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

I tried this tip and verified it was set properly. But I still have the same issue, even after restarting. I even bought a new Macbook Pro and started with a clean copy of Mountain Lion with a new user account!

This computer acts as a file server for Time Machine backups and runs iTunes continously for the Apple TVs in the house. I also have AirVideo Server running on it. I still get Time Machine errors on my other computers as soon as 1 day after resetting the file sharing, and they are unable to connect (The file server will not allow any more connections).

How do you check to see how many connections are being made?

I will have to see if disabling AirVideo Server helps, but the wife will be upset 🙂

Hmm...

You can check the number of connected users under System Preferences / Sharing / File Sharing / Options, but I have a sneaking suspicion that that number is wildly inaccurate. It will often report 1 or 2 connected users, but complain of "too many users".

This issue is only related to AFP (file sharing), so you should have no problem sharing iTunes, AirVideo, etc. as they use different protocols. Time Machine, however, does use AFP, so it makes sense that it is complaining.

You may want to try turning off file sharing / turning it on after you changed the plist file.

Good news is you can safely leave AirVideo on... so at least your wife won't be upset. 🙂

When Time Machine complains, I pull the Server up on Screen Sharing and turn file sharing off then back on, and all is well again for awhile. You are right - it usually says there are only 2 connected users. The change to the plist made no difference. I never had this problem back in the Leopard days. Right now I am making sure the server keeps a static IP address internally in case that is causing the issue.

I'm still having issues as well… In fact, It took multiple reboots just to get the machines to reconnect yesterday. I'm going to switch everything back to the stock code, and then start watching error logs for something else to try.... Again.

C'mon apple! The Mini is a sweet media machine!

returned it to "NO"

shut off sharing and deleted the plist file again.

in Sharing/Options, Added SMB sharing (already had AFP) and ticked each user (adding passwords).

crossing fingers...

Thanks trinityavatar. This worked for me.

So I read the forum and tried the idledisconnectonoff setting but after a couple of days i would get the same error again. I read that

netstat - n | grep '.584'

would show connections and indeed there were 8 or 9 connections already that do not show in system preferences/sharing. It turned out the connections were from my apple tv. I switched it on/off but connections remained. I then realised that my mac mini was sharing my Itunes library. When I switched library sharing off, all connections were dropped. Re-sharing the library and play some music did not create new connections.

I don't know what is going on here, but i'm going to keep an eye on this. The things is, it kept the connections active so changing idledisconnectonoff did not have any effect.

Hope this helps

Like you, setting idleDisconnectOnOff to true did not prove to be a permanent fix. I also share my iTunes library via homesharing. I'll investigate to see if this is the root of my problem.

I continue to have this problem every couple weeks and this is the fix for me:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer maxConnections 10

Enter your password when asked and go to System Prefs and stop and start Appleshare in the Sharing System Preferences pane.

No files to delete and no restart necessary.

maxConnections is already set to 10 for me. I believe that's the default.

For what it's worth I continue to not have problems since I tried the idleDisconnectOnOff "fix". It's also worth noting that there may be multiple causes for this error.

Stop iTunes sharing didn't solve the problem. Only thing i can think of is that it may have started when i connected a usb disk to my mac mini. The mac mini backs up to it and so does my macbook. So when this error occurs i can't back up from the macbook. Now there's only one user connected, I don't understand anymore.

I have the same problem. Mac mini with external drive attached for Time Machine that also serves iTunes content stored on a different external drive. The Mac mini backups work just fine because it's local. My MacBook & MacBook Pro backups work for about a day before the afp connections fail. Turning File Sharing off and on in System Preferences on the mini fixes it for another day...

The permanent fix out there seems to be installing OS X Server. The server does not have the 10 max connection limit, so the issue might actually still be present but the symptoms don't show because of this.

Anyway, I just updated to 10.8.3, so lets hope it resolves the issue. I'll post back. If it doesn't work I'll try to work out some sort of automated script to restart File Sharing periodically.

10.8.3 appears to have fixed the issue. It's been 5 days and time machine hasn't failed yet.

Sure wish I knew about this problem before I upgraded my Mini to ML a few weeks ago. It was quite happy on Lion, acting as a file, media, and backup server. Now my MBA keeps having this issue when it's trying to backup. Not every time, but soon enough it acts up.

I'm going to try the fix suggested, but it looks like this really doesn't fix the issue long term. Beginning to think about going back to Lion, but wanted to get all my machines on the same OS!

I tried the fix as suggested on the first page, but it didn't help. I found elsewhere the same command except it used "true" instead of "yes". I did this a few days ago and so far I've had no trouble with my MBA connecting to my mini to backup. So this is what I ended up with:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff true