Hello, I've read several file manager posts here and hoping someone can help me. New to dnn and working on an existing site that is having a lot of file manager issues. The dnn version is 04.09.00.

I'm logged in as host, going to Admin | File Manager (Host | File Manager has these same issues):

Under Standard - file system, if I try to add a folder, I get this error:
A critical error has occurred.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

If I click refresh, I get:
An error has occurred.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.BindFileList() in D:\blahAdmin\\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 393 at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.lnkRefresh_Command(Object sender, CommandEventArgs e) in D:\blah\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 1848 at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

If I expand the portal root folder on left, and click any folder, I get this error:
Error: File Manager is currently unavailable.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.GeneratePermissionsGrid() in D:\blah\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 576 at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\Blah\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 1116 --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

If I click Synchronize Files I get this error:
A critical error has occurred.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

If I click Synchronize and Recursive, it'll go for around 90 seconds and then get an error (worried what this is doing so would rather not run it again).

A folder created via FTP did show up after the recursive synchronize, but I can't click it to synchronize other files uploaded via FTP. The site admins have been using the editor's upload file control and there's another built in one that's being used - I just added ftp recently.

So as you can see, having issues and I'm not sure where to start. The ntfs permissions are all full control Network Service so am guessing something is up w/ dnn's folder permissions instead. I'm also not sure if the recursive synchronize to error is causing any additional issues. The DotNetNuke.Services.FileSystem.SynchronizeFileSystem, DOTNETNUKE is not enabled.

This site has several thousand users, and lots of customization and third party modules so not a site I feel real comfortable tinkering with a whole lot. Thanks for any help!

As I understand it, the Synchronize function builds a database structure that mirrors the directory/file structure. The Recursive part forces it to do this down the directory tree.

The bigger issue, namely all of the errors, is difficult to understand. It does seem that something is badly broken. I would start by triple checking that the file permissions are set correctly so that the default ASP.NET worker task has full permissions on the files.

The error that occurs in BindFileList would seem to imply that it's not getting a list of files. I'm not sure how that could happen. Uploading files using the editor's control should not be causing problems. I use that all of the time.

But ... start with the easiest part, and check file permissions again.

You might also look through the site's Event Log and see if there are other odd things that appear.

Let us know what, if anything you find.

Well all the ntfs permissions look right to me - windows 2003 server w/ IIS6 so am assuming it's Network Service? I reset all child permissions but no change.

When I ran the recursive sync here's what showed up in event viewer:

AssemblyVersion: 04.09.00
PortalID: 0
PortalName: MySite.Net
UserID: 4643
UserName: james
ActiveTabID: 46
ActiveTabName: File Manager
RawURL: /Admin/FileManager/tabid/46/Default.aspx
AbsoluteURL: /Default.aspx
AbsoluteURLReferrer: http://mysite.com/Admin/FileManager...fault.aspx
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.2) Gecko/20100316 Firefox/3.6.2
DefaultDataProvider: DotNetNuke.Data.SqlDataProvider, DotNetNuke.SqlDataProvider
ExceptionGUID: 5a4ae362-b612-4b1f-bfd3-6dde76e3679f
InnerException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
FileName: D:\Inetpub\mysite\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb
FileLineNumber: 393
FileColumnNumber: 13
Method: DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.BindFileList
StackTrace:
Message: DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.BindFileList() in D:\Inetpub\mysite\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 393 at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.lnkSyncFolder_Command(Object sender, CommandEventArgs e) in D:\Inetpub\mysite\Admin\Files\FileManager.ascx.vb:line 1898 at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
Source:
Server Name: OURDOTNET

Seems to be DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.BindFileList and DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.FileSystem.FileManager.GeneratePermissionsGrid as the main culprits.

Because your site is busy, I would backup your live website and install it to your localhost installation, from there you will be able to test the site without the worry of affecting the live website.

I think it may be worth clearing all of the data that is stored in the database for the file manager and then try a recursive synchronise. You may find some data has somehow become corrupt in the FileManager index table.

Do you happen to know which tables file manager uses, or point me to some documentation? I see Files, FolderPermission and Folders tables. But wouldn't I have to reset all the folder permissions after doing so? If so, could I get a step by step for this process perhaps? Thank you.

As a starting test I would just delete the content from the Files table and then see if the FileManager will re-index the content.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE DOING THIS ON A BACKUP - THIS MAY COMPLETELY BREAK THE FILE MANAGER!