Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Airport Extreme shared disk will not show on desktop.

I have an airport extreme 802.11n (7.6.4), with a 3TB drive attached via USB and shared "With device password".

I formatted the drive "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" attached directly via USB to my Mac, and then ejected and moved to the base station.


I have two computers:

- Apple Macbook Pro (Mavericks 10.9.5), with a bootcamp partition or Windows 7

- Windows 7 on a PC


From Windows 7 I can map a network drive and read/write files fine.


From the Mac; I open Finder -> on the sidebar (under Shared) select the base station -> Connect -> enter password ->click on shared drive:

- The share opens fine, but does not get listed as a device in the sidebar, or on the desktop. (In my Finder preferences, for "Show these items", I have everything checked under both General and Sidebar.

- If I close the Finder window that is showing me the share, and repeat the above steps to open the folder again, I receive the error: "The operation can't be completed because the original item for "External" can't be found"

- If I open terminal, and run "mount", I see the share mounted with //Username@hostname.afpovertcp._tcp.local/External on /Volumes/External (afpfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by username)

- If I umount /Volumes/External in terminal, and then reopen the share using the above steps, the share window appears fine.

- If I umount again, and then instead of the above steps, I command-k (In finder) -> Server Address: smb://192.168.1.254/External, The share window opens, an icon appears on the desktop, and a PC looking icon appears in the sidebar.


To attempt to fix this, I have tried (including multiple reboots of the Mac, base station, and un-mapping of the drive on Windows 7):


- Deleting any associated keys for the base station from the keystore, and reconnecting.

- Rebooting the base station, and drive enclosure.

- Disconnecting the drive from the base station and connecting directly to the Mac. The drive does not show in the sidebar, or create an icon on the desktop. I then ran a Verify Disk, from disk utility, which completed with no errors.

- I deleted all file and folders, including any hidden files or folders via terminal

- Ran a verify disk, and repair permissions on the Mac OS disk; also tried to modify directory permissions of the /Volumes/External Directory. When mounted via AFP, /Volumes is 777 with extended attributes of com.apple.FinderInfo (owned by root:admin), and /Volumes/External is 700 with extended attributes of com.apple.FinderInfo (owned by my username:staff). I tried to chmod 755 and then 777 /Volumes/External. The permissions of both directories are the same whether mounted via AFP or SMB.


Finally:

- I left the drive connected via USB, and used disk utility to erase the drive (1 partition ), and the the drive immediately showed up on the desktop.

- I ejected, connected to the base station, and mounted with sidebar, via AFP. Icon appeared in sidebar, and desktop.

- I remapped drive on Windows 7, and used robocopy to copy back the 1.7TB or data back to the drive. The Mac still showed the desktop icon fine.

- I rebooted the Mac, and it reverts back to the old behavior of not showing any icons.

- I did a complete reinstall (booted off of install media, erase partition, formatted, installed and patched Mavericks on the Mac), but this made no difference.



At all times, I can read/write files to/from the drive and Mac while mounted via AFP.

When I dismount the drive and remount via AFP, nothing except "sharingd: dnssd_clientstub DNSSerivceRefDeallocate called with invalid DNSServiceRef 0x7fc96b4cbcc0 FFF0007 DDDDDDDD" is logged in the console application. (I have tried to change the base station name, to no avail)


This is a small inconvenience (except for the fact that it won't allow me to use this shared drive for time machine), but is also driving me crazy. I cannot be sure, but I feel like this issue started around the time that I installed Windows 7 via bootcamp.

AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Mar 29, 2016 6:24 PM

Reply
8 replies

May 3, 2016 9:52 AM in response to btk_

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.


Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.


Isolating an issue by using another user account


If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode


Safe Mode - Mavericks

You could also try removing the Boot Camp partition to see if that helps.

May 3, 2016 7:33 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for responding Eric. As you suggested, I tried:

- Creating a completely new user -> Command-K -> Mount AFP share. No desktop icon or icon in Finder sidebar.

- Booting to safe mode - > Command-K > Mount AFP share. No desktop icon or icon in Finder sidebar.

- Reboot back to normal mode - > Command-K > Mount AFP share. No desktop icon or icon in Finder sidebar.


I can still read and write to the drive via AFP, but the OS just doesn't show it on the desktop / sidebar, or an available time machine drive.


Previously, I also completely reloaded the Mac, deleted and erased all partitions, fresh install from USB(no bootcamp). Still no dice, until, as before, I connected the drive directly to the Mac and erased completely with disk utility (HFS Journaled).

After that the AFP share worked for a few days, but then stopped again.

I was thinking:

- The Windows machine added some weird files that tripped up the Mac OS, but did a complete delete via terminal (including any hidden files)

- It had something to do with a Mavericks update, but it doesn't line up. After a complete fresh install, I still had to reformat the drive.


I tried a neighbor's iMac with El' Capitan, Exact same thing.


All give me the same results; after a reformat, it will work for a few days, then stop showing up on desktop when mounted via AFP.

Mounting via SMB shows me the desktop icon fine, and I can read and write fine, but Time Machine won't use SMB drives.


I'm starting to think it's not the Mac, but maybe the Airport / drive, or enclosure that I am plugging into the Airport....

If I get some spare $$$, I might try a new Airport and borrow a new drive + enclosure.


Went to Genius Bar, dude was like hmm, never seen that before, you should buy the latest Time Capsule and Mavericks is really old... Not going to pay $400 or $3000 for something that had been working for years.


The only non-Apple software on the machine is Clean My Mac 2, which if i get the energy, I will reinstall Mavericks, and not install that software. Could be screwing up something (even though I just installed it and never ran it / maybe a scheduled cleanup or something kicked off when I wasn't watching)

Argh! driving me crazy... Now it's not about the functionality, it's about solving this puzzle...

May 4, 2016 6:59 AM in response to btk_

Never install Clean my mac or any other type of cleaning app. They are not needed just search these forums. Try this - mount the disk you have on the AE - once mounted drag it to your login items in users and groups. It will auto mount when you log in also a window will the contents will launch on your desktop at startup.

May 4, 2016 6:02 PM in response to Community User

First, thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.


> Never install Clean my mac or any other type of cleaning app.

I actually find this application useful, not for any type of general cleaning scans, but for uninstalling software. Much like Windows, the package management system on Mac OS X, does not do a good job of enforcing cleanup of many of the files created by third party applications. Examples of those files are application support files in ~/Library/Application Support, caches in ~/Library/Caches, Plugins, Library files in both ~/Library and /Library, preferences in ~/Library/Preferences, preference panes, etc.

If you would like to see this behavior for yourself, install software using the drag from .dmg to /Applications and run it, such as Chrome, drag Chrome to the trash, and then open terminal and look through those directories and you will see many leftover files that serve no purpose. This can also be seen by installing applications that are distributed via the .pkg format. If the developer of the application is good, they can include an uninstaller which may or may not remove unneeded files when run; but that is not enforced in any way. Their are some loose rules about cleanup when publishing applications to consumers via the Apple Application Store, but not every application a typical user installs is going to come from the App Store.

Compare this to package management software of some quality such as RPM, dpkg, or the BSD ports, and you will soon understand why Mac OS X's package management is very widely considered by administrators, engineers, or even advanced users, to be pretty poor.


> They are not needed just search these forums.

Of course they are not absolutely required, I can dig through all the possible directories where an application can store files and delete them manually, but "needed" is a relative term, because I don't feel like doing that every time I try out a piece of software and decide not to keep it. I could also just leave a bunch of unneeded files laying around my file system as well, but it can and has caused problems for me in the past. One piece of software was nice enough to leave a system level startup item in place, which ran a binary that contained a symbolic link to a library file that no longer existed. I had to repair my system by booting into safe mode and deleting the startup item via sudo, as the normal boot hung.


So, erm, anybody that tells you that there is absolutely no use for any cleaning app on Mac OS X (or that you must purchase one), should quickly be ignored, as they know not what they speak of. As a piece of advice, I would advise that you don't perpetuate this myth, as it's simply not true, "needed", is relative. That's like saying a web browser is never needed; as long as you don't want to look at web pages.


Either way, it was completely irrelevant, as I've already mentioned that I tried my AE and disk with my friends iMac, which doesn't have Clean My Mac installed. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it as a data point, but did so out of frustration and to show that I don't have a bunch of third party applications installed that could account for this behavior.


> once mounted drag it to your login items in users and groups.

Drag what? That's the entire point of my post. Once mounted via AFP, using any available method, CMD-K in Finder or, clicking on the AE in the sidebar and opening the folder, or the terminal, no icon representing the disk every appears anywhere. There is nothing to drag. Also, if my goal was to simply have the drive mount during login, there are quite a few more technically correct methods to do this. Research autofs, if you are interested.

If I mount the disk using SMB via any of the mentioned methods, the disk icon appears everywhere it should, but time machine will not use a disk mounted via SMB. The root of my problem is that neither Finder, nor time machine, which most likely relies on Finder, recognizes the fact that my disk is mounted, even though the underlying OS does, as it is listed as mounted and is accessible via terminal.

macbook-wired:~ username$ mount

/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)

devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)

map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)

map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

/dev/disk1s2 on /Users/username (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, nobrowse)

localhost:/yIW1A8bQrMM6-Ha7gHB4Kp on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)

/dev/disk2s2 on /Users/username (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, nobrowse)

//First%20Last@192.168.1.254/External on /Volumes/External (afpfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by username)

Airport Extreme shared disk will not show on desktop.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.