Hi folks,
Anyone know why when copying files from a Mac to a Wintel server via SMB, this protocol strips the files of its metadata? We get no file association and the files have generic icons even when accessing these same files via AFP. Really bad!
Not quite sure which question you're asking, so...
Microsoft Windows doesn't support resource forks, which means that either the metadata is stripped off, or that some tool has to capture and preserve that data alongside the file data.
As for file extensions and if you're looking at the files from Windows, those can probably be added into whatever Windows is using as its mapping for icons. In the latter case, maybe this or this helps?
If I've misinterpreted your question, could you provide a few more details around file types and copy operations, and how and which clients — Windows or macOS — are accessing the file?
If this is about storage on Windows Server, a forum targeting Windows Server implementations might help with this?
This question doesn't seem to be related to XServe hardware, and — given the age of the XServe hardware and the XServe RAID storage gear — this is a pretty low-traffic forum; not a whole lot of folks are going to see this question here. If not better in a Windows Server forum, there are some server-specific forums here that might be a better spot if you're hosting the file on a macOS server.
Apple have largely moved to AFP for more recent releases, so — if you're not already — upgrading clients to macOS Sierra might help here if that's supported on the particular Macs involved, too.
Hi! It said 'xServes and Servers' so we figured we could start here. 'Servers' kind of gave us the impression it meant both. Win and Mac. But to chop this down a bit more, essentially what we're trying to figure out is, why when we copy mass amounts of data, from a Mac using the SMB protocol to connect and copy, when we hop on another Mac to view the same files we just copied, we see these file in a generic UNIX based format. Not with the fancy icons matching it's file association to Word, InDesign, Quark, etc... We double click a file from the server on the Mac and it asks us what we want to do with it. Even thought the file name has the proper extension. What's stripping the files of its metadata? This SMB protocol? And why? We're spending a lot of money keeping AFP in place on our Wintel servers.
Okay, You're asking a question about macOS and Microsoft Windows and SMB and AFP and icons that get displayed. You're asking specifically about why accessing files via AFP differs from using SMB. There are apparently also Windows or Windows Server systems involved here. There may be Windows clients here, and there are multiple macOS clients involved.
SMB is the default file sharing protocol on recent macOS versions, and it is supported on older versions. OS X 10.9 Mavericks and later default to SMB, and fall back to using AFP.
macOS also supports AFP, though that is no longer the default file sharing protocol on current versions.
Windows and Windows Server does not support AFP.
Windows and Windows Server support for SMB has been a moving target too, and I'd recommend running Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 over there. They've made updates to SMB, fixed some nasty bugs, and plugged some security holes not the least of which was the entire SMB1 implementation.
Okay, now along to my confusion...
What I don't know here is what macOS and Windows and maybe Windows Server and also the software versions in use on each of these — which combinations — are in use. You've been clear that AFP works and SMB doesn't, but not if everything — on the client and on the file server — is running current versions.
I'm not sure where the testing with AFP is arising; whether there's a second file server around, or if you're using AFP on a macOS client — Mac to Mac, rather than Mac to that Windows or Windows Server system — or if the file server itself is a Mac running Server.app or running the older OS X Server software configuration and you're toggling between SMB and AFP there.
If you're on recent versions of macOS, then I'd expect that copying files around will work and that the different Mac clients will show the expected icons across all SMB and AFP servers connected. Which means this is probably worth a call to the Apple support folks. If however you're running an older versions of OS X, see if upgrading a couple of the Mac clients to current — preferably to macOS 10.12 Sierra — works as expected across the clients. Apple Support will almost certainly ask you to upgrade to current macOS software, too, so — if that upgrade doesn't work — that upgrade will still skip a step when you talk to the folks Apple Support.
SMB and Mac file resource forks
