Hey! Thanks for replying man! I"ll cooperate as much as I can. I am not an expert at all, but I love to tinker and learn new stuff.
I use /etc/smb.conf
This is the content of my smb.conf:
[global]
server role = standalone server
map to guest = Bad User
usershare allow guests = yes
[JUDIB-10]
comment = STORAGE-10
path = /mnt/JUDIB-10
read only = no
guest ok = yes
force user = daniel
force group = daniel
[JUDIB-20]
comment = STORAGE-20
path = /mnt/JUDIB-20
read only = no
guest ok = yes
force user = daniel
force group = daniel
[JUDIB-30]
comment = STORAGE-30
path = /mnt/JUDIB-30
read only = no
guest ok = yes
force user = daniel
force group = daniel
[JUDIB-40]
comment = STORAGE-40
path = /mnt/JUDIB-40
read only = no
guest ok = yes
force user = daniel
force group = daniel
The folders I share through Samba are regular mounted SATA hard drives that are plugged in directly to my motherboard. I've set them up using fstab.
Now, this is interesting:
Not all files and folders suffer from "folderitis" (lol). Last night I noticed a pattern; it seems like the files-that-look-like-folders are the ones that I copy between any of these hard drives (ON THE VERY SAME LOCAL MACHINE --THE SMB SERVER). I've tried both using cp in the terminal, or just copy-pasting in Nautilus. The files are copied and they seem perfectly fine on the local machine, BUT they show up on the other computers (clients) as folders! If I copy files from the clients to the samba server, the files show as files and there is no issue.
Now, look how weird this is: on the server machine, if I duplicate one of these files with "folderitis" by using cp (to a different filename) ...BOOM! >>> The new duplicate file doesn't show up as a folder on the clients! Same permissions (even 777), group, owner, everything! It's the same file, with a different name except it doesn't show up as a folder on the other machines.
This is the link to that ubuntu forum where they pinpointed a very similar issue: [https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/1872476] (Check reply by Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack) on 2020-05-18).
EDIT: I made myself a "manual" to install and configure Samba based on my experience. (I do this for everything so I don't forget and waste time looking around if I need to do it again). It describes exactly every step I followed. It has always worked, every time, until now for some reason.
Manual sent through PM