Time capsule as a network drive at win 10 PC

I believe the issue is that the Time Capsule only support SMB1. Microsoft has pretty much abandoned this variant since Win8. However, there should be a means to "force" SMB1 for the connection between a Win10 device and the TC, and I believe you would do so when you create the share connection.

From a Mac you can determine which variant of the SMB protocol was negotiated by entering the following command in the Terminal app: smbutil statshares -m <path to mount>

For the connection between my Mac mini, running macOS High Sierra, to my 802.11n Time Capsule, I got the following results:

Note specifically the SMB_VERSION line which indicates the connection is using SMB_1 for the file sharing protocol.

I believe the following TechNet article should provide you with the same means from a Windows box:

Which version of SMB protocol are you using on your File Server? - Microsoft TechNet

Apple greatly increase the security with later versions of Mac OS.. so this might be a problem.

One thing to try and I am not sure what to do if this fails.. and causes issues accessing the files later.. so use with caution.

In the windows version of the airport utility go to the Disk/ File Sharing tab. In airport disk guest access turn on read and write access for all users.

This screenshot is taken from the old Mac version of the utility which looks somewhat different but also has the same functionality.

Full access by all users by default is not allowed.

Obviously this is going to affect your security. Use with Caution.

It can also help to use the correct workgroup name. This used to be WORKGROUP by default but win10 tends to use IPv6 now for local group accounts and I am not sure WORKGROUP is default.

FYI...the equivalent command for Win10 to determine the SMB connection is:

Get-SmbConnection

When I did this from my Win10 PC tower with my Time Capsule share, it resulted in an SMB connection with v1.5 dialect.

You would run this command in the Windows PowerShell with administrator rights. For example, if the Time Capsule is named: tc

• In the Win10 Search window, enter: PowerShell
• Right-click on the Windows PowerShell option in the resultant pop-up menu.
• Choose the option "Run as administrator."
• At the PowerShell command prompt, enter: Get-SmbConnection -ServerName tc
• When you don't know the server name or you want a list of all SMB connections, just enter: Get-SmbConnection

In my case, my Win10 box not only connects to the TC but I am not having any issues accessing its internal hard drive via File Explorer. If nothing else, this appears to address the question of which dialect of SMB is used between a Win PC and the TC.

Also in my case, I mapped the TC's drive share as "Drive Z" using File Explorer. I did not use any special tricks to make the connection. It's mapped as: \\tc\home_share, as home_share is the drive's sharename. As you already know this share treats the drive as though it was formatted in FAT32.

The only differences in the TC's Disks tab settings in my case are:

1. The drive is being shared "With a disk password"
2. The AirPort Disks Guest Access is set to: Not allowed
3. Nothing was entered for the Workgroup setting.

I was able to change this in Windows Features.

Would you please provide the solution you used to do this so that others can benefit? Thanks!

Did not need to enter powershell.

FYI ... The use of PowerShell was only a suggestion on how you can verify the type of SMB dialect that is being used for the connection.

However, after talking w/ the senior advisor, he has explained to me that TC will not work well for hosting an itunes library, as the itunes library file (folder) was not designed to be used over a server?

iTunes basically has two major components: 1) The iTunes Library, and 2) The iTunes Media Folder. By default, both of these are located on your Mac's system drive. However, either or both of these can be relocated to another drive with that drive either locally attached to the Mac or on a network drive. The iTunes Library is the media database, whereas, as the name would indicate, the iTunes Media folder is where all of the actual media is stored.

The Time Capsule does not have a built-in iTunes server so you will still be dependent on an iTunes host to access the library, regardless of where that library (or the media) is located. At best, the TC can perform as a media storage device for the iTunes Media folder. The issue, as the Apple Senior Advisor is eluding to, is that the bandwidth performance will be dismal doing so. That's because of, at least, two things: 1) The TC's processor, and 2) The TC's mechanical hard drive. As mentioned, the TC is just not well designed for this purpose.

If you want to use an "all-in-one" iTunes server/media storage device, you will need to consider getting a dedicated NAS device that can support these features. One example, are NAS devices from Synology. Another option is to use a Mac mini with an external storage device for the same purpose. I've used both of these options and they work fairly well for this.

You may find the following articles helpful:

• How to set up an iTunes library on a network-attached server - Macworld
• How to offload your iTunes library to a NAS - ars technica
• How to Setup an iTunes Library On an External Hard Drive or NAS - Online Tech Tips

I have been able to use the TC from win10 and it is all patched up. I must test again to see if the SMB problem is there.

Sorry swander .. I forgot the recent issues Windows had with SMB1 (wannacry virus) which forced windows to really up the security level.

We may have reached a point where sharing files Mac to Windows is better handled directly.. ie you can copy files directly between the two computers over the network.. or sneaker net. load the files on a USB drive (FAT32 format) and carry it.