There was a problem connecting to the server "my_server"

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Level 1

4 points

There was a problem connecting to the server "my_server"

At one time, a long time ago, I had a mount for "my_server/Our_Pictures" set up. Now, whenever I try to do something like, say, change the background image on my desktop, I'm presented with a message saying "There was a problem connecting to the server "my_server"". I click the "Ok" button, the dialog goes away but about 30 seconds later it's back. And it keps coming back every time I dismiss it until I reboot the machine. I've looked around trying to find any reference to that mount but I can't find it anywhere. Not Go -> Connect to server -> Recent servers, not anywhere in the file system, not in my login items (again, it only happens when I try to navigate somewhere in finder when, say, setting a background image for example), nowhere.

Looking at the messages that show up in Console.app, I see :

9/16/12 6:28:51.418 PM NetAuthSysAgent[22600]: smb_mount: mount failed to my_server/Our_Pictures, syserr = No such file or directory

So basically, I have two questions :

1) How can I prevent this fromm happening in the future? Where is the reference to this server so that I can delete it

2) If 1) above is not possible for whatever reason, how can I make it so that it doesn't keep trying to connect?

thnx,

Christoph

Posted on Sep 16, 2012 4:00 PM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 16, 2012 4:10 PM in response to jcboget

Can you reproduce this behavior in a new user or in your Guest Account?

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Answer 2

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2012 4:18 PM in response to macjack

No, it seems to be specific to my account.

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 16, 2012 4:30 PM in response to jcboget

NetAuthAgent (NetAuthAgent.app)

NetAuthAgent initiates network logins for both SMB and AFP volumes. NetAuthAgent also launches an application called check_afp that is responsible for receiving messages from the server (among other things).

Let's try the quick & easy first...

Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose "Library"

The go to Preferences folder and find com.apple.NetAuthAgent.plist.

Delete that file, then restart and test.

Did that help?

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Answer 4

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2012 4:43 PM in response to macjack

I'll try it but I think that might be my issue. I catted out the contents of that file and it looks that that has a reference to the share. I wonder why that file wasn't found in my earlier attempts. I've just plain grepped, I've tried "sudo find . -type f -exec grep -l "my_server" {} \;" and a couple of other commands.

In any case, I nuked the file and am going to reboot now.

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 5

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2012 5:12 PM in response to jcboget

Ok, now it's doing something different. Instead of giving me the above error, now I'm presented with a dialog saying:erver"

"Enter your name and password for the server "my_server"

Connect as: Guest

Registered User

Remember this password"

No matter how many times I click "Cancel", the dialog comes back and asks me again. I just really wish that it would stop asking. Do you have any other things I can try?

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 6

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2012 5:15 PM in response to jcboget

Opening up console, I don't see the NetAuthSysAgent error messages for this latest attempt so something else is trying to get me to log in to that (old, deactivated) server.

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 7

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 16, 2012 6:12 PM in response to jcboget

Might try ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkUtility.plist

mv to Desktop and restart.

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 16, 2012 6:17 PM in response to jcboget

There's an alias to a file that was on the server in the folder containing your Desktop pictures. Enter the string "kind:alias" (without the quotes) in a Spotlight search.

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Answer 9

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2012 6:33 PM in response to macjack

When I cat out ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkUtility.plist, I see no reference to my_server.

Entering kind:alias in to spotlight finds nothing.

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 16, 2012 6:55 PM in response to jcboget

Look in the folder with the Desktop pictures.

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Answer 11

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 17, 2012 2:13 AM in response to Linc Davis

No symbolic links in those directories to my_server. In fact, about a month ago, I consolidated all my pictures on to my other machine and now I have perhaps 3 dozen left in my ~/Pictures diretory and/or it's sub-directories. The only symbolic link there is one for iChat icons (iChat Icons -> /Library/Application Support/Apple/iChat Icons/).

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 17, 2012 6:04 AM in response to jcboget

Symbolic links are irrelevant.

Launch the Preview application and select Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks from the menu bar. Delete any bookmarks that refer to the server.

Also see this link:

Troubleshooting: Connection Failed, Server Does Not Exist

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Answer 13

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 21, 2012 4:45 PM in response to Linc Davis

There are no bookmarks set up in Preview. I ended up deleting my iPhoto library and I think that solved my issue. At least, I stopped getting prompted after I deleted it. I just verified -- I put the iPhoto Library file back in to my ~/Pictures directory and when I went in to change my background I was prompted to connect. So I'm curous, why is sytem preferences looking at/for my iPhoto Library?

thnx,
Christoph

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 21, 2012 5:23 PM in response to jcboget

The Desktop preference pane reads the iPhoto library.

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Answer 15

jcboget Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 21, 2012 5:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

Well, I guess my issue is solved then. It's kind of annoying that it does this but at least I now know *why* it's happening. Thanks to everyone for their help. I definitely appreciate it!

thnx,
Christoph

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