https://c57b4987.mrwblog.pages.dev/tags/ubuntu/ Recent content in Ubuntu on Mr.W's Blog https://c57b4987.mrwblog.pages.dev/%3Clink%20or%20path%20of%20image%20for%20opengraph,%20twitter-cards%3E https://c57b4987.mrwblog.pages.dev/%3Clink%20or%20path%20of%20image%20for%20opengraph,%20twitter-cards%3E Hugo en Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://c57b4987.mrwblog.pages.dev/posts/mega-sync-invalid-device-id/ Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://c57b4987.mrwblog.pages.dev/posts/mega-sync-invalid-device-id/ <p>When <code>mega-sync</code> fails with the following message:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span class="line"><span class="cl">Failed to sync folder: Invalid argument. Unable to retrieve the ID of current device </span></span></code></pre></div><p>the problem is often not the sync path itself. In my case, the real issue was that the Ubuntu environment deployed inside Docker did not have a valid machine ID.</p> <h2 id="why-this-happens">Why This Happens</h2> <p>MEGA relies on the current device ID when creating or managing sync relationships. On some minimal Ubuntu container images, <code>/etc/machine-id</code> can be missing or empty. When that happens, <code>mega-sync</code> cannot identify the current device correctly and returns the misleading <code>Invalid argument</code> error.</p>