AFP/SMB Directory Listings very slow in Finder

I am having this problem to, as well as all my clients that have a Windows server. It's annyoing and very embarrassing.

I can connect from the same Mac from within Parallels/Fusion and directory listings are blazing fast! But from the Mac it's extremely slow...

I just reported this as a bug to Apple. They REALLY need to do something about this!

Yosemite is no better.

Apple do not appear to be addressing this issue, which I find incredible; considering this is such a fundamental function.

My files are hosted on a QNAP server, but it sounds like this is apperent on any server. I have tried AFP and SMB, forcing SMB 2.0 and 2.1, and I wait over 10 minutes to see files in Finder. Navigating the disctoriy at the command line is no problem. A windows client has no problem whatsoever (with SAMBA of course).

My machine is connected to the QNAP at gigabit, via a gigabit switch, it doesn't get much better than that!

@hwerk:

You didn't state it, but I'm assuming those sudo commands are to be run in a Terminal window.

So...I tried it. The very first one fails, stating:

"sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found"

What's the deal? Do I not have Samba 3.6 or later on my Snow Leopard box or something?

@KEPHSTER:

Nope...didn't make an ounce of difference for me. Any other ideas?

R,

Bill

Hi everyone.

I dont know if this may help, but this was our experience with AFP navigation in Mavericks and Yosemite.

We had the same problem in my work. Accessing by wifi to an AFP server was a nightmare but through Ethernet works fine.

after researching for a long time, we discovered that the problem was the WIFI encryption.

WPA/PSK are icompatible and gives much troubles with Mac OSX, now with WEP password all runs wery well.

Sorry for my english.

I hope that it will help us.

Regards

...now with WEP password all runs wery well.

Just be aware that a WEP password can be broken in less than a minute.

Basically WEP will keep honest people from accidentally connecting to your WiFi.

However, anyone that wants to access your WiFi network to capture your traffic, or just to use your broadband connection for free can easily do this will tools easily obtained on the internet.

As long as you know and understand this, WEP is fine. Like I said it is useful in keeping neighbors that do not want to accidentally connect to your network from having their computers connect anyway.

This has been a constant problem for me and a handful of clients ever since Mavericks. I thought that Yosemite would have fixed it, but I still have a client who suffers from it. AFP or SMB both work really great on the LAN, but connecting through VPN it is very slow to load folder contents. I know it is not a problem with the VPN because when I connect from iOS and use iFiles to browse AFP, every folder loads lightning fast.

In the effort to try something else, I turned on FTP sharing in OS X Server and the difference was night and day. Folders with many items were displaying in Finder noticeably faster than with AFP/SMB2/SMB3. It doesn't solve the issue with AFP/SMB, but it's a workable solution. I have also confirmed FTP being faster with another colleague of mine who ran a test on his client's OS X Server (Yosemite) and FTP was a night and day difference.

For now, FTP access will be my solution for slow remote file server access when using AFP/SMB.

thanks meng, been fighting with this and my router and firewalls for a while now!

Same problem here. Apple needs to address this issue ASAP.

I had the same problem with my new Macbook Pro running Yosemite (very slow listing of directories, especially with large amount of files in it), tried several things mentioned on this forum and others, including editing nsmb.conf, switching to smb1 etc, nothing worked. Eventually I set all the permissions straight on my NAS for all folders and subfolders. This solved it for me! Now browsing my QNAP shares is blazing fast again.

Could you please describe the steps you followed with this method? Thanks.

No fixes in El Capitan.

My experience:

Upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, super slow NAS.

Clean install back to Mountain Lion, blazing fast NAS

Re-ugrade to Mavericks, super slow

Upgrade to Yosemite, super slow

Upgrade to El Capitan, super slow

The only variable here is upgrading the OS.

Apple, can't you fix this. Used to see 30-50MB/s file transfer, now it's 2-5MB/s

agree with Mountain Lion working and anthing higher doesn't....

none of the suggested fixes worked for me either 😟

I have the same and just wold like to ask after some time if someone find solution in yosemite 10.10.5.

It is impossible to work on NAS when you are connected via PPTP VPN. I really spend on this issue many days but can't find solution. Nothing from this post work for me.

All other devices (iOS, Linux, Windows, Android) works amazing fast on same network and same VPN settings. Just only Mac is SOOO SUPER SLOW!

How do you fix it or are you all switch to windows when you are working outside of LAN? 😠 Any chance in OX X El Capitan?

After reading this thread it seems to me the well-known SMB problems in the Mac OS since 10.7 have actually obscured the original question, which was to do with slow folder access in Mavericks over VPN. We have VPN running on OS 10.9.5, Server 3.2.2. If you do a VPN connection from a Mac running 10.8, then connect via AFP to a shared folder, then open folders contained within it, the contents show quickly. If you connect from a Mac running 10.9 or 10.10 the contents of the contained folders are very very slow to show (but the top listing of folders is fine). So no SMB involved. As suggested it seems to be down to a change in the Finder from 10.9. I've tried Pathfinder as well and accessing the same folders over VPN is instantaneous.