autofs not working properly now!

I finally did update my work machine to Sierra. Even though Apple has removed the autofs documentation, it still seems to work for me. But it is important to note that I am using a machine bound to a Windows domain and using my Active Directory account to access file servers. This particular organization seems to handle Active Directory and Macs better than I have ever seen it done elsewhere. What this means is that if you have a supported and functional network environment, autofs does still work.

I have this problem too. Apple, imo, is going downhill fast. Oh well, I'll stop. After months of trying different possible solutions such as reducing the number of automount volumes from two to one and also increasing the automount timeout (which I believe works to a certain extent), I am now trying the default settings (w/ the standard 300 second timeout) but have added a launchd agent to touch a file on the mount every 290 seconds or so.

I don't like doing this for several reasons but I thought I'd give it a try just to see if it works. Will report back w/ my findings.

Hello Linium,

That does not sound like correct behaviour of autofs. I mean your description of how it used to work. Autofs is designed to mount on demand and automatically unmount after a while. Running sudo automount -vc should not remount anything. You would have to go into mapped folder to do that.

Can you describe how your autofs is configured?

Hello again Linium,

I'm impressed. Those instructions are correct. What happens if you navigate to the /mnt/NAS folder?

Are you using a Synology NAS? If you aren't what brand of NAS are you using? Are you mounting the NAS on your Mac using AFP (afp:/....) or SMB (smb:/...)?

AFP is broken in Mac OS X Sierra I've already contacted Applecare and I opened a ticket. I also opened one with Synology.

See this forum post: https://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=122975

If you are using AFP you'll see errors for your NAS volume in the Console logs on your Mac. They popped up when I tried to access my Photos and iTunes libraries. Complete and utter disaster.

Due to this and other problems I'm considering dumping the whole NAS scenario and going back to directly attached storage. I'm pretty angry about this latest quality fiasco with Apple. SIGH!!!

Linium wrote:

Yes its a Synology 1815+. Ive always used SMB as AFP is just not reliable. Ive rolled back to 10.11 El Capitan and all is well again. Autofs works great when apple doesn't break it.

To be clear... App developers have plenty of time to make their apps work in a new OS X - it is up to the app developer to update their app to adapt to any new routines - whether by complying or working-around.

My problem with AFP vs. SMB is this below. See the two folders in the upper right corners? SMB on the left AFP on the right. Since I've always used AFP if I switch to SMB I'll have files and/or folders with names that are all screwed up which could be a big huge mess.

My bad - 1st cuppa coffee and I musta thought I was replying to another post (I do that from email notices!)

No excuse though! 😊

If you haven't already, you and all your friends (especially those in this thread) should

Contact Apple Support - AND - file a "bug report" from the menu choice on the form found following this path > Product Feedback - Apple

Linium wrote:

The shares disappear from the mnt/nas folde. This is new behaviour since sierra.

But they never should have been there to begin with.

When you use autofs, everything is mounted on-demand. When you navigate to a mount point, the icon in the title bar will start out with a white generic icon, there will be no content, and a spinner in the lower right corner. Then the title bar icon will change to a folder and the window will populate with the contents of the share.