Unable to connect to network share devices

The Time Machine backup is for "just in case" you need to restore something if it comes to that. There are some subtleties about this that I don't know very well, so perhaps it's time to start another thread about the proper way to do a fresh install of sierra so that you don't loose any of your files in /Users/ tree and yet get new versions of all the macOS Sierra stuff. There is a very good Time Machine resource at http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html which I encourage looking over before undertaking the fresh install.

Good luck...

Just to be more clear - what is the "network drive" you're having problems with? Is it a NAS type device or a drive on another computer (Windows or Mac) or what?? Could something have changed on it's end, like username or password or something else like it's IP or ??? If it's a NAS device have you checked with vendor to see about if they know about any Sierra issues or have some suggestions?

I came across a couple of things about SMB problems when Sierra developer edition first came out last summer that talked about permissions differences with SIP that was causing problems - basically the permissions of the /Volumes folder had changed and writes were no longer allowed by anyone other than "root" without some hokey commands that had to be repeated frequently with a cron job.

Just for grins how about disabling SIP and seeing if all your SMB problems go away? You need to boot up in Recovery mode and issue the command "csrutil disable" (no quotes) in a Terminal window. This isn't a solution - just want to eliminate a possibility. If it does or doesn't work suggest turning SIP back on with the "csrutil enable" in Recovery mode when you finish the test.

Also take a look at this thread:

After updating to Sierra, Mac won't connect to ReadyNAS device

Maybe it will help?

Good luck...

Just for grins try doing from a newly created test account to make sure it's something with the macOS or something in your login account. Go to System Preferences and select Users & Groups and then click the padlock if it's locked and enter your password and then click the + at the bottom left of the list of users to add another. Then login as the new user and see if the SMB issue goes away -- after clicking the "Options" in Sharing System Preferences and the "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)" checkbox as well as the correct account name in the list.

Good luck...

Well the fact that the SMB devices appear in your list of shared devices means they are reachable from your system but the fact that you get a failure to connect would seem like an authentication problem to me (incorrect username or password). Can you get to these shared devices from any other computer? Can you try the "Connect As" button and enter your username and password directly in case the info in the keychain stuff might have gotten hosed (don't let the system fill in the Name and Password fields automatically).

Good luck...

What happens if you try to use the "Go" menu command in Finder and select "Connect to Server" and enter the IP address 192.168.1.81 in the "Server Address" field and click the Connect button? Is the 192.168.1.81 the correct address for the network drive you're trying to connect to? If not change to whatever is the correct IP address.

You should get a dialog box with fields for username and password as well as the "Guest" or "Registered User" and the latter should be selected. You need to enter a valid username and password and then see what happens. Either some sort of error message or success or ??

Good luck...

Whoa -- something is very weird. What is your path?

set | grep -i path

csrutil should be in /usr/bin -- what do you get from this:

/usr/bin/csrutil status

Does that give "System Integrity Protection status: enabled"??

If yes then

/usr/bin/csrutil disable

If that doesn't work (you need to reboot after), then you must be booting from the wrong recovery partition (do you have more than one version of OS installed on your system). Something is really messed up if this doesn't work.

What do you from this (still booted in recovery mode):

find -x / -ls | wc

I get 46276 lines for the "find" command, not 44462. Very surprising difference for the Recovery boot volume but some of that might be due to different install methods (mine was a clean install on a new external disk not an upgrade - what's the history of your Sierra upgrade? From what version before Sierra?) or different hardware models and who knows what else. Mine is a MacBook Pro 6,2 model (mid-2010)

The problem appears to be with the Recovery volume not the Sierra boot volume - well for this problem with missing "csrutil" program anyway. Were there any hiccups or errors or funny unexcited things that happened when you did the Sierra install?

Anyway, something very strange seems to be going on. Just for curiosity what does this give you (when booted from regular sierra volume):

diskutil list

If it really has only one Recovery partition and given that there is something missing there, then I think I have to agree with you that a fresh install might be in order. Backup everything and verify it's good beforehand and best of luck. If you download the current Sierra installer, I think it should be the equivalent of 10.12.3 - this will save you having to use the original Sierra install and then installing the 10.12.3 update.

Don't bother with the "csrutil" but instead see if the new Sierra install works out of the "box" with your SMB mounts.

Do you have AppleCare on the system? If so you might want to check with Apple and see how in the world the csrutil (and who knows what else) is missing from the Recovery partition?

Good luck...

Hi, I have the same problem. I use a Mac laptop and we also have a windows desktop plus a shared drive where all our documents, photos etc are saved. Until a few months ago I could always see the shared drive listed on the left. I suddenly got the 'unable to connect' message as mentioned above. I upgraded to Sierra to see if that would help - it didn't. Finally got access through the 'connect as' method and wasn't prompted for a password. Every time I shut down the computer the connection was lost but it was easy to access it again. However, the latest time I restarted I was prompted to give a password or connect as guest. The username does not match my Apple ID so that password didn't work, neither did the password I use to get into the laptop. When I connected as guest I could see my folders but zero contents. I now can't access any of my files and have no idea what to do next.