Error nfs_stale

Stale file handle

The server no longer recognises the handle the app holds for this item — it was moved or deleted server-side, or the export was restarted. Reconnect from the server list.

What this means

NFS status 70, ESTALE. NFS identifies files by an opaque handle rather than a path. The server says the handle the app holds doesn’t point at anything any more.

Causes

• The item was deleted or moved on the server (by another device, a script, a media manager) while NFS Files still had it open.
• The export was re-exported — the NAS rebooted, the NFS service restarted, or the volume was remounted — and the server’s handle numbering changed. Common with USB drives that were unplugged and re-plugged.
• The export options changed (fsid=, or the share was recreated).

Fix

Go back to the server list and reconnect; the app fetches fresh handles. If it keeps happening after every server restart on Linux, add a fixed fsid=<number> to the export in /etc/exports so handles survive reboots.