NAS Access in Catalina issues

I have the same problem that I usually can't mount my Synology NAS in Catalina via the Finder sidebar. After restarting the computer or after a forced restart of the Finder, it works at first, then later does not work anymore. However, I have had the same problem with Mohave 10.14.x. The problem does not occur with multiple computers that have older systems installed. The problem is also independent of the protocol used, whether AFP or SMB, regardless of the SMB version used. For example, connections initiated by Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) always work without problems.

I can confirm that the Cemento workaround works. Additionally I would like to point out that you can also create a folder containing alias files of the shares from the desktop or the /Volumes folder, so that not too much space is wasted in the sidebar if you have a long list of shares. My folder is called "Servers" and contains all my required shares. This always works and is a good replacement for the network bonjour functionality of the sidebar, which does not work in the Finder after a certain time. The Finder's built-in network display in the sidebar is disabled, so I don't always click on it anymore out of habit. I hope that with Big Sur Apple will finally take care of this problem, which has existed for a long time with various NAS and server solutions. Or is the main focus of Big Sur only on "cosmetics" and making the operating system look iOS-like? I hope not.

Another possibility I found is a software from the macOS App-Store called "AutoMounter". It always works fine and is handy if you have a lot of shares, so that the sidebar is not always too full. Optionally you can also use AutoMounter to set up shares to be mounted automatically. They will mount again immediately if you disconnect them by mistake. This software is an all-in-one solution for me.

@Remulus:

• Upgrading from Catalina 10.15.5 to 10.15.6 SOLVES the problem which is initially described in this thread = accessing NAS from Finder.

• The TM problem that I mention has nothing to do with Apple but is directly linked to Norton 360 (see link from @Martin above). My screen capture and error message is completely different than yours, check it here --> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250794335?answerId=253038015022#253038015022

• The TM problem that YOU mention is completely different, the error message is not the same than the one we experience with Norton 360

Fly

I have the same issue on Catalina 10.15.6 with Norton 360 and a WD EX2 Ultra NAS. Apple support said they do not provbide support for 3rd party NAS backups and to call the NAS vendor. WD has a workaround by mapping the MacBook to the NAS over smb. Has worked since I did that. I didn't change Norton.

I followed this: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10789

I have confirmed with both Apple and Synology that this is a known issue with OSX Catalina. Supposedly their engineers are working together on a fix, but Synology tells me that it's a low priority for Apple, since it only affects a small subset of their users (i.e. those using NAS.)

From Synology:

"...At this point it is a waiting game with Apple and our developers as they work together for a resolution. Unfortunately, there is not an ETA that we are aware of. I know Apple is dealing with a few issues with the Catalina release mostly having to do with 64bit vs 32bit application support so I am not sure where this falls on their priority scale..."

I hate to be the buzzkill regarding some of the "fixes" posted on here, but restarting does not resolve this issue. Nor does setting the minimum SMB version to SMB 2, and the maximum to SMB 3.

The problem is that the the connection to the NAS gets into a bad state after some amount of time passes. Once in this bad state, the connection cannot be fully disconnected and thus reconnected, even by terminating the connection from the NAS side. Some access, such as TimeMachine, may continue to work, while other access, such as in Finder, will not. Once in this bad state, the computer becomes unstable, and random apps (even those that don't seem to need access to the NAS), including Finder, Safari, and third-party apps, will hang, and cannot be completely force-quit and restarted. The only reliable solution at this point is to reboot the computer, after which things will work ok for a while before the issue reoccurs.

This really sucks, as it makes my new $4k 16-inch MacBook Pro less stable than my old 2010 one. I routinely have to reboot my computer while I work, and sometimes wind up losing data because I cannot properly shut down apps or the OS.

Apple has fallen very far indeed if it no longer bothers to test its OS against popular devices and network setups. I hope someone at Apple decides that this is embarrassing enough to prioritize a fix. Otherwise this will definitely be the last MacBook I purchase.

So I have as mentioned in my earlier posting been having issues with the backups I ran and after exhaustive questioning and research of our good friend Google it occurred to me to try one last thing. I have my SMB set to version 3 on my QNAP NAS so I have never had issues connecting with Catalina, only that it doesn't seem to hold those connections and one program very sensitive to this has been Bombitch Carbon Copy Cloner when running Local > NAS backups on the drive.

I have on a particular set of backups never got past 20 mins max and consistently around 4/5 mins before the issues rear their head and everything freezes like everyone else has experienced.

I decided to run a DNS flush on my iMac using the usual command of

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

I have since run 2 separate backup tasks to the NAS, one taking a little over 2 hours and the second around 30 mins. This at least has appeared to be a short term fix since I haven't tested it at length but I will continue to do so, I just wanted to let people know in this thread that for me at least, this has worked. Give it a try and see how you get on.

A temporary solution that is working to me is cleaning keychain from stored NAS login and password. So logout, login again, clean keychain, logout, login, push on NAS icon on finder sidebar, fill-in again NAS login and password and, at least for some days, the network connection works.

Well, I would have posted an update sooner but couldn't, due to being banned from this board for the last couple of weeks. Apple's censoring efforts backfired as they prevented me from updating all of you to let you know that my NAS issues have quietly resolved since 10.15.3. They didn't resolve immediately upon updating, but did so at some point within a week or so of the update. My guess is that 10.15.3 fixed the issue (or at least alleviated it), and then once the various cached data/connections were refreshed, the new ones worked correctly. Since then, my Timemachine backups have worked, and the NAS continues to show in my sidebar without issue.

I just tried something and browsing with Finder worked. I'll have to report back later. The issue could be with NAS login credentials and possibly some conflict (just have to try hypotheses here since we have no feedback from Apple) .

I changed the credentials with which I connect to the NAS. I normally access the NAS with my personal NAS account (not admin), which is the exact same name as my Mac one (NAS username is Firstname Lastname, Mac is Firstname Lastname). Perhaps this somehow creates a conflict, I don't know. So I tried accessing the NAS with a different username (the admin one). Access was fine. Transferred a 3-4Gb file, no interruption.

My TimeMachine has always worked fine, and that is under a completely different NAS credentials dedicated to TimeMachine and a different shared folder mapping.

Do any of you with the issue use DIFFERENT usernames than your Mac one? Or use different usernames for different folders?

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.

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

@Bruno_I @MikeApp, I was not able to reproduce your proposal to solve the problem, unfortunately I fail in some steps, my knowledge is not sufficient.

However, @hop1967, with your link (https://www.techarp.com/software/macos-catalina-nas-failure/), I had a look and I tried, and so far it works fine (what I was missing is to connect using CTRL+K and then smb://DiskStation/).

So far, works fine, let's see in few days...

Fly_PetitPrince

@bsanders44 @Datajack,

I re-started both NAS and Mac, and all fine so far, but have you followed the item #10 in the link provided:

10. Then key in smb://ServerName/ (in our example, smb://DiskStation/) and click Connect.

I had also SMB3 enable and it was not working, now that I added this step above, it works (maybe it will pop up again in a near future, but so far so good...)

Fly_PetitPrince.

Update: Yesterday, I followed Cemento's approach (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250794335?answerId=252112800022#252112800022) of dragging the networked drive(s) to the desktop and then back to the sidebar under Favorites.

If I reboot my Mac (2019 16-inch Macbook Pro), the computer does not reconnect to the NAS automatically for some reason. This results in the drive icons disappearing from the desktop, and clicking the new links to the drives in the sidebar does nothing. I have to manually reconnect via the link to my NAS under Locations in the sidebar, but after that, the icons reappear on the desktop and the new links to the drives in the sidebar become functional again.

In the past 24 hours, I have let the computer sleep several times, including overnight, and have shut and reopened the computer, gone off wi-fi, and other normal activities that can interrupt network connections. The icons and new links have continued to work. I have also restarted the NAS, with no problem.

It is far too soon to tell if this approach is going to work long-term for me, but at least the results are promising thus far. Having to manually reconnect after reboots is annoying, but if this approach eliminates the hangs and crashes caused by the disconnection issue, then I shouldn't have to reboot often.

I'll continue to keep the group updated here on my experience....

@Fly

I can only guess why the TM message appears.

In my case the following occurred:

• a new TM backup was made on the NAS, via SMB
• the new backup lasted several hours, approximately 250GB of data, this backup ended normally
• the next TM (incremental) backup fails, with the horrible message
• nothing was changed in te Finder, OSC System Preferences or the NAS configuration

My assumption is that the connection with (parts of the) the NAS is somehow lost and TM cannot find parts of the Sparse Bundle. I read somewhere that TM uses hard links. If something goes wrong with these hard links, TM can only conclude that the backup is corrupted and start all over again with a new initial backup.

I get the feeling that there is something wrong with discovery, naming and adressing in Catalina.

Perhaps something with connection timeouts on TCP layer 5 in Catalina. The TCP connection with the NAS is okay, as the web interface with Synology DSN is working all te time. The mentioned NVRAM fix seems to be doing something in the timing area.

As long as Apple does not disclose any details on this problem, we can only guess, unfortunately.

Perhaps we can dig deeper by looking at Wireshark traces. For me this goes too far: if my car breaks down, I bring it to the dealer.

Anyway: the following workaround solved all my problems (for now):

• apply the NVRAM fix by Bob Zelin
• set up a SMB connection for TM in the NAS
• define a server SMB connection from Finder to the IP-address of the NAS
• open all share on the NAS from Finder
• drag the TM share to the Finder Locations pane = left column
• select the TM share in the TM preferences
• start a initial or incremental TM backup

This is working for more than 1 week now. Also my other shares on the NAS (music, video, document, etc) keep working.

Cheers,

Martin

Bob Zelin's trick did NOT work for me (Macbook Pro Nov 2019).

What did work was switching the WiFi Protocol on the router back to 802.11n.

It would be worthwhile to know what WiFi Protocol was used by those who have reported or confirmed the issue.

I have an open Apple ticket but officially this issue has not been acknowledged.

Instead Apple Tech Support advices to do a fresh install of Catalina which did not resolve the issue.

Others even had their motherboards replaced which likewise did not resolve the issue.