NAS Access in Catalina issues

As user on a Synology forum said that killing a process on the Mac called “sharingd” solves the problem at least temporarily. A few other users confirmed killing the process restored the connection to the shares.

Hello,

To let you know that while it was working fine for few weeks, I also suddenly had the problem again, quite the same time than Datajack, rather strange that we are affected the same days ?

My case @ sinology was not answered so far by Synology on my side...

Finally, the solution proposed by Datajack to kill process called "sharingd" solves the problem temporarily, until it re-appears again. My Time Machine on Synology is strangely not affected.

Fly_PetitPrince

Tried killing “sharingd” myself and didn’t work much. Tried killing it from Activity Monitor, didn’t seem to work so had to do it in terminal with “killall sharingd”. Worked less than a minute. Had to try several times, would still lose connection right away. Rebooting worked a bit longer but the issue always comes back eventually.

I have the same issue with WD MyBookLive. In my case in host file I add a record: 192.168.10.192 MyBookLive.local . There are: MyBookLive - is NetBios name of my NAS. 192.168.10.192 - is Static ip of my NAS. I don't know how long it will work, but it my be helpful.

I'm glad, I finally found this thread after a long search!

+1 to make Apple to fix this! It is not funny to relaunch Finder multiple times in the day! I run 10.15.4

Thanks to all who gave feedback here!

I'll probably get banned for saying this, but this issue has been known by Apple since at least September 2019. Could the reason they haven't fixed it in 8 months and several releases be because Apple feels that NAS devices compete with it's cloud-based storage services? After all, if we can't use our NAS reliably, then we can't leverage our own clouds, and will have to pay Apple to get more storage space on theirs.

ArturRuz wrote:

I have the same issue with WD MyBookLive. In my case in host file I add a record: 192.168.10.192 MyBookLive.local . There are: MyBookLive - is NetBios name of my NAS. 192.168.10.192 - is Static ip of my NAS. I don't know how long it will work, but it my be helpful.

Artur, does it still work with your "trick" ? I am bothered to kill sharing every 2 hours to have it working, I might get a try with your idea if you confirm it's still working.

Thanks,

Fly_PetitPrince

And here is the script, that I failed to attach:

#!/bin/zsh

# name of your NAS server
SERVER=<your-NAS-name>.local

# array of your shares to mount
SHARES=(<share-name-1> <share-name-2> <share-name-3>)

# your user name on the NAS server
NASUSER=$USER

NASPWD=`security find-internet-password -a $NASUSER -s $SERVER -w`
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo -e "Missing password for NAS server (name=$SERVER / user=$NASUSER)"
  exit 1
fi

SUDOPWD=`security find-generic-password -a $USER -s mountshares -w`
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo -e "Missing password for your login (name=mountshares / user=$USER)"
  exit 2
fi
echo "$SUDOPWD" | sudo -S pwd > /dev/null

for (( i = 1; i <= $#SHARES; i++ )) do
  SHARE=$SHARES[i]

  if [[ -a "Volumes/$SHARE" ]]; then
    echo "Share $SHARE: Mount folder exists. Share not mounted."
    continue
  fi

  if ! ( sudo -S mkdir "/Volumes/$SHARE" ) then
    echo -e "Share $SHARE: Failed to create mount folder /Volumes/$SHARE. Share not mounted."
    continue
  fi

  if ! ( sudo chown $USER\:staff "/Volumes/$SHARE" ) then
    echo "Share $SHARE: Failed to adjust ownership of mount point. Share not mounted."
    sudo rm -f "/Volumes/$SHARE"
    continue
  fi

  if ! ( mount_afp "afp://$NASUSER:$NASPWD@$SERVER/$SHARE" "/Volumes/$SHARE" ) then
    echo "Share $SHARE: Failed to mount share. Share not mounted."
    sudo rm -f "/Volumes/$SHARE"
    continue
  fi
done

@roken70

Wanted to share my workaround for this annoyance I have successfully been using for the last few weeks:

Create Shell Script

I have written the attached shell script "mountshares" to mount my shares. Replace placeholders <> with your server and share names. SHARES is an array, so you can adjust the number of space-separated entries to your need. Note also the NAS user name, which in my case is the same as my Mac login user name.

Store the script in your home directory. I have added the folder "bin" there. So the script has the path:

/Users/<your-user-name/bin/mountshares

Make the script executable and secure access (open Terminal and enter run this command):

chmod 700 ~/bin
chmod 700 ~/bin/mountshares

Now, when you run this script (you may run it from Finder too). All your shares are mounted under /Volumes, which is the standard location.

Store passwords in KeyChain

I store my sudo password (which is your login password) and the server password in Keychain access.

Create a new entry in Keychain access with the name mountshares and one for the server with the name of the server (SERVER.local). The last one is normally created by Finder too, so you may have it already in your KeyChain.

When you run the script, it will ask for permission to access your Keychain like any normal app. You may give permanent permission to the script, if you wish.

Run script at login - Create Login Item

I wrap the script in an Automator Application like this (Note unchecked check box "Show this action ...").

Add the Automator Application to your Login Items ( > System Preferences > Users & Groups > your user > Login Items

From the next time log in again (i.e. you have to log out properly, not just lock the screen), your shares will be automatically mounted.

Finder adjustments

I have added /Volumes to my Finder sidebar. In Finder:

Press Cmd-Shift-G and enter "/Volumes". Press return.
Press Cmd-Ctrl-T to add the Volumes-folder to the sidebar.

Now you can access your shares through the sidebar item Volumes without Finder failing. In case the mounts are gone (can happen, because of whatever Finder reasons), you re-run the script or - better - Automator application and the mounts appear again.

If you have any suggestions for improving the script (securing and fail-proving), please do not hesitate to share.

My goodness, need to be an IT Tech to be able to solve such a problem of using a NAS on Catalina...

Thanks @roken70, this is a very useful script. A couple of points below.

If fast user switching is on, the same share will be mounted under different names, such as "share" and "share-1", so you need a slightly different strategy to know if a share is already mounted. This is what I use (it's in Ruby - I've found it's easier to use than shell scripts even for simple tasks):

def mounted?
	`mount|fgrep -Ei '#{@smb_user}.+#{@smb_share}'` =~ /(\/Volumes\/[^ ]+)/
	$1
end

For mounting, you can bypass directory creation if you use mount and AppleScript. No need for sudo or find password:

def mount
	`osascript -e 'mount volume "smb://#{@smb_host}/#{@smb_share}"'`
end

mount unless mounted?

And I've personally switched to SMB since AFP has been deprecated a couple of releases ago.

Hi folks,

Since I upgraded to Catalina in March, I am also having the same severe issues with Finder performance and stability, especially affecting working with my NAS (Synology) as described by others.

Access via Finder is extremely unreliable and in such a way that there is no normal way of working anymore. Frequent 'force quit' and 'relaunch' became the new standard, in combination with regular rebooting of my MacBook.

I went through all the 100++ posts and tried out several suggestions myself in the beginning. Only concluding what has been said so many times before: There are good suggestions for a workaround, some may work for a while, but there is no real solution (yet). We are all waiting for Apple to come up with a release that fixes the issue or at lest joining this discussion.

We all know that both hasn't happened. Probably because there are some NAS users who do not have the same problems as we and Apple can claim that we are dealing with individual issues. Personally, I am not convinced that this the case.

So, why not trying out something else within this limited and very knowledgable and active community. Can't we collect some facts that might differentiate our systems from those who do not have the same issue with their NAS?

Let me start:

- Running Catalina 10.15.2 (Dec'19)

- I am using both LAN ports of my DS 412. Directly connected to the router, no switch. 

- Network traffic from my MacBook air goes via LAN, via a Gigabit switch. WLAN is sometimes switched on as well to connect to another network. (But I have deactivated WLAN for the moment and still suffering the same issues).

- I am using different accounts for admin tasks (via DSM web portal), scheduled Backup and normal NAS access. The last two do not have admin rights.

Any other suggestions what information may be relevant to collect?

Anyone else who want to share their specifics?

I have the same problem on one of my Macs, an iMac Pro, this happens in combination with a nas from netgear Connection is ok to start with after a reboot and after a while seems gone in finder, the shares are still shown but who clicking them I get an error message. At the same time from the computer the time machine backup on the same nas is still working. A reboot of the computer fixes the connection again but strangely enough also just a restart of the finder. So it seems really a finder issue in Catalina, strangely enough it does not show up on my other mac mini

@raimond33,

Many of us encounter the same problems with our NAS systems in combination with Catalina, but not everyone.

Therefore the question is whether you would mind sharing your specifics, which might distinguish your setup from those who do not have these problems?

See examples above.

@Mike_App, Of sorry, yes I use the same login/password to access Web DSM (192.168.1.xx) than for Finder and connexion.

I did not store the creditential (login/password) in Apple Keychain to see if there were a difference, but no differences...

Fly_PetitPrince.

My motivation for this approach is at least two-fold:

(1) Learning from others whose NAS system is not showing the issues we are suffering from, so we can get hints about how to find better workarounds.

(2) Proving insight and input to Apple, so they have a chance to reproduce these issues within their test environment. No doubt that Finder still has some bugs. And as long as they only test against NAS systems that work fine, they would treat our issues as individual problems without taking accountability to fix potential issues within Catalina on their side. 

BTW, I strongly believe that Apple does care about NAS systems working on their products. At least the higher ranks. But where to draw the line between ‘standard usage’ and specific situations that worked well under Mojave?