Ventura 13.2 File Sharing broken

@cactusgoeswest

your are absolutely right and we all should be aware to do so.

But meanwhile we need feasible solutions, workarounds etc.

Specially small business companies who use standard file sharing for daily business cannot wait.

First two weeks we shared files via mail and sticks it was horrible ...

Finally I set up an old mac with Monterey ... beside the workaround that works for me. Mentioned it above.

Cross your 🫰🏼to get a fix of Apple very soon

Br

-T

I completely agree. I'm a business owner myself and have come to rely on the MacOs file sharing feature for some of my workflow. This is most definitely a huge inconvenience. None of the other methods mentioned in this forum have been a reliable permanent solution and I don't plan on reverting back to Monterey anytime soon. Hopefully Apple fixes this asap

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.

I have exactly the same issue. I have file sharing turned on on my iMac and when I try to connect to it on my MacBook Air it times out when trying to load the drives connected to the iMac as well as the iMac itself. Major issue! I hope Apple fixes this soon. It worked on MacOS 13.1 but NOT after upgrading to MacOS 13.2.

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

This is interesting. I have always gone through Finder to connect to a server. Going through Safari opens an authentification dialogue box and offers a choice of which folder to access. I would be interested to know if it also permits TM (Time Machine) backup shares. I have already downgraded our server to Ventura 13.1, so I am not in a position to test it. I presume that a reboot on a server running Ventura 13.2 would require another set of authentifications.

If this is the case, then the problem may lie with authentifications being lost by the server for known clients which, bizarrely, was not a problem under Ventura 13.1. So it is not so much a permissions issues, as an authentification issue.

Me too at this point. I am hoping when Apple does fix this they announce the fix so we can switch back to our normal setup.

Sharing our external HD off an old iMac (2009)is making it slow over the network, probably because it is only TB2 and not TB3 connection like it was connected to my Mac Studio.

The sharing via explicit smb URL is still working for me, after turning off File Sharing on the host and shutting down the guest yesterday, then today restarting the guest,and turning on File Sharing on the host. (Both running macOS Ventura 13.2.)

I confirm the bad news. I upgraded one iMac to 13.2.1 and defined on it a test folder in sharing. I gave the folder a custom icon. It was impossible to connect. Behaviour seems unchanged, although this is not a thorough test. Nonetheless, it is probable that nothing has been resolved regarding broken SMB networking. As they say, "if you break it, you own it". Apple engineers own this.

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.

All our equipment is Apple Silicon M1. I have upgraded a macBook and an iMac to 13.2.1. I have created a shared test folder on the iMac. I have given it a custom icon. When I attempt to connect to the iMac "server" from the macBook "client" through Finder, the result is failure. Finder freezes. A full reboot of the macBook is required. This is the same behaviour as before with Ventura 13.2. Nothing new here.

SMB file sharing remains dysfunctional. This feature was broken by Apple between 13.1 and 13.2. They own it.

Suggestion: For those trying to add the custom icon, can you not do that and see if it still does not work. This will take one factor out of the issue to simplify the testing procedure.

I do not use a custom icon and continue to have the issue.

My tests have not been exhaustive, but I have tried using 13.2 with and without custom icons. My experience has been that, with a custom icon, there is never a connection to the client. However, the host seems to acknowledge a connection. Without a custom icon, there is a connection. But, it seems that after a certain period of time, the connection becomes unstable.

I am also unsure about the connection to backup SMBs (Time Machine). Backups had been regular every night to our miniMac server, until Ventura 13.2. Then they stopped completely. I have not tested a Ventura 13.2 client backing up (TM) to a Ventura 13.2 host destination folder that does not have a custom icon. That would be worth testing.

13.2.1 has NOT solved file sharing issues for me unfortunately. I'm running an M1 Ultra Mac Studio as my main machine and I have an M1 Macbook Pro.

Today after restarting my Mac Studio I was able to access Mac Studio files from my Macbook Pro. But when I tried to connect from my Macbook Pro to an external drive that is plugged into the Mac Studio, I'm able to mount the external drive to my desktop. But when I click on it and try to access any files from the external drive, finder just says "loading" and never actually loads anything from the drive. I've also had finder completely freeze up, causing me to force quit finder. Then finder never reloads so I have to hold the power button down and restart.

All of that to say 13.2.1 does not contain the file sharing fix that I was hoping for in a MacOs update. Then again, the release notes Apple provided were extremely vague with the usual "Bug fixed and security updates".

Anyone in this thread have any ideas how we can get Apple to fix this ASAP besides calling and leaving feedback? I have talked to upper level tech support and they just say they are reporting it to the developers. But no solid answer when this will be fixed. I, like others, thought the very quickly released 13.2.1 update would contain the fix.

Is there a better place to complain? Does Apple even look at these discussions?