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Bob Hawkins Author

Level 1

99 points

I am unable to turn on File Sharing on my iMac running macOS Catalina.

I cannot get the File Sharing to switch on with my old iMac running Catalina. It has been working and I have been sharing files between it and another M1 laptop for some months. I failed to connect to the MacBook this morning so did the usual of turning off the File Share and then rebooting and then tried to switch it back on by it will not!

I have even booted up in recovery mode and reinstalled Catalina but to no avail.

Can anyone think of any reason and what I can do to get it to switch on?

Thanks

[Re-Titled By Moderator]

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jun 14, 2022 12:21 AM

Top-ranking reply

editor1979

Level 1

38 points

Posted on Jun 17, 2022 8:50 PM

I actually found the attached thread useful by manually turning on file sharing using TERMINAL.

Enable and disable file sharing from term… - Apple Community

Here's my synopsis:

Close system Preferences (If open)
Open Terminal
Paste: sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist and press [Enter]
Type your computer password (Typing will not show, do it anyway) and press [Enter]
Paste: sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist and press [Enter]
Type exit and press [Enter]
Once the process finishes, close the Terminal window.
Open System Preferences and go to Sharing
DONE!

I was having this same exact problem with my Mac Mini running Catalina 10.15.7 and this fixed it!

Now my Mac Mini shows it's shared folders on my Macbook Pro running High Sierra 10.13.6!

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85 replies

Tydyjav

Level 1

13 points

Mar 18, 2023 9:34 AM in response to l008com

I can get to the terminal window, but it’s so full of text I wouldn’t know where to add the line even if I understood the alphabet soup. I still believe macs are better even if they are this dismissive of this issue. I’ll just have to accept that it can’t be done even though I would find it useful. I kinda get now why Microsoft users believe what they do about macs. Very frustrating.

Tydyjav

Level 1

13 points

Mar 18, 2023 10:02 AM in response to editor1979

Is there a video of this somewhere out there? I can open terminal, but I have no idea where to put that command line in all of the alphabet soup. I’m afraid I could make things worse by not getting it e exactly correct.

Apr 28, 2023 12:52 AM in response to editor1979

Thanks editor1979. I followed your recipe but both daemons are on already. I have sharing on some files/directories but not on others. Sharing does not appear on my right-click menu but some files are shared. I already have 10.15.7 and tried installing the update patches but computer says no - apparently my disk isn't suitable. There seems to be a disconnect between daemons and book keepeing on what's shared and what's not.

Aug 23, 2023 12:23 AM in response to charleezmac

This seems to be a Microsoft-generated problem. I still can't get onedrive to launch on boot, which forms part of the problem. After manual start, sharing seems to work. That said, Apple introduced another level of script-based access control that I need to get my head around.

May 22, 2024 5:31 PM in response to Bob Hawkins

Had the same issue running macOS Catalina Version 10.15.7 on a Mac mini Server (Late 2012). This happened *after* reinstalling the OS. Prior to that File Sharing had been working flawlessly for years.

Many thanks to Editor1979 for that insightful recommendation.

All that was needed to make File Sharing 'clickable' once more was Step 3:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist

SadUser

Level 1

6 points

Jun 14, 2024 8:45 AM in response to Bob Hawkins

Thanks a million to user 'editor1979'!

Who would have thought?

:-)

It seems that many (at least several) thinks are not loaded in the Launch-Daemon on Catalina by default.

How did this happen? Did Apple ship Catalina with these many things missing (I have found other items missing in this same way) from LaunchDaemon on purpose? Do not bother answering me. I think I am getting the pattern.