac). Installation guides for the Client are available on our webpage in the User Guide section: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/BEARDataShare

If you regularly work with large data files, we would recommend using the Research Data Store and the BEAR Data Transfer service. The Research Data Store can be accessed off campus using the Remote Access Service. See here for further details: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/it/teams/infrastructure/research/bear/research-data-service/RDS/research-data-store.aspx 

BEAR DataShare has an inbuilt version system which allows you to recover delete files from the web portal or client. You may also be able to restore previous versions of a file using this system - see our full User Guide available from our BEAR DataShare webpage.

The BEAR DataShare server software is deployed on servers and storage held at the University of Birmingham. We take steps to ensure we are able to restore the servers in the event of a disaster recovery situation. We also take backups of the files in BEAR DataShare for disaster recovery situations, typically though we are unable to recover files accidentally deleted by users of the system from these backups.

The BEAR DataShare application servers are hosted in two data centres on campus, so if there is a major issue at one data centre, the service will continue to operate from the other. Data is also backed up to tape overnight. Most predictable failure scenarios have been addressed, notably:

• Single disk failures
• Enclosure failures
• Inter-site link failure
• Site (single Data Centre) failure

Problem

You are leaving the University and wish to transfer your data to somebody else so that it is still accessible. Otherwise it will be permanently deleted.

Solution

It is possible to transfer your data to somebody else (eg. PhD supervisor) before you leave. The person you wish to transfer the folder to must be a member of that folder. On the web portal beardatashare.bham.ac.uk, go to the folder you wish to transfer and click on the 'Members' (see below): 

 

 

 

 

You will see a list of the members of the folder. Open the drop-down box menu next to the person you wish to transfer ownership to. Tick the 'is owner' box: 

 

A message should pop-up saying 'Do you really want to transfer ownership...'. click 'Yes' to confirm. You should see a small pop-up box saying 'Permission updated'. It will then send an invitation to the person, which you can remove before they accept it by going back into the Members box and clicking 'Remove'.

If you still wish to be able to access the folder you have transferred ownership of, then ask whomever now owns the folder to add your email address (but not your expiring UoB one).

Below is some example text which can be used to describe use of BEAR DataShare in a data management plan:

The University's 'sync and share' tool (BEAR DataShare) provides short term access to data such as that stored on a laptop whilst ensuring it is replicated and backed up to a central data store. BEAR DataShare also provides a mechanism for securely sharing data with collaborators.

Problem

BEAR DataShare is listing duplicate folders. This is a bug which sometimes occurs but has been fixed with newer versions of the application. 

Solution

1) First, ensure that you have a copy of the data in the duplicate folders somewhere other than BEAR DataShare before proceeding.

2) Assess which duplicate folder has 0KB.

3) Using the Client (app), right-click on the folder that contains no data and choose 'Stop sync'. Then tick both boxes to delete local meta-data and delete local files and select 'Stop sync'.

4) Again, using the Client, right-click on the duplicate folder that does contain the data and choose 'Stop sync'. This time DO NOT tick either of the boxes to delete the data but just select 'Stop sync'.

5) The duplicate folder with the data in should then turn from yellow to grey. Left-click on the folder and then press 'Next' to re-sync this folder.

6) Check that you are running the most up-to-date version of the application by going to the Client>Preferences (then General tab if using Advanced Options).

Problem

Files are disappearing without any obvious reason, they seem to be deleted.

The Client itself does not delete files, therefore the most likely reason is that the files were deleted by another member of the folder on another device.

Solution

The Client moves deleted files into its internal file archive by default, so the files are actually not deleted.

When displaying deleted files in the internal file browser of the Client, you can see from which machine or from which user the file was last changed (deleted), so you can check who deleted it.

As soon as you restore a file(s) from the archive those changes will be propagated to other devices which have the Clients installed, so the file(s) will be available on all devices again. If the files were backed up online, they can be restored using the web portal as well. See our full User Guide available from the BEAR DataShare website for further information on how to restore deleted files and different file versions.

Problem

Different operating systems have different illegal characters for file names. Since the Client may synchronise to a number of devices, problems may arise if syncing the folder onto a device where these characters are not permitted. Entering a carriage return in a filename will also cause syncing problems. 

On Windows systems the following characters are not permitted as file name characters:

• |
• \
•  ?
• *
• < 
• "
• :
• > 
• /

On Linux systems the following characters are not permitted as file name characters:

• /

On Apple systems the following characters are not permitted as file name characters:

• /
• :

Solution

When this notification appears in the client, give the file a new name that does not contain any illegal characters. 

 Problem

This notification indicates that there are files with names ending in characters that are illegal on Windows systems. The characters are dot (.) and space ( ). For example there may be a file named 'Test.txt ' or 'test.txt.'.

Since the client may synchronise data to a number of devices, problems may arise if syncing the folder onto a device running Windows.

Solution

When this notification appears in the client, give the file a new name that does not contain any illegal end characters.

Problem

This notification indicates that there are files with names longer than 255 characters, this can cause problems on some operating systems.

Since the client may synchronise data to a number of devices, problems may arise if syncing the folder onto a device where very long file names are not permitted.

Solution

When this notification appears in the client, rename the file with a new shorter name.

Problem

This notification indicates that there are files with the same file name, but with a different case. For example, there may be a file named 'Test.txt' and another named 'test.txt'.

Whilst this may be acceptable on some operating systems, it may not be on others. Since the client may synchronise data to a number of devices, problems may arise in the future if syncing onto a device where duplicate names are not permitted.

Solution

When this notification appears in the client, rename the file with a new, unique name.

Problem

This notification indicates that there are files with names that are reserved words on Windows systems. Reserved words include:

• CON
• LPT1
• NUL

While these may be acceptable on some operating systems, they may cause problems on Windows systems. Since the Client may synchronise data to a number of devices, problems may arise in the future if the folder is joined on a device running Windows.

Solution

When this notification appears in the Client, rename the file minus any reserved words.

Further information can be found at the suppliers (PowerFolder) wiki:

https://powerfolder.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PF/overview?mode=global

You can also send us a ServiceDesk call at http://www.itservicedesk.bham.ac.uk or come along to one of our weekly drop-in sessions listed here: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/bear-drop-in