After upgrading to OS27 yesterday I can no longer connect to our server.
I get the following message
"There is a problem connecting to the server.
ULR's with the type "afp:" are not supported."
Mac Studio, macOS 27.0
Correct. The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) has been fully deprecated and it is not supported by macOS Golden Gate. AFP was actually fully deprecated in Sequoia, client-side support was not dropped from macOS until now, with Golden Gate.
All server connections must now be handled by SMB, which has been the industry standard for many years.
Sorry, but your server admin should have migrated a long time ago. AFP on the server side was eliminated with Big Sur, 6 years ago.
See this, for example:
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/05/15/check-your-network-backups-and-shares-as-afp-is-being-removed/
Correct. The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) has been fully deprecated and it is not supported by macOS Golden Gate. AFP was actually fully deprecated in Sequoia, client-side support was not dropped from macOS until now, with Golden Gate.
All server connections must now be handled by SMB, which has been the industry standard for many years.
Sorry, but your server admin should have migrated a long time ago. AFP on the server side was eliminated with Big Sur, 6 years ago.
See this, for example:
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/05/15/check-your-network-backups-and-shares-as-afp-is-being-removed/
Unfortunately I did not see any advance notice from Apple re: removing client side AFP from OS 27. My NAS has been using AFP for the past 6 years with no issue. Given that my NAS is where I store critical business data, it would have been nice to have the removal of AFP support prominently displayed when (or preferably before) I updated to OS27...
Apple Tech Support was not aware of the issue when I spent 3 hours troubleshooting connectivity with them. They obviously were not aware that client side AFP protocol support had been removed either.
I reconfigured my systems to use SMB and fixed the issue myself - just wish I had not had to lose 2 business days doing so.
My MAC defaulted to AFP…. Not my NAS. Additionally, in Finder my MAC still recognizes the incoming AFP connection request from my NAS…. It was only after I turned off AFP as a service on my NAS that my Mac no longer saw the AFP connection.
As I noted before, not well documented by Apple.
AFP is no longer supported by Apple. Support for it has been removed completely from macOS 27.
Not sure why you think VPN has anything to do with it...
AFP (Apple File Protocol) is no longer supported at all. The protocol has been removed entirely from macos27.
You will not be able to access an AFP based share.
In other words, communication……..
What's new for enterprise in macOS Sequoia - Apple Support
Communicated.
This deprecation process all started in 2013, as AFP existed largely for Time Capsule support, and the related deprecations all started to get notices back then.
2013: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/apple-abandons-afp.2042/
2013: https://www.afp548.com/2013/06/11/shttps://sixcolors.com/link/2025/05/end-of-time-for-a
2013: “Rather than maintaining both AFP and SMBX in parallel, Apple is now consolidating its future efforts in its own implementation of Microsoft's SMB2 protocol. Macs running OS X 10.9 Mavericks will use SMB2 as their default file sharing protocol when connecting to each other or to PCs running Windows Vista, 7 or 8.”
Then with the lack of APFS compatibility for AFP…
2017: https://9to5mac.com/2016/06/13/apple-file-system-apfs/
2017: Time Machine Over SMB Specification The end of Time Capsule, and the start of third-party Time Machine targets.
More recently, these discussions among many others…
2025: https://vdaluz.com/blog/afs-smb-time-machine-backup-deprecation
2025: https://vdaluz.com/blog/afs-vs-smb-technical-deep-dive
2025: https://tidbits.com/2025/05/23/afp-support-disappearing-another-nail-in-the-time-capsule-coffin/
2025: https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/10/time-machines-time-capsule-support-ends-with-macos-27
2025: https://sixcolors.com/link/2025/05/end-of-time-for-afp-and-time-capsule/
etc.
As part of the end of Time Capsule:
tr001od wrote:
My MAC defaulted to AFP…. Not my NAS. .
That's because you configured your NAS to advertise AFP. You should have correctly configured it to use SMB.
Unfortunately I did not see any advance notice from Apple re: removing client side AFP from OS 27. My NAS has been using AFP for the past 6 years with no issue.
Apple switched to SMB about 12 years ago (Mavericks). Your NAS user’s guide should have advised you to not use AFP when you set it up. There has never been a time in the life of your NAS that AFP was the primary network protocol on macOS.
Had I known or been informed by Apple they were removing support for AFP I would have done so…. Even their tech support staff were unaware it had happened as evidenced by the length of time I was on the phone with them. As I noted in my original post I fixed the issue myself by enabling SMB. Lastly, if AFP was truly 100% deprecated in code, the OS should not recognize a call made using that protocol. A simple error message stating AFP was no longer supported with a link to a tech note informing users to switch to SMB would have saved me hours. In other words, communication……..
Of course I did, as did everyone else paying attention. In fact "a future version of macOS" was widely accepted to be the subsequent macOS version, when in fact its removal turned out to be postponed. Though deprecated, AFP support remained viable for two full macOS versions, and was not completely removed until now. That amount of advance notice is more than what Apple usually provides.
One would think a manufacturer of NAS devices would have been paying better attention than the mere end users on this site.
I’m having SMB issues after updating as well. iPad Pro M5 with iPadOS 27 connecting to a M4 MacBook Air with MacOS 27. I can connect, but can’t view desktop, documents, downloads, or external drives attached to the Mac. I tried restarting the Mac with no success. I get the same result when connecting from an iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 27.
Sequoia was released 2 years ago. That is not exactly effective communication is it. Thanks for the advance notice, but where is the communication that is being removed from OS27 ? I did not see any, did you?
tr001od wrote:
Sequoia was released 2 years ago. That is not exactly effective communication is it. Thanks for the advance notice, but where is the communication that is being removed from OS27 ? I did not see any, did you?
Why don't you just accept the fact that AFP will no longer work and focus on moving on? We know you don't agree with the change or your perceived lack of communication. But technology changes and there is no value in focusing on the past.
Thanks for the history. Unfortunately I was not using AFP in 2013 so it was not relevant to me. I do not subscribe to other Mac blogs so I have never seen the discussions you mention. What I am referring to is communication by Apple to its user base. Not everyone is a tech guru or involved in Mac blogs/discussion groups. I just find it astonishing that a brand like Apple would remove support for its own legacy protocol without a communications plan to ensure no one gets impacted by the change.
Cannot connect to server after OS27 upgrade due to unsupported AFP URLs
