QFileSystemModel update problem for shared network location

[Azadshahr]

I'm using QFileSystemModel and QTreeView to display files tree from a shared network location.

void MainWindow::ListDirectory(QString arg_smb_path)
{
    o_directory_system_model = new QFileSystemModel(this);
    o_directory_system_model->setFilter(QDir::NoDotAndDotDot | QDir::AllDirs | QDir::Hidden);
    o_directory_system_model->setRootPath(arg_smb_path);

    ui->treeView->setModel(o_directory_system_model);
    ui->treeView->hideColumn(1);

    o_file_system_model = new QFileSystemModel(this);
    o_file_system_model->setFilter(QDir::NoDotAndDotDot | QDir::Files | QDir::Hidden);
    o_file_system_model->setRootPath(arg_smb_path);

    ui->listView->setModel(o_file_system_model);

    ui->listView->setContextMenuPolicy(Qt::CustomContextMenu);
}

The code works fine and I got the file tree. However, it can not automatically pick up the changes there. For example, if I create a new file there, the tree don't display this new file. When I set the path to a directory on local hard drive, like "D:/temp". It works. It picks up the changes and update itself. Any idea how can I pick up changes from a shared network location and refresh the model/tree?

[JonB]

@Azadshahr
This is a common problem for network locations for many operating systems/file systems. Not just Qt, e.g. you can often see this (lack of update) behaviour in, say, a File Explorer on a network path.

If you think about it, you can see the host program may have trouble knowing that a remote network location has changed, it can't afford to poll all the time.

I don't know whether QFileSystemModel already uses this internally, but you should try a QFileSystemWatcher on the network directory. If that does not notify of changes, it's not going to work. In that case, I would suggest you can only put in a QTimer and periodically poll the remote to spot any changes, which is not great. You may well find that whether it works or not depends on the actual file system/network share protocol. Otherwise, I don't know if there is a Windows-only call you could use which can see the network update if the Qt code does not.