You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

My file sharing settings are completely ignored

I want to configure file sharing from my Macbook Pro running Monterey so that my home folder has read and write access to me and no access to anyone else. And I would like the same for an external SSD. However, no matter what I do in the Sharing preferences, such as entering the names of specific subfolders that I would like to share and assigning myself read and write access, and no matter what I do when I click on Sharing in Get Info in Finder, including propagating the permissions down through the whole directory tree, I cannot actually change the permissions. I can make the external SSD visible to Windows Explorer and to the file sharing app on my Samsung phone, but I don't have permission to enter it. And I can see all the top-level contents of my home folder, but if I look in any of its subfolders except Public on the Android phone, I see nothing, and in Windows, when I click on any of these folders, I am told that I don't have permission to look at it.


I also have the issue that the Mac doesn't appear in the network browser in Windows Explorer, which means that I need to enter the Mac's device name in the address bar, although it is visible from the Android phone. This is a minor annoyance compared to the inability to access the folders and volume concerned at all.


How do I get file sharing to behave sanely?

Posted on Jun 6, 2022 12:35 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 6, 2022 2:56 PM

Did you follow these instructions exactly? There are multiple specific steps that must be taken for sharing to work with non-Apple devices.


Share Mac files with Windows users - Apple Support (TJ)


Similar questions

2 replies

Jun 8, 2022 3:11 AM in response to steve626

Thanks.


I followed the instructions. The one thing that I changed was my password on the Mac, which I changed to match my Microsoft password. This got things working properly. However, I don't understand why. I mean, I get why it might help the Windows machines connect to the Mac, but why does it get the Android phone connecting too? I don't use the Microsoft password on the phone except for OneDrive and stuff like that.


And why does the Mac appear in the list of available file share servers in the file manager on the phone, but not in Windows Explorer? It can't be for security if the name that is hidden to Windows is easily accessible from a non-Windows device.

My file sharing settings are completely ignored

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.