SMB File Sharing not working in Ventura

The working solution for me

Add

/usr/sbin/smbd 

with Settings -> Network -> Firewall -> Options

Or

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --add /usr/sbin/smbd
sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --unblockapp /usr/sbin/smbd

Interesting is that this reqiured even if Sharing is visible as allowed in firewall.

RESOLUTIONS: Note below fix the problem for OSX13.0.1 and OSX13.1 for me. So please try below phase 01 to 04 resolutions and need to use a terminal with the below command.

COMMAND

---------

a. sudo -s

b. Put in the password

c. nano [TYPE BELOW PHASES PATH WITH BRACKET]

d. copy and paste the below phase text starting DEFAULT or MY CUSTOM FIREWALL...

e. Press control+O (^O WriteOut) O as Orange to save and control+X (^X Exit) to exit.

Phase 01:

PATH = /etc/nsmb.conf

SMB PROTOCOL UNDERSTANDING

7 SMB 1/2/3 enabled (default)

6 SMB 2/3 enabled

4 only SMB 3 enabled

2 only SMB 2 enabled

1 only SMB 1 enabled

FOR OSX 13.0.1 = NSMB.CONF INFO

----------------------------

[default]

signing_required=no

streams=yes

protocol_vers_map=7

minauth=ntlmv2

port445=both

FOR OSX 13.1 = NSMB.CONF INFO

----------------------------

[default]

protocol_vers_map=6

port445=both

Phase 02:

PATH = /etc/pf.conf

FIREWALL ALLOW CONNECTION = PF.CONF add in end of the file content.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

PART1:

# My Custom Firewall Rule

pass in proto tcp from any to any port 445

pass in proto udp from any to any port 445

PART2:

NOTE: macOS Ventura or later Steps to unblock all incoming connetions:

a. Open System Settings.

b. Click Network from the sidebar.

c. Click Firewall. If it says “Inactive,” it is turned off. When Firewall is disabled, your Mac does not monitor network traffic, and all incoming and outgoing traffic is allowed.

d. Click on it, and toggle the switch to on so that Firewall is enabled.

e. Then click Options.

f. Then turn off the “Block all incoming connections” switch.

g. You may need to click the lock icon or it will ask you to enter your password to take effect.

PART3:

NOTE: ONLY USE FOLLOW BELOW STEP IF WANT FIREWALL or JUST LEAVE IT OFF.

a. Open System Settings.

b. Click Network from the sidebar.

c. Click Firewall. If it says “Inactive,” it is turned off. When Firewall is disabled, your Mac does not monitor network traffic, and all incoming and outgoing traffic is allowed.

d. Click on it, and toggle the switch to on so that Firewall is enabled.

e. Then click Options.

f. Under list app click on the plus (+) button to add more apps or services and add below services.

Name: SMDB SERVICE

Path: /usr/sbin/smdb

Name: NETBIOS

Path: /usr/sbin/netbiosd

Name: LAUNCH DEMONEDS

Path: /sbin/launchd

g. Then use the drop down connections to “Allow incoming connections” for above app.

h. You may need to click the lock icon or it will ask you to enter your password to take effect.

Phase 03:

FULL DISK ACCESS

----------------------

• Using Finder, go to /usr/sbin

• Locate "smbd"

• Launch Settings

• Go to "Security & Privacy"

• Click the tab "Privacy"

• Click on "Full Disk Access"

• Drag and drop "smbd"

Phase 04:

REBOOT & VERIFY

----------------

Restart the computer and test.

===========================================

ADDITIONAL TROUBLESHOOT

1. Restart the Samba (SMB) IN TERMINAL

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

2. Reset the LOCALKERBEROSREALM encrypted key.

Delete com.apple.smb.server.plist (you'll need to authenticate), then restart, com.apple.smb.server.plist gets created & properly populated without a Kerberos Realm. At following path = /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist

===========================================

Resources URL

- NSMB.CONF : https://www.manpagez.com/man/5/nsmb.conf/

- NSMB.CONF more INFO : https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/what-are-the-optimal-macos-settings.93986/

- RESOLUTIONS 3RD PARTY : https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/362739/what-causes-some-network-drives-using-smb-no-longer-connect-to-macos-catalina

- FIREWALL 1 = https://macreports.com/what-does-block-all-incoming-connections-do/

- FIREWALL 2 = https://www.lifewire.com/open-a-port-on-a-routers-or-computers-firewall-5072435

- FIREWALL 3 = https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42752245/mac-osx-open-a-port

- TROUBLESHOOT SMB Restart = https://www.geekbitzone.com/posts/macos/smb/macos-restart-smb/

- SMB PROTOCOL UNDERSTANDING 1 = https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/smb-broken-with-monterey.2324371/

- SMB PROTOCOL UNDERSTANDING 2 = https://www.droidwin.com/smb-samba-not-working-in-macos-monterey-fix/

- RESET LOCALKERBEROSREALM encrypted = https://mjtsai.com/blog/2022/12/30/fixing-smb-file-sharing-in-ventura/

Dear all!

@Walter Madden:

YOU NAILED IT!!!!

This is a reproducable bug on a fresh and clean Ventura 13.2 installation. I created a new virtual machine with 13.2, created two folders on the desktop, one with an icon and one without and shared both of them.

I could connect and mount the folder without the icon perfectly. But when I tried to mount the shared folder with the custom icon, I got the forever spinning bar which says at the end that I'm not authorized to look inside that shared folder. Then I removed the icon (using Finder's infobox inside the VM) and – BOOM – I could also mount that folder.

I encourage everyone who is affected to try to remove the custom icon from their shared folders.

And because it's reproducable on a fresh installation: If you have opened a bug report at Apple, please update your report with this information!

@tresinnoctem

Does this trick also work for you?

Kind regards

Just had a call with a Sr. Rep (not engineer), and they pulled another diagnostic report from my machine. This time with the firewall inactive. Apparently the engineers are advising the senior reps that there is an issue with the system firewall which is impacting SMB file sharing on all 13.2 machines.

Here are some steps I've produced to get SMB File Share to work:

• Turn off file sharing and clear all shared folders from the server
• Disable system firewall on Host computer
• Restart the host computer
• Download Batchmod and run Batchmod on the shared folders using the below settings:

1. 1. Drag folder into Batchmod "File" bar
   2. Switch Owner: Root
   3. Switch Group: Admin
   4. Make sure "R" "W" and "X" are checked for every single box (owner, group and everyone)
   5. Check boxes "Change Ownership and Priveleges", "Unlock", and "Clear ACL's"
   6. And check the folder at the bottom "Apply to Enclosed"
   7. DO NOT check "Clear Xattrs"
   8. Click apply and enter your password

• Now that the permissions are reset on the folders on your host computer, turn on the file sharing, and add the desired shared folders one by one. Don't mess with the permissions once you've gotten to this point

I've been able to test that this works for the past couple hours, and i've been running SMB File Sharing off my MBP with no issues. The only folder I seem to be having issues with is an alias of a Onedrive shared folder, and I suspect this has to do with a permissions block. But all of my other folders work.

Can anyone else please replicate these steps and tell me if it fixes the issue for them???

Yes, I had tried all the suggestions in this thread and elsewhere with no luck. Your post spurred me to check the Firewall Settings. "smbd" was set to "Block incoming connections". After entering admin credentials, changed it to "Allow incoming connections" then clicked on "OK" and immediately the shared folders were visible on the network.

I've submitted a report via Feedback Assistant. Users should not have to fix Firewall Settings to get sharing to work.

Many thanks.

Hey folks, I tried the various suggestions in this thread to no avail, but I did manage to get it working again.

After reading threads here and here, I saw a lot of noise from folks who had success fixing File Sharing after deleting their custom icons on their shared folders and/or drives. I also had custom icons on everything I was sharing, so I removed the custom icons, then followed the standard song-and-dance of disabling File Sharing, restarting, then re-enabling File Sharing, and that fixed it.

It's beyond strange to me that File Sharing could be completely broken by custom icons, but at least there's a work around until Apple fixes the regression. If you also couldn't get it working again from the steps in this thread, double-check to make sure any custom icons are removed as well.

For Ventura 13.2, my SMB sharing issue was due to custom Drive icons as described in this other community thread:

macOS 13.2 Ventura cannot connect to smb … - Apple Community

Removing the custom drive icons and rebooting restored SMB sharing for me on 13.2. Here is how to remove the custom icon:

1. On your Mac, select the file or folder.
2. Choose File > Get Info in the menu bar.
3. At the top of the Info window, select the small custom icon.
4. Make sure you click the small icon at the top of the Info window (not the large icon under Preview).
5. Choose Edit > Cut in the menu bar.

I found something which worked for me: remove all extended attributes of the shared directory.

Either one by one using something like:

$ xattr /path/to/shared/dir
com.apple.FinderInfo
com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags
purgeable-drecs-fixed

$ xattr -d com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags /path/to/shared/dir
$ xattr -d purgeable-drecs-fixed /path/to/shared/dir
$ xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo /path/to/shared/dir

Or all directly:

$ xattr -c /path/to/shared/dir

I tried the complicated stuff (it didn't work). The key is to remove your shared item(s) from the share list, then re-add them back, which should restore some custom permissions. When you are on Settings->General->Sharing->File Sharing->Shared Folders, look at the Users list. If you remove and re-add a shared folder, you will get a "Unknown user" with "Custom" permissions. While including this permission goes against all my best instincts (which is probably why I removed it a few releases ago), this permission enables the magic for Ventura to talk with other hosts. (I had the same scenario as many others, an Intel mini and a MBP M1 both running Ventura 13.2.1.) You may have to wait a few minutes or restart to "flush" the settings out and get your Macs talking again.

Thank you, this worked for me as well. I had tried everything in your post *except* removing the previously shared folders from the list in Settings as part of the process. I went to the list of shared folders in "File Sharing" (click the little info circle to open a dialogue that shows the list.) I removed all folders from the list, turned off file sharing, unchecked "shared folder" in all Finder Get Info boxes, and rebooted. After the reboot, the folders are shared normally. Time Machine backups now work normally. Sharing has survived multiple reboots over two days to be sure, so I am happy. 

abromber

Thank you!! Just turning file sharing off and rebooting didn't work for me, but following your added instructions (removing all shared folders from the list, then making sure they were all unchecked in "Get Info" before rebooting) did the trick for me. Also, I don't know if the order matters, but after rebooting I:

• enabled file sharing
• shared the folders by checking "shared folder" in the Finder "Get Info" boxes for all the folders I needed to share

I was afraid my shiny new M2 mini server was going to be a very expensive brick, but this approach seems to have done the trick for me!

abromber wrote:

Thank you, this worked for me as well. I had tried everything in your post *except* removing the previously shared folders from the list in Settings as part of the process. I went to the list of shared folders in "File Sharing" (click the little info circle to open a dialogue that shows the list.) I removed all folders from the list, turned off file sharing, unchecked "shared folder" in all Finder Get Info boxes, and rebooted. After the reboot, the folders are shared normally. Time Machine backups now work normally. Sharing has survived multiple reboots over two days to be sure, so I am happy. 

abromber

Update: almost three days later and my network is still behaving normally and has survived several reboots. File shares and Time Machine all normal. Apple has apparently acknowledged the problem and announced a fix in the next OS update.

abromber

Hi folks,

like all of you, I had issues with SMB shares on Ventura. I was stuck on 13.1 because the "reboot trick" did it for me in this particular version. Everybody said that 13.3 (and now 13.3.1) solves the issues and I can confirm that. Because of other problems (Wallpaper was reset to default after every reboot, external drives took 1-2 minutes to mount) I decided not to update, but to do a fresh installation of 13.3.1.

All. Issues. Solved.

Regarding SMB:

• Shares with custom icons are working as expected: SMB shares can be mounted on other Macs and can be accessed on iPhone with VLC and with GoodReader
• Saving files on SMB shares from another Mac still create those folders with the .sb2 suffix, but they disappear within a second

Guys, I fixed it. In Ventura and in Sonoma. It just needed a fresh install.

I erased the Macintosh HD volumes from the recovery (don't erase the recovery volume, only the Macinthosh HD group which contains Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data), and reinstalled Ventura from internet. I had Sonoma already but after the wipe it only allowed me Ventura, and I hadn't a spare flash drive to prepare a Sonoma USB Installer.

Anyway, I then recovered my data from Time Machine, but I excluded network setting just to be safe. I then upgraded again to Sonoma. All my data and login are there. I activated file sharing and rebooted (which normally would make it not work). Everything works, file sharing is instant, it's finally fixed.

So just erase Macintosh HD and do a fresh install. Reinstalling over an existing install, updating to a newer macOS, just erasing the computer with the new function etc. won't work (this last function just erases user data, not macOS which will still be corrupted). It needs a complete wipe to work. I probably should have tried this in April when the update that fixed the problem dropped.

Cheers