Mac OS X Catalina File Sharing Issue

I was able to replicated this issue, and solve it with the following steps:

Computer 1 (file sharer): Disable and re-enable File Sharing under Settings > Sharing. No reboot is required

Computer 2 (file consumer): Either reboot, or force quit/relaunch Finder, then browse to your normally shared directories.

I had this problem since upgrading to Catalina... I finally figured it out. Simply uncheck "Share files and Folders using AFP" but leave the "Share files and folders using SMB" checked in the options under file sharing. Everything works now!

Did you try this? I did this on 2 Macs and it worked....

With Catalina, they made some security changes... I had this problem since upgrading to Catalina... This is what worked... Simply uncheck "Share files and Folders using AFP" but leave the "Share files and folders using SMB" checked in the options under file sharing. Everything works now!

I had to switch off file sharing in the preferences pane and then switch it back on...the smbd finally got the correct permissions to allow sharing.

I found an odd workaround. If I use Finder to navigate to a network computer and click on a shared drive, I get an error message and the Finder window closes. But, if I use the "Connect to server" dialog and type in the SMB URL for the shared computer, everything works as it should. This tells me that either Finder is not using SMB, or it is not authenticating properly when it does. Both computers only have SMB sharing enabled (AFP turned off).

@MonsieurLeB - Did you restart finder (hold option + right click finder icon in dock > relaunch) as it's said above, you need to relaunch finder for the fix to take effect. Rebooting or you logging out/in might have done this and made it work.

I had quite the same issue when upgrading my iMac Pro to Catalina. My shared render folder was not accessible any more to my other Render Macs. But the solution was quite easy: switched off File Sharing > Restart > then switched it back on and Voilà! Sharing worked again like before.

I had a similar problem. MacBook Pro with Catalina and iMac with Mojave on the same network. Both machines could see the other. MBP could access all folders on iMac but iMac could only access some folders and not for example Documents on MBP. Spent ages on the phone to two very helpful Apple support people. Eventual solution was to turn off file sharing on both machines. Restart both. Turn file sharing back on on both. Relaunch Finder on both. This may be overkill but it worked for me. We shouldn't have to waste time on problems like this though. Software testing before release should find them.

Had same problem... Turned file sharing off, and then back on again. Still had issue. Relaunched Finder and I'm back in business! Didn't need to reboot :)

So you don’t need to create a new folder. Just need to go to ‘Settings’ ‘sharing’ and un tick file sharing. Then tick it again. I also cleaned up any shared folders and external hdd from in here too.

hope this helps.

Thanks for this. It worked fine, I switched off file sharing and all other sharing and then back on. I also edited the computer names on my iMac and Macbook as numbers had been added for some reason after the names. All good now. No reboot needed.

I had the same problem but with access to external drive content. Even with the File Sharing permissions already set for the external drive, my remote devices could not access its content. The fix provided by Pete Malkemes worked for me, as well. Disabled and re-enabled File Sharing, and the content appeared on my next remote access attempt. No need to recreate permissions, and no reboot or restart necessary.

Found that i had a similar issue. My Mac Mini that basically is just a file server which was working flawlessly with all other OS versions decided to stop allowing me access to the drives. I could see folders and not contents.

Turns out the issue in my case was the permissions on the drives. The Macintosh HD was read only for my user for some reason. Had to do some shuffling around and added full admin permissions back to the drive and once that was sorted i was able to access all the other attached USB drives fully too.

Maybe have a look at your permissions on your drives if you are having issues, it seems obvious but usually after an upgrade they don't "normally" change so most people don't look for it.

Hope that helps

With Catalina, they made some security changes... I had this problem since upgrading to Catalina... I finally figured it out. Simply uncheck "Share files and Folders using AFP" but leave the "Share files and folders using SMB" checked in the options under file sharing. Everything works now!

Followed one persons advice to switch off and on the file sharing permissions, but I also changed the name of computer logging into remotely to a different name. Seems to have done the trick.