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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

ApMaX

Level 2

154 points

Jul 24, 2022 1:32 PM in response to UKRefugee

It works until you install the latest security updates. Did you apply such security updates? Which macOS version and build show at "Apple - About This Mac" (clicking version to see build)?

Jul 24, 2022 2:17 PM in response to ApMaX

Mine is running 10.5.7 (19H2026)

But, like I said, I had reformatted and installed all updates from the factory reset before I did that.

We'll see what happens when there's another update, I suppose.

ApMaX

Level 2

154 points

Jul 24, 2022 2:33 PM in response to UKRefugee

Thanks for the information. It does not work here after a clean installation from scratch on a brand new empty SSD using macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2026).