Serious Monterey File-sharing bug

OK. I setup a server and tried it. It does work, or not work, as you describe.

I didn't try opening from the Dock. I tried using the "open" command in Terminal and that worked without any problem.

Not much you can do except for filing a bug report: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

Networking isn't one of the Mac's strengths.

-RWX- wrote:

I've filed bugs and opened a case with the folks on the Enterprise Helpdesk.

It's not my intent to beat this dead horse any longer, but please be sure that you filed a bug report using the link etresoft provided.

Enterprise Helpdesk is unlikely to do anything more than lend a sympathetic ear.

It is my intent to let you know that's what I did with a similar bug in the past, and it was fixed within a couple months, at most. Apple may or may not be interested in continuing to do that, considering their overwhelmingly dominant market is fixated upon having the latest cool gadget.

What happens if you move the file to the destination folder without opening it first. Does the file in the new location open OK?

Does the file open if you open it from within the App? If so then save it and try opening the saved version by double clicking on it.

-RWX- wrote:

I'm looking to see if anyone else is seeing this issue and if anyone has a workaround.

As I said above, I was easily able to reproduce this bug. However, I had to configure my Linux server to run a file server first. Like the vast majority of Mac users, I don't have regular access to any file servers.

A workaround would be to look for alternatives to traditional file servers. The truth is, you really shouldn't be using those at all in the modern world. There is no better avenue to a large-scale ransomware attack than a file server. That alone should be a perfectly reasonable excuse to get rid of them. But going beyond that, there are other methods available to share data between users while improving your ability to control access and track changes.

I realize it is very hip these days find fault with Apple. However, it does appear that Apple has found a sweet spot that attracts more and more of the best users every year, while gently nudging existing users towards new solutions, and allowing more recalcitrant users to move off to other platforms and be some other company's problem.

-RWX- wrote:

Fun update (and, admittedly, possibly not something that necessarily belongs here): the problem persists in the latest build of Ventura.

So that's special.

Discussions of betas are not allowed in these forums. If you can file a bug against Ventura, then you should do so. You stand a pretty good chance of getting it fixed in Ventura. At this point, it is relatively unlikely to be fixed in Monterey. It is cool to be the first person to discover a bug, but unless you discover it very soon after the first beta release, it is unlikely to ever get fixed. The fact that the bug lasted so long undiscovered is a testament to it’s lack of importance.

-RWX- wrote:

While I appreciate your perspective on the matter, I'm not interested in devolving this into squabbling-on-the-internet; I'm interested in getting this addressed, because its the OS performing in an unexpected condition, it's a recent development, and it's a tangible real-world problem that is actually costing time and money. Writing it off as unimportant without considering those factors is reductive at best.

Just so we're absolutely clear on this - I have zero personal investment in finding a "cool" bug. There's no glory in having the people who pay you have to restructure deadlines to accommodate their files not opening.

I’m not “squabbling” at all. I’m just trying to manage expectations. The fact that you discovered this bug so late in the life of Monterey strongly suggests that few people were using it in this manner. Apple makes consumer devices. I understand when people manage a business where their employees use Apple devices that they have certain expectations about the value of their business to Apple. Those expectations are misguided. From Apple’s perspective, such customers are a tiny portion of their user base and a significant portion of their support expenses. It is an unrequited relationship.

If you haven’t already reproduced this bug in Ventura and filed a bug report through appropriate channels, I strongly urge you to do so at your earliest convenience. You have probably already missed the window to get the fix in the first released version of Ventura, but you might be able to make the 2nd minor release, maybe in February.

-RWX- wrote:

That you were able to encounter the bug connecting a Mac client to a Linux server is an interesting data point, and not one that I'd seen so far.

It shouldn't matter. It isn't your job to research the bug and find out what causes it. No amount of Free Labour that you donate to Apple will influence their decision about whether or not to fix the bug.

Saying that the solution is to abandon using file servers is almost absurd, though. Yes, there are other workflows that bring value when used in the appropriate sized-workgroup, but there are large customer bases in organizations with considerable file assets that require collaborative, timely access.

There are always large customer bases using obsolete technologies. Every year, those technologies get more and more difficult to maintain. They require painful compromises. Your only choice in the matter is the method of torture.

Plainly, storage services and file synchronization have their place, but they don't scale to organizations that work with in multiple shares in the 40TB+ range run through 10GBe.

Sorry, but 40TB is not much storage. Years ago I worked for two different groups that maintained PBs of local storage. But even that is obsolete in today's world of cloud storage. So there's another workaround for you. You can move your data to S3, Azure, or half a dozen different providers. That gives you global distribution and probably saves a huge amount of money. Nobody ever got fired for using AWS.

I mean, I really take your point, but on the other hand when you see your doctor complaining that it hurts to bend your elbow, having him say "well, stop bending your elbow" isn't a practicable answer.

How about a brace to immobilize the elbow instead?

That is the preferred method of copying a file to a second location, i.e. not opened. While you have it open in the original location you can do a save as to the new location and I'm sure it will work as intended.

Just so we're on the same page - you are copying the file to the new location and not moving it, i.e. dragging with the Command key held down.