In my Finder sidebar, I have a set of volumes and machines listed in "Locations". That's handy. But not all the machines in my network are shown there. Why not? How do I take a machine from my network and add to
Locations?
iMac, OS X 10.11
Finder menu's -> Preferences -> Sidebar section of preferences, has checked off items that appear in the sidebar. If you miss a check, it won't appear there. You can add actual files and folders only the to the Favorites section of the sidebar directly. Groupings such as Locations are for you to find items such as your Connected Servers, Bonjour computers (those found through the IPSec standard of discovery over WiFi), Cloud storage such as ICloud and OneDrive, and Dropbox will all appear in the Locations. Locations are like grouped shortcuts for various types of items. and you select a group, it will show those temporary items that are mounted.
Not sure what I was thinking. I thought you were seeing them in Network and wanted to drag them into Locations.
Any file server that is advertising itself via Bonjour should show up in Locations.
It's possible to remove items from that list by dragging them out.
If you go to Finder Settings, Sidebar as directed before, the checkbox will not be solid. You have to de-select and then select to bring them back. If it is solid, then it isn't seeing those machines as file servers.
If they are not advertising file sharing services via Bonjour, they don't show up in Locations. I've seen servers drop in and out, so it may be a network issue, possibly the server sleeping.
There also seems to be an age-out from the list. They don't disappear immediately when it doesn't see them.
finder menu -> Preferences -> Sidebar and check Connected servers under locations.
So if network machines need to be advertising file sharing services via Bonjour, exactly how do I set them up to do that?
If they are a Mac, they should be doing so automatically when you turn on File Sharing. Apple used to have Bonjour software for Windows, but I'm not sure if it is needed.
In the Network pane, my servers NEVER drop in and out.
Not in Network, but in Locations.
I was just looking for a utility, and this one https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adiungo/id1327638605?mt=12 seems to fit the bill, although does it from the menubar.
How do I take a machine from my network and add to Locations?
A "machine" on your Network is not a share. It is a server advertising that it has shares to share.
When you mount a Share, you can place it in Locations.
Then it is an interface issue with the design of locations. Locations are designed to be individual subcategories within locations. You can make an alias/shortcut on the desktop to a location selected, and put them in their own folder, but there is no way to copy those shortcuts into the Finder Sidebar in Monterey (the system i have). You can once shortcuted to the desktop, copy them to the Dock's folder section to quickly navigate to them.
I have machines listed in my Locations list that are NOT connected. If they are connected, I disconnect them, and they're still there in Locations. I select them in Locations, and then they will connect. So it's not that simple.
I just think Locations is a convenient way to select a server, whether mounted or not. So how does a server manage to get listed there? Yes, it is clear that if it is connected, it will appear there. But evidently it doesn't need to be connected in order to do so. Quite confusing.
The best understanding of Apple's intent comes from their knowledgebase:
Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support
Are you running El Capitan as your signature shows, or Monterey which is this forum, or Ventura?
If the intent does not match expectations and you are running Ventura, you can always follow their unsolicited feedback policy on http://www.apple.com/feedback/
or give more detailed feedback by joining their developer team free and submit bug reports:
http://developer.apple.com/
http://bugreporter.apple.com/
Please note the development feedback is isolated to the the development bugreporter page and can not be shared on Apple Support Communities what you learn there until it is part of the official release and end users can approach it.
Thanks, but that doesn't clearly pertain to my question. The Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support is about which network you're connected to, as in wifi or Ethernet. That's network setting locations. I'm talking about individual machines or disk volumes, which are listed under Location in the Finder sidebar. Now I can always just select Network in the Locations sidebar, and see everyone on my local network, but it would be handy to have them all displayed explicitly in the sidebar. That is, when you select Network in the Locations sidebar, you aren't choosing which network you're using. You're choosing what's on the network you're using.
These computers are all on my local network. I can see all of them if I click on Network in Locations on the Finder sidebar. My question is, if they appear there, why don't they appear in Locations on my Finder sidebar directly? If I click on one that is in my Locations list, it will say "Connecting ...", which means that it was not connected when it was in the Locations list.
There could be some network latency issues. You would really need to have someone evaluate the settings on the shared computers, and make sure they are all properly setup to be visible on the client machine.
There are no latency issues. All computers on my local network ARE visble on the client machine, and I can easily connect to them from the client machine, like I said, but they are not listed in Locations on the client machine. They are visible in Network, which is, itself, in Locations.
Sorry. That doesn't tell me what Locations in the Finder sidebar is FOR. Monterey is somehow copying some of my network machines to that Locations list in the sidebar (and not copying others). Why can't I?
My main question was - what is Locations in the Finder sidebar, and why do machines/devices/disks show up there? (Because if I know that, I'll have a clue on how to put them there!)
FWIW, my High Sierra machine doesn't seem to have Locations in the Finder sidebar. It has, instead, a bunch of other stuff, like Shared and Devices. "Connected servers" and "Bonjour computers" show up in "Shared" on High Sierra. They show up in "Locations" in Monterey.
putting computers in Locations?
