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Level 1

16 points

this file server will not allow any additional users to log on

Hi,

I have a Mac mini, running Mountain lion, which acts as a central hub to my multiple approx 5 others macs at home.

It has been used as a central data store and time machine backup point.

With external drives shared over the network via this hub, the other Macs can access and back up using time machine. This has been working pefectly for a while, however in the last month, possibly since I upgraded to Mountain lion, the remote computers (the ones that are backingf up to the mac mini), have all begun to display the following error message:

"this file server will not allow any additional users to log on:

Restarting the Mac Mini sometimes helps, and backups resume, byt eventually the same error messages appear and backups cease to contine.

Im hoping for some help.

many Thanks

Alastair

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 21, 2012 6:47 AM

Best reply

LinusCMH

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Apr 7, 2017 8:02 AM

I know this is an old thread, but I just ran into this issue and was pulling my hair out to fix it. I finally figured out what was going on, and for me, it seems to be a different solution to those proposed. I thought posting it might help someone else.

The issue for me began when I pulled an old router out of retirement to serve as a gateway. (Basically, I'm only using it to expand the number of physical Ethernet points available in my family room.) What I didn't realize was that even though I'd reset the old router to its factory defaults, it assigned an IP address to itself by default. I assign all my IP addresses through my NEW router, and so the IP address that the OLD router had assigned itself was conflicting with another IP address that my NEW router had assigned to another piece of equipment on the network. When I changed the self-assigned IP address on the OLD router to a vacant IP address (which I also told my NEW router to reserve for the OLD router), the problem went away. At least, so far, so good. If you're getting this error, look for conflicting IP addresses on your network. If there are any, the conflict might be the problem.

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51 replies

TheDude

Level 1

5 points

Oct 31, 2012 7:59 PM in response to sodajerk847

lol... agreed. Painful and stupid.

Nov 1, 2012 9:02 AM in response to TheDude

All I know is that upgrading to server solved the issue for me. It seems to be an issue with the number of connections that didn't exist prior to upgrading to mountain lion.

suter

Level 1

0 points

Nov 1, 2012 9:28 AM in response to aliriddle

I refuse to upgrade to server to fix a bug—especially since the server app is largely just a fancy configuration front-end. So, I decided to take a closer look at /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist.

There is one very interesting property: idleDisconnectOnOff. By default, this is set to NO. I've set it to YES since the recurring theme on this thread is that disconnects don't seem to be reducing that count toward 10 maximum connections.

I "too many users" hasn't reappeared since... but maybe it is coincidence. Anyone else want to give this a shot?

Also, I've uploaded by current com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist from a non-server Mac OS. Could someone with server upload theirs as well... I'm curious is some of these other settings get modified as part of the install.

Nov 7, 2012 11:29 AM in response to suter

I decided to try changing idleDisconnectOnOff to YES (on the Mac I connect to) and so far it seems to have solved the problem for me as well. That makes sense—it seems like the problem was that old connections were hanging around, not being used, but still counting toward the limit. Since those connections are idle, disconnecting should free up the slots so they're not counted toward the maximum.

Clearly there's a bug somewhere, as this shouldn't be necessary, but hopefully this will be a good workaround until its fixed. So far I haven't noticed any unwanted side effects.

Nov 8, 2012 4:58 PM in response to robotspacer

sorry, but how do you change the dleDisconnectOnOff to YES ?

Regards

Nov 8, 2012 5:19 PM in response to robertogarcia

Open Terminal, paste this (all on one line), and press return:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff -bool YES

You'll be asked to enter your password. If you want to change it back:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff -bool NO

TheDude

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2012 8:22 PM in response to sodajerk847

I'll report back what I find... Anyone else try this? I understand that it may take a while to properly test this out...

we'll see!

nc_wes

Level 1

5 points

Nov 27, 2012 6:20 AM in response to TheDude

Been recently having the issue myself. Trying the idleDisconnect patch as well.

Nov 30, 2012 7:54 PM in response to nc_wes

I sure hope this works. I have a couple of Macs that backup to a third Mac w/Drobo and ATV media and since ML I keep having to reset the file sharing on the third Mac due to this error. After a few days, Time Machine will no longer work and when I try to connect I get the "not allow any more users" error. There is only 2 users in the house!!!!!

Apple - Please fix this

nc_wes

Level 1

5 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:29 PM in response to nc_wes

So far so good. It was happening constantly on my Wife's iMac but has yet to resurface since changing the Idledisconnect. Did have to reboot the "server" MacPro after making the change probably to free up the connections.

hijinx13

Level 1

10 points

Dec 8, 2012 7:53 AM in response to robotspacer

I have been having the same issue. Backup disk not available when backing up my MBAir to an external disk on my MacPro. I was first getting the backup disk was unavailable and then got the connection (10 users) error a few days later.

I had thought I may have fixed the issue by using my Full Name instead of my shortname but it must have been a coincedence because the problem came back. After using the above sudo command and restarting the backup started again. Will monitor and check back if the problem comes back.

Thanks for the help.

Dec 8, 2012 8:13 AM in response to robotspacer

I've had this issue since upgrading our household computers to ML with most computers experiencing intermitent failed Time Machine back-ups to a Drobo, connected to a MacMini that we use as a media server. Took your suggestion and changed the idle setting via Terminal this morning and voila. So far so good with two computers having successful TM back-ups for the first time in days. Thank you for your helpful advice.

nc_wes

Level 1

5 points

Dec 14, 2012 3:55 PM in response to nc_wes

Over two weeks and haven't seen issue again. The idledisconnect appears to be working.

suter

Level 1

0 points

Dec 14, 2012 4:02 PM in response to nc_wes

Nice. I'm glad this fix is working for everyone.

As I mentioned in my post, I'd love it if someone with OS X Server could post their plist. I doubt Apple swaps out AFS with OS X, so it might have something to do with the way it configures file sharing.

Dec 16, 2012 6:47 AM in response to robotspacer

Thanks for the tip.

Open Terminal, paste this (all on one line), and press return:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff -bool YES

It worked for me when deleting the preference file did not.

this file server will not allow any additional users to log on