Catalina - external disk file sharing issue from late 2012 Mac mini - folder contents not shown

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Catalina - external disk file sharing issue from late 2012 Mac mini - folder contents not shown

I am sharing to 2 Macs from a late 2012 mini with external storage attached

I’ve been doing exactly this in the same setup for quite a few years. Via wired Ethernet.

Unfortunately, moving from Mojave to Catalina has broken file sharing

Most of the external drives on the Mac mini have Softraid drivers. I like the constant monitoring of read / write as Softraid flags up drive issues early.

My main issue is that shared folder contents from my external “2 BIG” drive

[mirrored RAID drive - a pair of HD’s inside an OWC USB3 attached case]

aren’t showing folder contents on the (wired) network attached Macs.

As a test, to rule out the Softraid drivers being incompatible, I tried sharing a Seagate portable external USB drive from the mini, [it has Apple disc utility HFS+ setup] and the issues are the same as I describe below] - so I feel the Softraid drivers have nothing to do with the issue.

A network attached 2010 iMac runs High Sierra, an attached 2016 MacBook has Mojave (and 32 bit apps on there make upgrading a painful prospect)

On the mini, both SMB and AFS file sharing are activated (I used Terminal to enable this - as usefully described here Enable and disable file sharing from term… - Apple Community)

I also tried disabling and re-enabling file sharing using the terminal commands, with no change to the issues.

Here’s my Mac mini (Catalina) file sharing dialogue:

changing "everyone" there to read and write didn't make any difference. so I put it back

here are the settings of the shared folder

maybe I'll disable everyone read/write - reads as risky

Under sharing and permissions in "get info" for the WORK folder I did go ahead with "Are you sure you want to apply the selected owner, group and permissions to all the enclosed items"

If I share via smb://10.0.1.XXX then the other Macs [iMac and MacBook] can usefully see and open the

Mini’s SSD folders and files, user files etc.

If I add a specific folder to the sharing and join via afp://neils-mini.local or afp://10.0.1..XXX both the iMac and MacBook can see the shared folder but not the contents

[I did apply permissions to enclosed items in “get info” on the shared folder ]

When I go to ‘connect to server’ on the MacBook (Mojave) and connect via smb I can see the Mac SSD, user files etc. in "select volumes" you want to mount" (see below)

But not the shared external disk

When I connect to the mini via afp://neils-mini.local or afp://10.0.1.XXX

I can see the shared folder “WORK” listed (but not the Mac SSD, thats fine)

clicking OK opens the folder, but it doesn’t show any contents, on the desktop the folder icon has a red dot next to the name

If I connect via the server name “neils-mini.local” it uses smb by default, it seems

BUT it flags up an error - below

So, connecting using the server name isn’t working for the external hard disk folder share - although it does allow access to my home folder on the mini SSD.

If I “browse” from “Connect to Server” I can see the external disk’s folder listed [from the mini]

but - when I double click the folder name I see this error:

SO I am stuck

Apple support did call me when I requested that (usually that’s super helpful), but, basically, I was told "that equipment is all obsolete" and in the end instructed to come here for community help, or take all 3 macs and all the external disks into the Apple Store Genius Bar.

I totally understand and appreciate that macOS developments will orphan older hardware, but, as my iMac and mini bith have SSD's and are working great overall - PLUS all was pretty much perfect /til the mini was updated to Catalina I do hope this is a Catalina issue and someone can help.

Please!

Short of buying a NAS I am stuck

I did try that a few years ago with very disappointing results - the Buffalo [RAID 5] Terrastation that I bought didn't play nice with Mac filenames, then, to cap it all - the Raid controller failed and I lost the entire contents.

Any ideas please?

I've read all I can find here and tried any suggestions - which is what's enabled me to try so many options as listed above. No joy.

many many thanks

Mac mini, 10.15

Posted on Aug 6, 2022 4:03 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

neil96 Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 19, 2022 11:30 PM in response to ridley_walker

Hi all

finally I did get a solution.

I use Softraid drivers on hard disks when I can. The error reporting seems a very useful way to learn early of impending disk failure. My OWC Mercury 4 drive disk box is using Softraid to run as RAID mirrored pairs.

Eventually I learned that an update imposed on the developers by Apple breaks file sharing. (something to do with marking disks as removable, if I understood correctly)

I reverted to v6.2 and I can share as before.

I’m presuming they are working on fixing this, I’m sure Apple aren’t going back on this latest policy.

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Answer 2

MartinR

Level 7

24,125 points

Aug 6, 2022 7:16 AM in response to neil96

First question, is this correct ->

2012 mini - Catalina - with 2BIG external drive

2010 iMac - High Sierra

2016 Macbook - Mojave

Second question ->

How are all your drives formatted (pls. be specific - for each Mac, what drives(s) internal & external are connected to it & how is each formatted?

The simplest possibility I can think of is that you have both SMB and AFP enabled. Apple deprecated AFP in Big Sur but even earlier there were silent issues with AFP. Have you tried disabling AFP on all your Macs to see if using SMB alone solves the problem? (And BTW, you should cold reboot each Mac after making that change.)

In my network I have an iMac running Catalina (internal drive APFS), with 4 external HFS+ drives connected to it, using just SMB for sharing. Other Macs on the network, running High Sierra, can see & mount all of the drives attached to the Catalina iMac.

Third question ->

Is this your own (home, private) network? If so, why not share the entire 2BIG drive instead of doing folder sharing?

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Answer 3

neil96 Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 6, 2022 8:20 AM in response to neil96

Hi Martin

thanks for your message

First question, is this correct ->

2012 mini - Catalina - with 2BIG external drive

- yes internal SSD = APFS, 2 BIG = HFS+ external USB3, direct to Mini

2010 iMac - High Sierra - wired ethernet

yes, internal SSD = HFS+

2016 Macbook - Mojave - wired ethernet

yes, internal SSD = HFS+

Second question ->

How are all your drives formatted (pls. be specific - for each Mac, what drives(s) internal & external are connected to it & how is each formatted?

Internal drives connected by standard apple interface.

The simplest possibility I can think of is that you have both SMB and AFP enabled.

Apple deprecated AFP in Big Sur but even earlier there were silent issues with AFP. Have you tried disabling AFP on all your Macs to see if using SMB alone solves the problem? (And BTW, you should cold reboot each Mac after making that change.)

right

ran this to stop SMB share, cant switch it off using checkbox in sys pref/sharing

sudo launchctl unload -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
The System Preferences : Sharing panel will not show the status of File Sharing in real time when you run these commands.
If you have this panel open, after starting (0r stopping) the SMB, you must first click on the Options… button to see that indeed, Share files and folders using SMB is selected. When you click Done on that sheet, then you will see
restarted mac

Also set file sharing on the MacBook to smb just in case, and rebooted it

System prefs / sharing on Mini show:

SO AFP is definitely off

Now on the MacBook I go to connect via SMB [go/ connect to server/ smb://10.0.1.xxx

I no longer even see the shared folder from 2BIG.

spuriously, I can see the name of a portable external [**3 - - , a USB connected HFS+ disk] but I can't successfully open it.

when I select the **_Toshiba - - disk I get this

The T7 shield is a USB connected SSD APFS SSD - selecting it and clicking OK replicates the error above

IF I select the Mac HD or user s folder it opens and I can se the cosntents just fine - so SMB works but only for the internal SSD

By the way the username and password is same on all these macs.

In my network I have an iMac running Catalina (internal drive APFS), with 4 external HFS+ drives connected to it, using just SMB for sharing. Other Macs on the network, running High Sierra, can see & mount all of the drives attached to the Catalina iMac.

Its great to know that it CAN work

did you have a lot of fiddling?

-it seems mine is rather strange then

Third question ->

Is this your own (home, private) network? If so, why not share the entire 2BIG drive instead of doing folder sharing?

Yes its home

sharing the entire disk is just the same - I just tested it

I hope my reply may prompt more thoughts from you

I wonder if Bitdefender may be involved - I'll try check

it was fine, though, for a few years with Mojave on the mini and the d same connected macs.

Neil

Have a lovely weekend

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Answer 4

Aug 18, 2022 6:14 PM in response to ridley_walker

I've got it working by doing another erase and clean install. This time, before applying the last security update, I set up sharing making sure to test it.

Once it was working I cloned the working drive as a failsafe. I then applied the security update and file sharing still works as it should. I have no idea why this should be but it's now working and I didn't need to sacrifice a goat.

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Answer 5

Aug 18, 2022 2:04 PM in response to neil96

I'm struggling with the same issue running a 2012 Mac Mini server. I've posted elsewhere seeking a solution and note that many others face the identical problem.

Using afp the volumes mount but directories are empty. I've done a clean re-install, run repairHomepermissions from Terminal in Recovery Mode. Perhaps I need to sacrifice a goat.

In the screenshot below note that the permissions on the mounted share read "everyone No Access" despite being set otherwise on the server.

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Answer 6

neil96 Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 6, 2022 9:34 AM in response to neil96

Martin

little more info

if I disable smb and enable afp on the mini, the 2BIG loads a window but it has no contents.

I'm wondering about a permissions repair on the 2BIG.

I do need smb running, because oit shares my ho,me folder and to get around this issue I've temporarily placed some netwprk shares in there

thx

Have a lovely weekend

neil

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Answer 7

Aug 18, 2022 2:40 PM in response to ridley_walker

This is weird. I also have a 2012 Macbook Pro running 10.5.7 with all updates. No issues whatsoever with file sharing to my M1 running 10.6.8. Both internal and attached drives share as the should.

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Catalina - external disk file sharing issue from late 2012 Mac mini - folder contents not shown

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