Knowledgebase

This error is caused by an operation that is part of the deduplication process and tries to consolidate the different permissions of the duplicates.

Hardlinks all share the same permission settings, so the deduplication process tries to ensure that access rights that a user previously had will still apply after a deduplication.

Here's an example:
Assuming you deduplicate two duplicates "file A" and "file B".
File A has "read only" access for user X
File B has "read and write" access for user X
File B will be replaced by a hardlink that points to File A
The "larger" set of access rights from File B has to be applied to File A as well

In summary: When one of the files is replaced with a hard link to the other, the process will try to merge the permissions of the underlying data. In the example above, the consolidated access rights would be "read and write" for user x. 

However, this operation is only successful, if the current user is allowed to change access rights for that particular file, or for files in the current folder. It is important to keep in mind that having the access right to change or write a file does not automatically include the access right to change the permission settings of that file.

If you receive an error message "Failed to merge permissions: Access is denied", then this means your current user is not allowed to change these permission settings and no deduplication will be performed for this set of duplicates. 

This can be the case either if he does not have an "Allow" entry for the operation "Change permissions", or if an explicit "Deny" entry exists for that. It is also important to note that a "Deny" entry will always overrule an "Allowed" entry, if both are set.

For all we know so far, this issue seems to be caused by defects in the system itself. It might affect other applications as well.

To fix it, you might try to (please check the installation after each step):

1. Restart the system.
2. Check for pending/available Windows updates
3. Download and run the Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool
4. Download and reinstall .NET Framework 4.8
5. Open a command line prompt (Win+R -> CMD -> Ok) and run
   DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
6. Open a command line prompt (or use the same as before) and run
   sfc /Scannow
7. Uninstall KB5011048 from the system (how to)
8. Check for updates again or install KB5011048 manually again

Please find more information on DISM and SFC here.

The easiest way to see and possibly change the registered preview handler or IFilter (used for the file content search) for PDF files is to install the free version of PDF-XChange Editor which comes with a lightweight separate tool for this exact purpose.

You can find it under "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfoSetup.exe" when using the default installation path.

TreeSize and UltraSearch both use the preview handler and IFilter that is registered as default in the system, which is what you can see and adjust in this small tool.

Text-based file types can generally be searched right away and should not cause any issues if the used syntax is correct.

Other file types often require an IFilter to be searched.

Our software uses the corresponding IFilter that is installed and registered within Windows. If the content search does not find any results or gets stuck at some point, the currently used IFilter is the most likely culprit; we see this especially often with PDF files.

For PDF files, we recommend installing the Adobe IFilter as it has been the most reliable one. This does not require installing Adobe Acrobat, it is a separate installer.

It is possible that a new IFilter is installed and automatically registered when installing a new PDF software (or other relevant software for other file formats) on the system. In this case, it is necessary to register the working IFilter again if there are any issues with the new one. This can be done by reinstalling it. For PDF files, there is an alternative way described here.

Yes, it can accompany you throughout the entire process. We describe the details in a separate article on SharePoint / OneDrive migration.

Yes, Azure Files Shares can be accessed through a UNC-path. The UNC path format is \\<storageAccountName>.file.core.windows.net\<fileShareName>. Please find more information here.

To upgrade, please contact our customer support directly and before purchasing an additional license. That way we can credit the Personal License and send you a quote for the difference in price. If you buy the Professional without contacting us, we cannot provide a refund (for business customers).

You can find the Offline Installer in our customer area.

To download it, please log in with your user details and navigate to "Downloads".  During maintenance, you will find the current version there as an offline installer to download.

TreeSize Professional adheres to all common security measures like:

• Access protected build environment (physically – no public access to our business rooms – and digitally – closed build servers)
• Using a version control system to monitor changes and their authors.
• Static code analysis
• Manual code reviews

Additionally, TreeSize Professional is an on-premises solution that does not send any personal data back to us.

We have seen this behavior on a few systems by now, even though very seldom. It seems like the AppData folder contains a link to itself, which might not be reported as such transparently.

You can resolve this infinite loop manually by adding an exclude filter on the affected link in the options dialog at Scan > Filter > Files and folders to include.

A filter for this specific problem might look like, effectively filtering out all folders containing "AppData" as subfolders of a folder "AppData\Roaming":

Path - does not match pattern - *AppData\Roaming\*AppData\*