Ventura 13.2 File Sharing broken

Just to share what helped for me:

Symptom:

• No connection, always the "Beachball", no backups possible

Setup:

• Use Mini M1 as a server (with several external NVMe disks shared)
• Connection with several MBPs (all M1) - Use Carbon Copy Cloner for automated Backups
• All Ventura 13.2

First I tried to fix it with the solutions mentioned here

• Stop - reboot - start file sharing of M1 Server again -> not solved
• Eliminating custom icon on top-level -> not solved
• Tried to renew connection to the server via SMB://10.... (Server IP) -> not solved

Finally I remembered that I also have a Raspberry pi 4 which is connected via CIFS to the Mac mini (also for backing up files)

Then I tried to connect my MacBookPro with CIFS instead of SMB - I entered cifs://10..... (Server IP).

E voila since then it was possible to reconnect to the MacMini Server. I reconnected all laptops using cifs:// and the connection is up and running - I know cifs is more or less an outdated dialect of SMB - but hey, who cares. I was able to backup 45GB file via (Gigabit LAN) within 9 minutes, so performance seems OK.

Until then the system is up and running (since Sun., 5th) Don't know if "CIFS" was the key (or a combination of everything I tried), but it seems that this solves currently my situation until Apple will come up with an official solution.

I will observe it and give an update if something changes

Br

-T

I have neglected to mention it, but I noticed that "media" sharing under Ventura 13.2 seems to operate normally, as expected. On my miniMac server under Ventura 13.2, I had one SSD for TM backups and a second SSD for files and media sharing. TM (Time Machine) ceased to function. File sharing ceased to function until I removed the custom icon. After that, it functioned until it didn't - which was pretty quickly. Permissions are completely open, no checking for ownership etc. This problem is more than a permissions issue. Even a quick, if uneducated, look at ALC (Access Control Links) showed nothing amiss. But, media sharing seems to be unaffected. Media, of course, are defined by "macOS Music" and "macOS TV", which used to be "iTunes". These media were accessed by my AppleTV device, connected by wifi to the miniMac server, without any issues. This is intriguing, since the media are stored on the same SSD as other shared documents with which I had been unable to connect properly with SMB (OS X). I do not know what protocol ensures media sharing. Is it something other than SMB?

I have since successfully downgraded my miniMac server, and only my miniMac server, to Monterey 12.6.1. Everything is now working normally.

Our network = 3 Macs, 1 AppleTV, 1 miniMac server (media, files, TM). The Macs are running Ventura 13.2. With the minMac on Ventura 13.2, SMB file sharing and TM sharing is next to impossible even after discarding custom icons. Media sharing, however, seems unaffected. I downgraded the miniMac server to Monterey 12.6.3. All problems were solved, with the exception of SMB file sharing between 2 Macs both running Ventura 13.2. I decided this morning to upgrade the miniMac to Ventura 13.1, the version it was running before all this nonsense started. Media, file, & TM shares are working normally as would be expected. One can only get a 13.2 install off the Apple Store. Nonetheless, the following link allows one to get the Ventura 13.1 installer, or even the Monterey installer :

https://www.iclarified.com/87836/where-to-download-macos-ventura

Seems like I had the same issue and (at least in my case) it was because of the firewall which seems to be very broken in Ventura. I think it is actually the new System Settings ui that just does not work properly. Even turning off the firewall in SS does not turn it off.

Try this in the terminal:

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

I have a solution that worked for me.

- login to host computer using screen sharing

- click "info icon" next to File Sharing on host computer

- click + icon. add desktop folder (or any folder in fact)

- click done

- click “connect as” from other mac and type login credentials (username and password of host)

- that should connect you to the desktop only of the host, now disconnect

- go back into screen sharing and remove desktop from list of folders shared (disconnect users with 0 time if you didn't do so already)

- click “connect as” again from other mac and this should bring up system wide sharing access.

Looks like doing this cycles the preferences blocking you from connecting in the first instance.

My environment: Mac mini M1 running macOs 13 and now 14

I tried all the tips listed here, none of them worked for me. It was very frustrated to see a feature I was relying on being broken on one system only and I wasted a lot of time trying to find a fix.

After updating to Sonoma yesterday, I was disappointed again to still get access denied while trying to connect via network file sharing...

So I spent more time online and finally found a post: Mounting SMB share on Monterey is rejected

with an answer from Ortwin Gentz which finally works for my network file sharing issue.

You need to add the user to the SMB service access control list (SACL) with this Apple Technote providing the details.

From Terminal, get the guid for the username:

   dscl /Search read /Users/<username> GeneratedUID

then add the user to the smb service with two commands:

   sudo dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_smb GroupMembership <username>

   sudo dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_smb GroupMembers <guid>

Et voila, network file sharing works again for my stubborn Mac mini M1. Don't ask me why I needed to do this manually, as mentioned by Ortwin, the Mac File Sharing window should do this automatically.

I hope this will work for you or maybe t least some of you, good luck.

I just got off the phone with Apple. The fix I used was this:

1. Shut down the effected Mac mini that was being used as the file server (not running server software).
2. Restart.
3. Turned File Sharing 'Off' on the Mac mini that was sharing the files.
4. Quit system settings (SS).
5. Restart the Mac mini again.
6. Turned File Sharing back 'On'
7. Quit SS
8. Went to each of the other 3 iMac's needing to share those files, and then was able to reconnect to the Mac mini as we always did.

Now everything is working as it should (for the last couple hours I should say—so far, so good).

I'm finding a lot of folks confused by this. Removing one custom icon is not a fix, you would have to remove every single one of them from the Volume or folder hierarchy being shared. If the top of your share has no custom icons, the sharing will appear to work. The moment you go to a sub-folder or anything that triggers the file sharing process to index the shared resource, it will stop working.

For the sake of potentially helping others, I'll keep mentioning the best bet at the moment is to create an empty folder on the host and share only that to the client to facilitate basic file exchange until Apple provides a fix.

My system now works perfectly !! I have one macBook M1, one iMac M1, and the miniMac M1 which acts as a file, media and backup server. I DOWNGRADED to Monterey 12.6.2, but only on the miniMac server. The macBook and iMac remain on Ventura 13.2. I booted the miniMac into recovery and erased the disc. The next step allowed me to reinstall Monterey, the OS with which it was delivered. After that, I recovered apps, settings and files from the last backup made just prior to installing Ventura 13.2, therefore under Ventura 13.1. With a bit of futzing and multiple reboots, it all came out OK. The only real problem was with the media libraries : Music & TV. The library catalogues have to be recreated under Monterey, as the OS will not read the catalogues created under Ventura. Once a new library (ie. catalogue) is created, then a massive import of the media allows Music & TV to repopulate the new library. Now my appleTV is functioning as before; file sharing and TM backups also. Lesson to be learned: I will not be upgrading my miniMac any time this century. As we say here sometimes: "If it's not broke, don't fix it".

Work-around:

(1) Look in the host Mac's System Settings > General > Sharing > File Sharing, with the setting turned ON, of course.

(2) Click the "i" information icon there. In the resulting pop-up window you should see something like "Other users can access shared folders on this computer...at smb://xx.xx.xx.xx" (where "xx.xx.xx.xx" os a specific address).

(3) On the guest Mac, open Safari and browse to that smb://xx.xx.xx.xx. You should get a dialog asking i it's OK to open Finder for that address.

(4) Do so!

Notes:

• File-sharing had been working OK for me with 13.2 on the host and 13.0 on the guest Mac. But as soon as I upgraded the guest to 13.2, file-sharing stopped working.
• I discovered this work-around while on a phone call to Apple Support, as the technician was investigating further.

The last Update to Version 13.2.1 solved our problems.

I tried it in a limited environment with just one shared folder and just two clients. All of them are on the version 13.2.1 and with 13.2 it hadn't worked. It's stable now for about 6 hours...

Will observe it with more functions like custom folders and more clients an give a reply.

Now that I've upgraded both host (Mac Studio) and guest (MacBook Air M1) to Ventural 13.2.1, still File Sharing does not work normally. However, the work-around I previously reported, namely, browsing to smb://xx.xx.xx.xx on the guest does work. (Here xx.xx.xx.xx is the address shown when you click the Information "i" icon in System Settings > General > Sharing > File Sharing.)

Let it never be said that "it just works!"

The only fix for now seems to be the downgrade to Ventura 13.1 on the server side. This is a real pain, I know. But when I actually did it, it was less difficult than I feared. You need a good backup; I always have two. The server's on board SSD disc needs to be wiped, which will lead to a reinstall of the system with which it was delivered, in my case Monterey. From the most recent backup (i.e. under Ventura 13.2), I recovered settings, applications and data towards the Monterey 12.3.6 server. I had a couple of issues with apps not loading, but traced it back to some incompatibilities between settings under different versions: Ventura settings running under Monterey. But a reinstallation of Monterey fixed those.

Some days later, I decided to upgrade the miniMac server to Ventura 13.1. All is still working normally.

No point going to Ventura 13.xx.xx until we are sure full network SMB functionality has been restored.

What worked for me - remove and re-add the folders you are sharing using settings panel, and make sure the "unknown users" with "custom" permissions is there. (Yes, it sounds horrible to keep this, but when removed my macs don't connect just like all the other comments, so it seems this is required.) No idea what that custom permission is doing, but it does enough magic to get everyone talking again. Ventura 13.2.1. 100% re-creatable problem that goes away with the "custom" permissions...

Have a client that is experiencing this, thanks to trying to fix an unrelated(?) Time Machine issue.

Original setup: 2020 iMac running 12.6 acting as Time Machine server and sharing several folders to another 2020 iMac and three late 2018 Mac minis running 12.6.3. Backups were wonky, updated to 12.6.3, still wonky, so upgraded to 13.2.1. Backups still wonky, and now file sharing hosed. Tried all the various suggestions in the various fora, but what seems to be working for the last two days was to force the iMac server to use SMB 1 by creating /etc/nsmb.conf with this content

[default]
protocol_vers_map=1

and to move the backups to the other iMac still on Monterey.

This is not ideal for them, but it seems to at least be working, and will hopefully remain so until a fix occurs.