Saving ./incomplete/<filename>/__ADMIN__/SABnzbd_<???>_<????????> failed ... OSError: [Errno 116] Stale file handle

[MZtYbz5He]

Hi Everyone,

I am having this issue since my previous Container update and I am unable to fix it on my own.

So my setup is that

• I have a NAS (QNAP) with a dedicated user and proper permissions to write on the directory //QNAP/Download/SABnzbd

• SABnzbd runs on a LX Container in Proxmox, installed with the communityscript (from tteck github io/Proxmox/#sabnzbd-lxc)

• I have mounted the NAS to the Host (/etc/fstab: //<IP-of-QNAP>/Download/SABnzbd /mnt/SABnzbd cifs credentials=/root/.smbcred,uid=100000,gid=100000,iocharset=utf8 0 0) and routed it to the LX Container (pct set <ID> -mp0 /mnt/SABnzbd,mp=/mnt/SABnzbd)

Regular access is working, and if I store files on the mount the permissions are correct.
This drive also contains the <incomplete> path because my pve host has only 120 GBs storage in total.

This above mentioned setup was working flawless since my last update in July or so...
After that I got errors when starting SABnzbd

Code: Select all

2025-11-05 07:48:49,349::INFO::[notifier:166] Sending notification: Warning - /mnt/SABnzbd/incomplete is not writable with special character filenames. This can cause problems.
To prevent all helpful warnings, disable Special setting 'helpful_warnings'. (type=warning, job_cat=None)
2025-11-05 07:48:49,349::WARNING::[misc:96] /mnt/SABnzbd/incomplete is not writable with special character filenames. This can cause problems.
To prevent all helpful warnings, disable Special setting 'helpful_warnings'.
2025-11-05 07:48:49,760::WARNING::[misc:96] /mnt/SABnzbd/Downloads is not writable with special character filenames. This can cause problems.
To prevent all helpful warnings, disable Special setting 'helpful_warnings'.

Also whenever I upload a nzb file I receive error such as

Code: Select all

OSError: [Errno 116] Stale file handle: '/mnt/SABnzbd/incomplete/<filename>/__ADMIN__/SABnzbd_<???>_<????????>'
2025-11-05 07:56:20,661::INFO::[nzbstuff:978] File <filename>[.]par2 added to queue
2025-11-05 07:56:20,888::INFO::[nzbqueue:230] Saving queue
2025-11-05 07:56:21,326::ERROR::[filesystem:1077] Saving /mnt/SABnzbd/incomplete/<filename>/__ADMIN__/SABnzbd_<???>_<????????> failed
2025-11-05 07:56:21,326::INFO::[filesystem:1078] Traceback: 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/sabnzbd/sabnzbd/filesystem[.]py", line 1066, in save_data
    with open(path, "wb") as data_file:
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OSError: [Errno 116] Stale file handle: '/mnt/SABnzbd/incomplete/<filename>/__ADMIN__/SABnzbd_<???>_<????????>'
2025-11-05 07:56:21,327::INFO::[notifier:166] Sending notification: NZB added to queue - <filename>[.]nzb (type=download, job_cat=*)

Nevertheless, most of the time Downloading is working
Sometimes I need to retry and some times I have to upload the nzb file again.
But then it just works, even if there are errors in the log.

Does anyone have an idea where to dig and how to solve this?

[jcfp]

WARNING::[misc:96] /mnt/SABnzbd/Downloads is not writable with special character filenames. This can cause problems.

This check and the resulting warning were added in a recent release; the warning may be new, the underlying issue isn't. In your setup, sab is installed on a unix-style operating system which would normally allow sabnzbd to write file and directory names with pretty much any character. The names supported by your shared disk (cifs/smb/windows style share) are much more limited, hence the warning. You can get rid of it by configuring sabnzbd to limit filenames to whatever is supported on windows, or switch the share to something that provides a more native unix feature set.

Then for the OSError: having the incomplete dir on a remote share introduces the risk of occasional hickups in the communication between the two sides. In your setup, all downloaded data get sent back and forth across the local network multiple times; any timeout, high disk or network load, sync or cache error, and so on, can cause the type of error you posted and is completely outside the control of sabnzbd. Time to invest in a local drive big enough for incomplete?

[MZtYbz5He]

Thanks for your reply!

Regarding the special character topic:
I have checked the option "Make Windows compatible" in the naming section of the options.
Shouldn't this avoid any issues like mentioned in the warning?

Local drive would be an option, sure. But why did it work earlier then without an issue?..

[jcfp]

Looks like the warning was designed to be persistent for a reason, see this issue on github. In short: sab itself can limit the chars, but some of the tools it calls (par2, unrar) don't have an option for that.