Hi. I've had a MacBook Pro for years. Just bought a MacBook Air. Trying to share files between machines. Tried Sharing folders - other Mac appears in SHARED folder in finder, 'connection failed' appears when I click. Similar with Airdrop.

Try walking through the process here and see if it helps:

http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/sharing.html

It was written for Snow Leopard but the process appears to be much the same in Mavericks.

Roger,

I am having the same problem as zamoocher though I used to have a connection which now fails to operate. I too can connect from my laptop to my desktop but the opposite fails, even though I was doing this up until last week. I haven't installed any new software and I have been through the process you referred to (though I did not get the option referred to when I double clicked in (I think it was) step 7).

Please refer back to my instructions: http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/sharing.html

Having presumably been through steps 1-6 on all computers, try step 9, where you enter the afp:// path for the computer in question. What exactly happens when you do this? And what operating system are you using?

Roger,

I stumble at step 8. Everything is fine up till then. When I double click on the laptop it just comes up with the "connection failed" box. See screenshot.

Try going to step 7 to get the computer's name - (presumably 'Sandra's Laptop' but you may be shown code for the space and the apostrophe - it's better not to have those) and then skip step 8 and go to step 9 which is an alternative. If that doesn't work, get the IP number from the Network Preference Pane and try entering that.

I tried that and I get the attached response. The top one disappears after a minute and leaves the other. I also had tried it with the name (which does not contain any apostrophes).

I'm about out of ideas. You could try turning file sharing off on the Mac in question and turning it on again (perhaps after a reboot). Otherwise, this thread is in Mac OSX Server for some reason, which isn't the right place; you could try asking again in the forum appropriate to your operating system (whatever that is).

OK thanks anyway. I will give that a go. BTW I am using OS X 10.9.4 (13E28).

Hello again. I tried that with no luck. I have now plugged my backup drive in (USB) and it is also showing connection failed. All connections are accessible from the laptop but not the desktop. I have been looking around and tried some other approaches. I have disabled the smb and left afp and rebooted but no change. It is clearly a problem in this desktop and just showed up for no obvious reason. The firewall is off (but it is on on the laptop). I have removed all apostrophes. I would like to clear it and rebuild it but I can't backup the latest files to the time machine as the connection fails. I am at my wits end and am considering lugging both computers to the genius bar.

I also tried Go-Connect to Server on the finder menu and it shows all the connected items (backup and laptop) but still comes up with "connection failed" if I double click on them.

Could it be a problem in my router which somehow allows access one way but not the other?

I tried turning the wireless hub on and off, that didn't make any difference either.