File Sharing Will Not Accept Password RESOLVED

Hello all.

Having spent the better part of a week with a headache trying to solve a "wrong password" issue when trying to setup file sharing across two Macs, and after three separate hours long phone calls with Apple Technical Support, I figured I'd share the fix to my problem.

For starters here are my system specs for both computers:

Mac A:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

macOS Catalina 10.15.7

Mac B:

Macbook Pro (13-inch, 2017)

macOS Sierra 10.12.6

My issue was a simple one: On Mac A (in File Sharing settings), no matter how many times I entered the correct password to connect to Mac B, it NEVER accepted it and continued to give me the dreadful "shake screen"- even though I was certain that I was entering the correct password. Compounding the problem is the fact that in the very window when trying to enter the password for Mac B, the "name field" above is auto populated to the username on Mac A. This adds unnecessary confusion to the process. It could lead a user to believe the window is asking you for the password to the computer you are on - Mac A, in my case. This was the cause of my week-long problem.

The fix? Even simpler than the problem!

1- On Mac A, ensure you backspace or clear the auto populated name for Mac A in the "name" field and enter the exact username for Mac B.

2- Next, enter the password for Mac B.

3- Enjoy your network connection!

(Repeat the process on Mac B using Mac A's username and password)

In Apple's defense, the very top of the "Name and Password" window in the setup process says "Enter your name and password for the server [other Mac name here]". Clearly this was not as obvious to me or other users as it should be given the number of search results when searching "Mac file sharing password not working" in your favorite search engine.

As you can see from my system specs above, Mac B is running a very old version of macOS. This is because I am running an older program on it which is not compatible with newer versions of macOS. I was thoroughly convinced this was the root of my problem. It was not!

I hope this helps anyone who may have the same problem I had.

Regards,

J