Error when saving documents or installing new packages

General
1

Hello!

I have a machine running Windows 10, R 3.6.2 & RStudio 1.2.5019. This is my work machine, and it has a local drive (C:) and a network drive (\me-filer1.medschl.cam.ac.uk\home${username}) which is mapped to U:

If I attempt to save R files in My Documents, the file type is set to 'All files' and doesn't have any other drop down options. If I attempt to save, it complains that this will change the file type and asks for confirmation. If I confirm, it says the "filename, directory name or volume syntax is incorrect"
However if I try to save in the same place going via U:// it works fine. I have similar problems opening files: 'Access Denied' when trying to access R files through File explorer -> My Documents but it works fine when trying through File explorer -> This PC -> U drive.

It is also refusing to install packages into the default location. It will install them into a personal folder, but not on my network drive.

We are meant to avoid saving important work on the local drive, so I would like to use the network drive if possible. I have talked to the internal computer support who have investigated if there is an issue with the network drive - they say that they have checked the documents location and all were pointing to correct location.

The logfile is filled with things like
"
03 Feb 2020 16:03:55 [rsession-am2609] ERROR system error 67 (The network name cannot be found) [path=//me-filer1/My Documents/MR Course/index.Rmd]; OCCURRED AT: bool __cdecl rstudio::core::FilePath::exists(void) const C:\jenkins\workspace\IDE\windows-v1.2\src\cpp\core\FilePath.cpp:344; LOGGED FROM: bool __cdecl rstudio::core::FilePath::exists(void) const C:\jenkins\workspace\IDE\windows-v1.2\src\cpp\core\FilePath.cpp:344
"

Can anyone advice why I struggling to save and open files from My Documents? This is only a problem in RStudio.

2

Hi, I'm curious about the location of your 'My Documents', if you right clik the folder in windows explorer , properties, location.. where is it ? will it be a path on U:\ or will it use a network location name... etc.

3

The location of 'My Documents' is \me-filer1\home${username}\My Documents & I cannot alter this.

4

Yes, so I'm pretty sure that the issue relates to that folder not being a mapped drive (with a drive label like U:\ - which you've said works for you) but with a UNC path.

Is the issue then, just one of convenience ? i.e. clicking straight to MyDocuments rather than to the same location via the U:\ (mapped drive route) ?
If its an IT issue that MyDocuments is locked and is not changeable , maybe someone here has a solution, but I would be suprised.

5

Convenience is the main issue when saving files, but it seems to also be causing issues with installing packages - particularly packages from github. Sometimes they install, but often they won't. Have managed a partial fix by switching to a personal library (on C:) but then sometimes the packages I've installed there won't run.

6

to help with convenience then, maybe it would be helpful to make a new folder in your U:\ for your r package installs, and you make that your own default location, maybe by setting options in your r profile
https://www.accelebrate.com/library/how-to-articles/r-rstudio-library

7

Thank you, I will try that.

8

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