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FTP No Longer works in High Sierra?

I use a Bizhub C250 and updated to High Sierra. It is now impossible to connect over FTP for scanning.


This is a big expensive scanner I use for my business and everything has come to halt until this is fixed. Why in the world did they remove FTP from the OS? Is there some way that I can get it back?


Has anyone else encountered this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, LATE 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12.3), 32gb Ram, 3tb

Posted on Oct 2, 2017 12:24 AM

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Posted on Oct 19, 2017 11:10 AM

Yes there is a small trick, we had to do lots of troubleshooting as well, but it is a very simple thing.


When you set the Server Root, you are choosing a folder on your computer to store the FTP transfers.


BUT


If you go to your scanner and choose the root folder for the FTP transfer of your scan, it will not arrive.

That is because the scanner is looking for a folder INSIDE the root folder, but the root folder is empty. So, my setup is:


The root folder is called "Scanner" and I chose that folder in the FTP app as the Server Root. In that folder on my computer, I put a folder called "scans". This is where the scans will go.


On the scanner, you need to setup FTP using the correct port like you did in the app, then you need to choose where the files will be sent. This is where you set the folder as /ServerRoot/FolderName


for me it was: ~/scanner/scans


Hopefully that helps!

22 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 19, 2017 11:10 AM in response to jirifromzurich

Yes there is a small trick, we had to do lots of troubleshooting as well, but it is a very simple thing.


When you set the Server Root, you are choosing a folder on your computer to store the FTP transfers.


BUT


If you go to your scanner and choose the root folder for the FTP transfer of your scan, it will not arrive.

That is because the scanner is looking for a folder INSIDE the root folder, but the root folder is empty. So, my setup is:


The root folder is called "Scanner" and I chose that folder in the FTP app as the Server Root. In that folder on my computer, I put a folder called "scans". This is where the scans will go.


On the scanner, you need to setup FTP using the correct port like you did in the app, then you need to choose where the files will be sent. This is where you set the folder as /ServerRoot/FolderName


for me it was: ~/scanner/scans


Hopefully that helps!

Nov 5, 2017 6:48 PM in response to Tim Quinlan

The FTP app did the trick for me as well. But there was one wrinkle in setting the root folder. On my Dell MFP 3115cn, it turned out to be necessary only to put the full root directory in the app. When I tried to put anything about the root directory in the scanner itself, the error log reported that the two directories had been aggregated. [In terms of the example above, the system was looking for the path RootDirectory/RootDirectory/Foldername.] As a result, the path did not exist. When I simply left the Server path blank in the scanner, everything worked like a charm. Kudos to the FTP app developer!

Nov 15, 2017 8:27 AM in response to cmurc

Well the information above certainly helped me out, even though I had to sift it a bit to apply to my setup in High Sierra.

I have a networked Epson WF-5620, and my Mac at network address 192.168.10.150.

I set up FTP Server.app to point to /Users/MyAccountName/Desktop as the Server root and left the default port at 2121.

I created a folder called "Scans"(no quotes), on my desktop.

I set up a contact on the Epson using my account details and pointing to ftp://192.168.10.150/Scans/ and port 2121, in Passive mode.


All good 🙂

Dec 1, 2017 7:51 AM in response to Tim Quinlan

I have a Kyocera TASKalfa 2551ci multi function machine. I have been using FTP for many years and no problems. Unfortunately, FTP is no longer supported with High Sierra. I tried the suggestion of downloading the 3rd party FTP software but could not get it to configure with my Kyocera. I then spoke with the Technical Service at Kyocera and they told me the best option was to use SMB. In the past SMB did not work with my machine and my mac but now does. Here is how I set it up:

On my mac, System Preferences/Sharing then check file sharing, then click options and make sure you check "Share Files and folders using SMB" click done. That should bring you back to the screen with a "Shared Flolders" column. Click the plus sign and then add the folder that you want to scan to. Note: on the sharing screen under computer name you will see the official name of your computer. You will need this exact name for setting up your scanner "host name"

On my Kyocera under machine address book i add a new entry and then enter the info under the SMB section:

Host Name: is the exact computer name from the mac

Port: I don't think it matters but the default on mine was "445"

Path is the folder name and mine is: Scans

Login is the username and password you use to login to your computer.


Hope this is helpful!

Dec 28, 2017 9:49 PM in response to ryancatering

I have a beautiful old $15,000 dollar Fujixerox Document Centre printer complete with A4 / A3 scanning and printing. Worked a treat until the other day when Apple decided that FTP was no longer worth holding on to. I have spent the last few hours trying to get SMB to work but no combination of guesses gets the documents through to my server.


The cruel thing for me is that on my computer, I can easily enter an address and get the shared folder where documents used to be stored to come up.


I cannot see any alternative but to ditch the latest OS "upgrade" from Apple and go back to a version of the Server Software that actually had all the familiar protocols in place, like "File Serving" and "FTP". Still valid protocols and for me, could go on working forever.


There is an old saying: If it aint broke, don't fix it. Apple just can't resist the temptation to fiddle with things that are not broken and in the name of progress, break them.


Do you have any ideas about how to get the SMB to actually work?

Dec 29, 2017 5:41 AM in response to Peter Marsh

The alternative is to not "ditch the latest OS upgrade from Apple" and apply some of the solutions above. I have successfully got Kyocera and Epson network printers working fine on High Sierra, both through FTP (with the third party application) and natively with SMB, so there are working solutions if you care to take the time to find them. My solution to SMB was more or less here, but I still had to tweak it a bit. I guess it depends on your printer and network setup…

Dec 29, 2017 6:31 AM in response to Charles Houghton-Webb

Dear Charles,


Thanks for getting back to me. I did try to convert to SMB but no matter what combination of entries I made on my printer, I could not get anything to work. I suspect that the SMB protocol itself on my printer, which has not had any firmware upgrades for 10 years is now out of date and cannot handle modern SMB tasks. There is no way I can see how I can upgrade the firmware on the printer as the manufacturer no longer supports this model, but would gladly take another $15,000 from me to replace my nearly perfect old one. It's only failing is that it has only run through 35,000 pages, around 5% of its anticipated life cycle!


I downloaded an FTP software package and installed it on my server and after 20 minutes got it working. Nice.


Now I can get on with doing work rather than wasting time trying to come to terms with the latest thing Apple has decided to make redundant. I just wish they would talk to some long term users and ask about these major decisions before taking a boardroom executive decision about ageing features. Sure, security is perhaps the reason behind this but I would prefer to be given a chance to balance the relative merits of a theoretical security breach and the frustration of having to ditch a perfectly good machine in order to keep up with someone else's idea of "ideal".


The update software cost $5.00 and the Apple technician struggled to make any impact despite an international call lasting around an hour and a half. It's nice to have a chat but better not to need one in the first place.


The software I used was called FTP Server from langui.net


Cheers

Dec 29, 2017 7:05 AM in response to Peter Marsh

This is the FTP software that I am using. It works flawlessly for me, once I got the settings right. The set-up for me was :

• Create a folder to receive the scans - I created a "Scans" folder on my desktop.

• Go to the System preferences/Sharing and make sure file sharing is on and that "Scans" figures amongst the shared folders with your user having read/write privileges. Others can be Write only (DropBox) if required.

• On my printer, set up an FTP contact pointing to ftp://192.168.xxx.xxx/Scans/ (the address of my computer) and port 2121 in passive mode.

• In the FTP server app, point "Server root:" to /Users/your user name/Desktop (no final slash) and port 2121. I left "Anonymous:" at Read & Write. Other settings to taste 😉. Make sure the FTP server is running.


This is my working setup for an Epson Workforce Pro WF-5620 printer/scanner.

I have two Kyocera Copier/Printers also working with this, although I can't confirm that the settings are exactly the same as they are not on my local network, and I can't access them from where I am at the moment.


Hope this can help you out in some way 🙂

Jan 18, 2018 10:18 AM in response to Charles Houghton-Webb

You guys rule.:) this solved my problem with scanning on my Konica Minolta Bizhub 253 on MacOS 10.13 . thank you so much. I tried with no luck for 2 days to setup scan over SMB. but FTP work now and I can scan. thank you so much. If anyone knows how i could scan to my My Cloud EX2 Ultrait would be great. So i can access the scan files from anywhere.

Jan 19, 2018 1:31 AM in response to Danga2233

Hi All


I came across this thread after updating to 10.13.2 to discover the very helpful disabling of FTP by Apple and the issue of being able to scan via FTP to our Canon IR C3525i. I tried the FTP Scanner App, using some of the suggestions above, but just couldn't get to work. After pulling my hair out for a couple of hours, I decided to try SMB. I also tried setting up the connection using the Control Panel on the printer itself and was able to make a connection to the Macs by browsing and, would you believe it, a scan appeared on the Desktop/Scans folder!


I saved this entry in the address book and went into the Printers Web Management page on the Mac to check out what settings it had given it. The Hostname was taken from the Mac's Sharing name in System Preferences, with 2 backslashes before and backslashes used for the path:


Host name - \\DOMENICOS-IMAC\scans


This folder was actually on the Desktop, odd that I didn't have to put the full path in...


Folder path was left empty


Username and password as Mac username and password


On Mac sharing, enabled SMB


Went through and did this for all Macs in office and all worked AOK, apart from the last 2 of course. After some more hair pulling, discovered that if you rename the Mac in Sharing prefs and then amend it on the printer, it goes through!


Thought I would add this to the post in case it helps someone else, might save their hair.

Feb 6, 2018 11:25 PM in response to Ogletree

Dear Ogletree,


That is sage advice but there is a catch. If you only have one of anything, it is a bit hard to try things out on a sacrificial machine as a test run. Your advice is spot on but not necessarily practical. It would have been better to carefully study the wording that comes with every update and look for problems likely to happen. Unfortunately, I do not have that much time to study all that comes my way and put it to a test. Not many others would either I suspect.


Another thing, you only notice the absence of mission critical features if you are using it in a mission critical role. Meaning, you would never notice the feature missing if you install on a sacrificial machine because you will not go through every combination and permutation of useful tasks to which the machine is put to. That happens when you use it.


When I ran a computer software company I released trial versions of software updates to clients and closely monitored its behaviour. Any bugs or unexpected consequences were identified, reported, reprogrammed and resolved as quickly as possible. That takes time but no end of testing in an artificial test environment unearths the sort of problems a real live user does. They do the darnedest things, something a tester would not think of doing.


What I object to is an arbitrary decision to axe a feature that is doing nobody any harm and not knowing about it. It's called informed consent.


I've moved on, I have my third party ftp server running and I can happily use my old scanner again, no problems.


Cheers and keep smiling.

FTP No Longer works in High Sierra?

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