How to stop "There was a problem connecting to the server" message when I'm away from my NAS?

Does the error start to appear as soon as you login (when not on your home network) or at some other time?

Does it appear only when you're connected to another network or also if you have no wired or wifi connection?

I believe Time Machine skips backups silently when it can't find the drive but if you're using another backup tool it may behave differently.

Before you disconnect from your home network, do you eject any network drives first (shutting down will do that but hibernate won't). If there is an icon for the drive in Finder when you're not on the network, drag it out.

I think you're going to have find which program (or even an alias) is trying to connect to the drive to change its settings. You might want to start in the login items.

Stealthownz's suggestion of setting up DDNS would not fix the problem if the error appears when you're not connected to any network at all. Also, it may lead to transferring more data than you want to when you're not at home (by doing backups over the internet) so you may want to find what it causing the Mac to try to connect first.

Hello,

I haven't done it myself but this post is helpful in setting that up.

Automator workflow - connect to server wh… - Apple Community

I just saw that you'll be doing Time Machine backups, so I don't recommend staying connected remotely. However, It is an option. It requires forwarding ports on your router. Here is a link to setting up a webdav server on a Synology NAS. Note: forward only the https port so you're not sending login data unencrypted.

https://kb.synology.com/en-vn/DSM/tutorial/How_to_access_files_on_Synology_NAS_with_WebDAV

Hey there wibald,

We recommend looking over the following support articles to help further with server connections:

Connect your Mac to shared computers and servers - Apple Support

Solve internet connection problems on Mac - Apple Support

Troubleshoot external networking devices on Mac - Apple Support

Take care!

You could set up the Mac to only connect/mount when you're on LAN. You could also set up a ddns on your network (if you're on a dynamic ip) and connect to the drive by hostname remotely. For example, https://your-domain.com:5006. 5006 is default port for webdav servers.

I assume you realize that the computer is just telling you that the network doesn't exist as you're away from home. It doesn't usually warn you unless you do something where the computer has to touch the missing network. Then once you acknowledge the error and disconnect it doesn't warn you again until you connect and leave again.

But it should just disconnect your server connection and not complain again unless you're telling it to just ignore the warning?

Which response are you selecting at the error message? I can't remember the exact verbiage of that error message and will have to take my laptop away from the house to get it to pop up but one of the responses is something to the effect of disconnect the link. I'll have to try it and get back to you.

Hello wibald,

Next, we'd recommend reaching out to Apple Support.

Contact Apple for support and service

Cheers.

You could also just set up a vpn server at home and have it auto connect when not at home