I recently added an external SSD to my router to use as network attached storage. It took me less than 2 minutes to map the NAS on my Windows pc. Inexplicable, the same task on my MacBook is neither intuitive or simple. In fact, I have no idea how to accomplish this task on my Mac. I hope someone else has been done this road before. If so, your help connecting to my new NAS would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!
Umrk
I keep checking my OP in hopes that a reply will help me connect to my new NAS. Obviously, there isn't a simple fix for this simple problem. So much for Apple's elegant OS. Really, why is such a simple task so frustratingly difficult?
How do I get my MacBook to recognize my NAS?
Is this SSD that you connected to the router connected to the router's USB port or the router's Ethernet port? There is a huge difference to the two options.
What is the exact make & model of this SSD? Can you provide a link to its product page?
Thank you for taking the time to reply. The NAS is a 1 Tb SanDisk (WD) Extreme Portable SSD sandisk-extreme-pro-usb-3-2-ssd connected to the USB (3.0) port on my ASUS GT-AC5300. Since Apple was one of the first to incorporate plug and play, I expected mapping this drive would be simpler than doing the same on my Windows pc. Astonishingly, the exact opposite is true.
I cannot understand why this is even an issue with Apple machines. Judging by the dearth of responses to my question, it's obvious that Apple really &*^$% up mapping to external drives. If anyone knows how to map an external SSD on a MacBook Pro, your help would be greatly appreciated.
Umrk
Ok, thanks for confirming the setup. This is not really a NAS, but more of a shared drive scenario.
I forgot to ask if you are even able to access the USB shared drive from macOS or whether it is just an issue of having an icon/link to it handy in the Finder.
On macOS you should be able to connect to this USB shared drive by clicking on the Finder's "Go" menu and select "Connect to Server....". Start by typing "smb://" and add the address name or IP address the router gives for the connected USB drive. It may even be possible to click the "Browse" button, but usually it is much easier to just use the address of the router & drive.
Sometimes it may be possible to browse the local network devices/drives within the Finder by clicking the Finder's "Go" menu and selecting the "Network" option which will list some local network devices found.
If you want to always have the shared drive mounted when you log in, then you need to add it to your Login Items. You do this by dragging & dropping the mounted network volume onto the Login Items section of the System Preferences/Settings. You may also need to enable "Connected Servers" in the Finder's General Preferences/Settings so it shows an icon on the Desktop. There is a separate option to configure what is shown on the Finder's sidebar as well.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, HWTech. I
essentially gave up on adding access to this drive to my Macbook. I thought I’d
try again, hence my late reply.
Your instructions would work great if I could even see
this HD. I had no problem finding it on my PC. But on the Macbook Pro, this
drive remains "invisible."
So, any ideas on finding this drive would be appreciated.
Be sure you have set IPv6 to 'Link-local only' on (at least) your main internet interface.
if the above is just 'word-salad' post back and I and others can explain.
in Finder:
Finder > Go Menu > Go to server > (Browse)
... the 'Network' icon should show locally available drives and other Macs and Servers on your network
.
Why is it so difficult to connect to a NAS attached to my router?
