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

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.

Im starting to think its to do with the 10 user limit, but cant work out who exactly accounts for those 10 users.

Bumping this because I have the same issue, which only started after Mountain Lion 10.8.1. I fail to see how stuff which worked fine prior to an update suddenly doesn't afterwards. It's a sure sign that the OS is getting too complicated.

Anyone any ideas?

Same issue here. Mini as file server with external time machine drive. In my case, was backing up but I cancelled b/c slowing down other network stuff. Started up a second time, which I cancelled. Then went to tranfer a file from MBAir to Mini but gave won't allow additional users error. Of course, now back up disk not available.

One note is that I did have to start a vpn session in the midst of this, but I'm pretty sure I've had this error without the vpn.

Btw, both MBAir and Mini running 10.8.1 Mountain Lion.

I think I have the exact same setup as ssorgs@, and getting this error pretty much every other day now. sometimes rebooting or tinkering with sharing settings(turning smb/afp settings on/off) on my mac mini appears to help for a while.

My MBA keeps asking me to authenticate to access my mac mini, and when I do I end up getting this no additional users error message. I only have 1 user at home, so how can i be getting this too many users connected message?

Same here! It's definitely ML because I didn't have this problem before. Considering going back to lion or even SL if I can't get a fix. Both my wife's and my computers rely on mini as an iTunes Media server, so not being able to authenticate defeats the purpose. I'm wondering if upgrading to OS X Server will solve this problem? I had posted this questions as well here is the link to it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4286123

I found this archived article https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1040031. Perhaps this is our problem. The clients or client are constantly logging off and on before the "server" can realize they have done so thus filling up the limit of users.

Bump... Me too.
Mac Mini running ML. External Drobo (storage and backup) and LaCie drive (DVR). From reading everyone's posts. I'm starting to think that it's the laptops I'm running. When they wake from sleep, the server drives will sometimes not be properly connected. With Lion I'd just remount the remote drives and it was ok. With ML, they may not be disengaging properly...

Do I really need to reboot my machine after my wife, daughter, and I open/close (sleep/wake) out laptops a total of ten times?

Ridonkulous. Fix it!

Testing:

Sleep/wake ten+ times on laptops.

Turning all sharing off/on

I upgraded to server. Seems to have done the trick.

Did you set up and open directory? What setup guide did you use?

I'm having the same issue—with the same setup—ever since moving to Mountain Lion.

I think this thread may contain some answers: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199488?start=15&tstart=0

I'm going to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist on my Mac Mini and see if it clears up the issue.

I've a similiar issue. Our small network uses a 10.5.8 MacPro to share an attached RAID. My new laptop is running ML. We started getting "can't connect too many users" errors after my upgrade.

running netstat - n | grep '.584' shows that my laptop is connected to the afp port 5 times when I've just used the finder to open up a folder on the shared RAID.

Based on other networking SNAFUs with ML, my hunch is when my machine wakes from sleep it reconnects to the sharepoint and creates a new connection without dropping the first.

When I've rebooted the machine that shares the RAID, which triggers the "You've been disconnect from the following shared drives" dialog box on my laptop it will show the RAID sharepoint 4-5 times. So I've mounted the drive that many times. As soon as I disconnect my ML from the shared RAID, others who were unable to connect can.

*****.

Try this:

1) Turn off Filesharing in System Prefs

2) Delete this preference file:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist

Note: This is the /Library in your main HD, not ~/Library

3) Turn Filesharing back on

The prefs file will be re-created and should set the max connections back to 10 allowing you to connect again.

We're having the same trouble over here but only after upgrading from 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion 10.8.1

Last week I did what cjcj suggested above and that worked for a while, but now the problem is back.

What is it about Mountain Lion that is aggregating these ghost "Logged In" users, that wasn't true with Snow Leopard (the last OS we were using to file share for our 3 users)? Never had this trouble before running the same number of users...

Any ideas?

Thanks folks!

I've got the same problem but it only started a couple weeks ago - about the time I upgraded to ML on my MacMini hub. OK, so the original post was August 21st and it's now October 31st - more than 2 months. Anyone at Apple working on these bugs or are they all spending their time scheming up the next nonsensical iOS feature with which to screw-up our desktops?