High Sierra 10.13.3 File Sharing Issue "Connection Failed"

Ditto. Senior advisor at Apple suggested this fix: Sharing mac = X, Accessing mac = Y:

1. Delete all previous users/fileshares, etc.

2. Create a new fileshare/folder - wherever whatever you like

3. On mac X, create a new user for 'Sharing Only' - not standard, not Admin...

4. After user created, specifically add the new sharing user to far right column with Admin/Everyone, etc.- and make sure they have R/W access (they do not by default)

4. Go to Mac Y - there is the sharepoint, no need to add credentials - one sees mac X and the folder desired. Solved for me.

I have an interesting situation with File Sharing between a Macbook Pro with High Sierra APFS and a Mac Mini with Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) formatted Mac OS Extended (journaled). Let's call the first Sierra and the second Tiger.

With both SMB and AFP enabled in File Sharing Options on Sierra and Personal File Sharing and Apple Remote Desktop enabled on Tiger, I can connect -- with full control and Screen Sharing -- from Sierra to Tiger through afp:// . From Tiger I can log in as a Sierra registered user but the connection is not completed properly and this is the screen that comes up.

On Sierra, the startup disk and Home folder as selected as shared volumes but nothing shows here.

This happens every time.

Have tried all kinds of steps but it makes no difference. These include setting up a Sharing Only user on Sierra, running legacy launchctl commands for disabling and enabling AppleFileServer and SMB, Repair file sharing after Security Update 2017-001 for macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 - Apple Support, disabling System Integrating Protection, but attempts to connect from Tiger always end up as above.

It really does not make much difference as I can move files either way through the Sierra connection.

Maybe Mojave will fix it, but better not hold your breath.

I am also unable to connect via file sharing.

I have an iMac and a MBP, both running 10.13.4.

• Both are able to connect to the other using Screen Sharing and ssh.
• iMac is able to connect to MBP through File Sharing.
• However, MBP is unable to connect to iMac via File Sharing.

Both Macs have identical settings in the Sharing preference pane.

When I try to connect from the MBP to the iMac, the credentials dialog simply jiggles when I try to authenticate. It throws no error nor gives any clue as to why I am unable to connect. The same thing occurs if I try to connect using my Apple ID. I have attempted to peruse the iMac logs for a clue, but nothing was evident.

I have tried:

• SMB and AFP
• connecting through "Connect As" in Finder and using Go > Connect to Server...
• creating a new user
• sudo /usr/libexec/configureLocalKDC

Today, I did a full reinstall of 10.13.4 on both Macs. It did not resolve the issue. (I installed 10.13.4 on top of the existing OS.)

I'm at my wit's end.

Having this issue as well.

• Mac Book Air (MBA) is able to access shares on the iMac, but not vice versa ('Connection Failed').
• Mac Mini can see shares on the iMac, but not on the MBA ('Connection Failed').
• iMac can not see shares on the MBA or the Mini ('Connection Failed').
• All three machines can access shares on my Synology NAS.

All three can screen share with one another. All three are on the same subnet, the MBA is connected via WiFi and the iMac and Mini are both wired. All three Macs are fully patched 10.13.6. I don't have SMB enabled on any of the machines (NAS included), only AFP.

I disabled SMB on all machines in an attempt to resolve an issue where I was continually having to Force Quit finder to reconnect to shares.

I tried adding Share-only users and that made no difference.

Ran out of time to edit apparently, to clarify what does and does not work:

• The MacBook Air (MBA) is able to access shares on my iMac, but not on my Mac Mini (Connection Refused).
• The iMac is not able to access shares on either the MBA or the Mini (Connection Refused).
• The Mini is able to access shares on the iMac, but not on the MBA (Connection Refused).
• All three machines can access shares on my Synology NAS.

I only get the 'Connection Refused' message if I enter a username and password that is valid on the machine that I'm attempting to 'Connect As' to.

This is amazing to me. Apple broke file sharing with their security update to 10.13.1. I am running 10.13.3 (and I have applied the "fix" that Apple recommended to 10.13.1), but to no avail. I cannot believe that an operating system vendor could release software that breaks file sharing. This is such a fundamental piece of functionality. Geez - coming from a *nix background, you would thing that the Apple quality assurance folks would catch this type of as part of the most basis test harness. I am amazed that Apple would release such crap!

Also

Here is what I have found.

Login as a non-privileged user (e.g. security best practices to control elevation of privilege). Open the system preferences and select "sharing" - this locks up and you must force-quit system preferences. Login as an administrator, and you are able to open "sharing" from the system preferences.

This sounds like Apple is only testing things as root - if so, that is mind blowing...

Now this is interesting...

1) login as a normal user on machine X

2) try to connect from machine Y

3) connection fails

then

1) login as an administrator on machine X

2) try to connect from machine Y

3) connection works

Not clear why background file sharing does not when when there is only a normal user logged in... I have not tried this without a user logged in, but I suspect that file sharing will not work. There seems to be a bug such that file sharing works only when a privileged account it logged into the file server.

High Sierra appears to be a nightmare to me!

I always wait some time for a stable OS to be released before upgrading to a new version, but this time after updating to 10.13.3 just two weeks ago I am actually confronted with losing data when synchronising two Macs.

When connecting my older Mac Book Pro (17", which has a SSD) with my Mac Pro, file sharing breaks during synchronisation (e.g. using CCC). The content of the destination folder gets deleted and the data on the connected Mac can't be accessed any more. This bug only appears when copying large folders containing 1000+ files. So copying just ONE file will never show this bug. The break also happens when doing a simple copy of a large folder. In the middle of the process the copy stops and the connection is broken.

The introduction of SMB sharing (only) and the APFS file system (only) might be good move (theoretically!), but at this stage it's just scary what it does.

I have read in forums about this problem, which obviously is around for some time and hasn't been resolved at all.

I really hope Apple will fix this soon!

Can anybody help?

thanks for the suggested fix, but it doesn't work for me.

I tried with sharing only user, but synchronising still fails, because file sharing breaks. If I copy files from the sharing Mac data gets lost in the destination folder on the accessing Mac or vice versa. This seems to be only relevant to Macs with SSD and APFS filesystem. (e.g. iMac Pro and upgraded SSDs on older Macs)

High Sierra is now a few months old, and not a beta version anymore.

Apple, please solve this!

This did work for me.

I connected my old 17" MacBook w SSD (running 10.13.3) to my MacPro w SSD (running 10.13.2), using the share-only user. I was able to copy files over via smb file sharing which I was unable to do before.

However I only copied 328 MB, and it took about 10 minutes. I could have copied the files to a USB drive, walked over to the MacPro and copied them from the USB drive faster than the network copy was made. It certainly wasn't this slow prior to High Sierra!

Maybe this won't work when I try to repeat it later, as "andyro" implies below, but it got me through a jam right now ...

CptKeys

I have two iMacs and a MacBook Pro, running El Capitan and Yosemite respectively. (They are all too old to upgrade to Sierra/High Sierra) Additionally, I have an iMac which is a bit later and to which I have added an SSD which hosts the current operating system, recently upgraded to High Sierra. The original Mac HDD is still in this computer with its original operating system too.

The problem is that when I try to connect to the newly upgraded High sierra Mac from any one of the older Macs, I can only connect to the original HDD.

From reading this thread I can’t help but wonder if the problem is related to the APFS kindly installed on the SSD by the update to High Sierra?

I have just enough knowledge to be truly dangerous to my computers and cannot add any solutions to the thread but I wonder if any more knowledgeable people here care to venture an opinion as to wether the APFS is the likely cause?

many thanks

Had the same symptoms, and got it resolved after speaking with Apple Support. They didn't actually fix it, but they did help rule out system-level causes so I could focus on the right area.

I was on a guest WiFi network (our router lets us set up several networks). Switching to a different network solved all the problems. Evidently our guest WiFi doesn't allow file sharing.

The troubleshooting step that helped pin down the issue was this: took both laptops to another location, so our router was removed from the equation. When file sharing suddenly worked over the other WiFi, we knew it had to be something with our network.

It did seem, initially, that SSD and APFS might have something to do with it, because the iMacs were working just fine and the MacBook Airs were the ones with problems. But based on the outcome we had, it doesn't appear that anything's broken. The feedback in the interface could be improved. Something about checking whether your network or gateway device supports file sharing, and a suggestion to try switching to another network? Just a thought.

Have the same problem: macbookpro with SSD/APFS; iMac with Fusion both on latest High Sierra.

I first could not connect at all.

Erased users of sharing. Entered them (from drop-down list). Yes I could connect.

But, now I can drop a file ('holiday pictures') in the destination machine. But it copies only one file, then says the file is there already and quits.

Awkward. My three macs wore working so well some (long?) time ago. . .

Maybe this is a separate issue?

My similar problem was an IPv6 issue that started when I upgraded my retina iMac to 10.13. My other older Macs still get an IPv6 address when set to "Configure IPv6: Automatically" but I noticed my Retina iMac does not. It briefly is assigned an address and then looses it. I set the Retina to "Configure IPv6: Link Local Only" and file sharing works fine. Hopefully this is a bug that will be resolved in 10.13.6?

I'm having this exact issue as well. New MBP's can't connect to each other except for screensharing and ssh... not direct filesystem connection (SMB or AFP). Older Macs (MBP and iMac) can connect to each other and the new MBP with filesharing (SMB or AFP) as well as with screensharing and ssh. This all started happening with the upgrade to High Sierra for me I think.