Finder Sidebar is loosing my networked shares

[petergc]

This worked for me

I've also been having the problem where a drive that was under "shared" would disappear. It's ridiculous that this has been a problem with Apple's OS for as long as it has, and it's a real discredit to Apple that they've let it go like this. But anyway, I found a fix that works for me.

It might be a bit too specific to my particular issue, but hey...you never know, it might lead to a fix for you too.

Firstly, my set-up: I have a 1TB drive that I have connected to a Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router. My computer is a MBP Retina running Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

I have been having exactly the same issue others have been noting. The shared drive is there one minute, and gone the next. I tried the various fixes mentioned, but nothing worked.

However, I download an app called the NETGEARGenie (which is a utility for managing the router, checking on wifi connections, devices, traffic etc).

Anyway, all I have to do now is open the app and that's it. As soon as it opens, Finder suddenly remembers that it's supposed to have a "Shared" folder and the drive appears there.

I no longer have an issue with "Shared" disappearing. I just open the NETGEARGenie app and it comes back automatically.

So, even if you don't have a Netgear router, maybe there's an app out there for your modem, or maybe there's some generic router app that will have the same effect.

Any suggestions from anyone?

 

[joyless]

This still hasn't been fixed in 10.9 DP7.
Only thing that works for me if I remotely login to my NAS (via Terminal) and restart Samba - suddenly "shared" appears again. Very annoying.

 

[jayden]

Got a similar issue. I keep adding a folder to the Finder Favourites section, but it keeps disappearing after restart. All the other Folders I have manually "dragged and dropped" over stay there, but the new one keeps disappearing on restart.

So annoying!!

 

[captcurrent]

me too

Have the network shared folder showing in Finder.
In the Finder's preferences go to the Sidebar section.
Uncheck the "Connected Servers" checkbox.
Close preferences.
In Finder drag the network share to the "Devices" area of the sidebar and it should stay there.

The "Connected Servers" in the General area of Finders preferences is for the Desktop as you found out. For some reason it shows the actual share(as it should). The "Connected Servers" in the Sidebar section only shows the machine's name or ip address instead of the share.

Anyway that's what worked for me on a couple of machines so I hope it's helpful.

I have tried this , i have trued playing with the preferences, and no luck.. when I drag the volume to add it visual shows all the cue is did on 10.6.8 but the connection doesn't show. Really thinking about down grading to SL again I can live without iCloud

Like said else where I can no longer recommend MAC OS X to commercial customers. If they don't want to do it right why not return to 10.6.8 do security updates and become a IOS company

 

[evilpants]

A solution that worked for me

Hi everyone. If I'm reading the thread right, there are actually two different problems being reported.

1) Shares disappearing from finder sidebar after a restart
2) Finder not *allowing* you to drag a share over to it in the first place.

On my MacBook, I had the second one. My NAS is shared. I clicked on the share name and dragged it over to the Finder, and it appeared there for a flash and then disappeared. The same thing happens on my Mac Mini - but on my iMac, the share added to my sidebar perfectly.

I literally just found out why this happened. It might not help you, but it was such a simple solution, it's gotta be worth thinking about.

When I originally shared the NAS, I had a password-less guest account. The machine is not accessible from outside the network, it only has music and video on it, and I wanted all my devices to be able to connect seamlessly.

I only just realised though that on my MacBook and Mac Mini, I connect to the NAS as a different user, so I have access to the 'back end' of the NAS.

So I took a flyer. On my MacBook, I disconnected the user 'tony' from the NAS, and re-connected as 'guest'. *IMMEDIATELY*, the share showed up on my sidebar.

What is this telling me? It's telling me that I had previously dragged it over to the finder sidebar while logged into the NAS *as a different user*. For whatever reason, this blocks me from adding it to the sidebar *under any other NAS user*.

I right-clicked, clicked "remove from sidebar" and it was gone. I logged back in to the NAS as the normal username, dragged it over to the sidebar - and there it is, fixed in place!

I hope this makes sense to the people who are unable to get a share to stick to the sidebar at all. Go back and check whether you logged into your share under a different name - perhaps even remove the login from your keychain.

It has definitely worked for me - sure, the issue shouldn't crop up at all, but at least the fix was easy. It only took a few years to sort it tho

 

[jmpage2]

Myself and I imagine quite a few others are actually running a script at start-up time that is mounting the shares.

There is definitely no confusion as to which user is logging into the smb share. I can even see the user login on the dashboard of my synology box.

The issue is that when this script runs the shares are mounted (they will show up if I expand the "computer" view in the Finder or if I run the 'df' command in the terminal they show up) but they do not show up under devices in the Finder sidebar as they should.

Interestingly, if I unmount the shares and then run the script a 2nd time they 100% of the time show up in the finder side-bar.

There's either something broken or a very long delay at start up is needed for them to get picked up by the Finder properly.

You are right about one thing. There are several things not working well or broken and people are confused about which thing it is they are experiencing.

 

[AlienSexGod]

Mavericks

OK this problem only happened to me a few days ago 2 days after upgrading to Mavericks OS X 10.9

Favorites, Shares everything is gone except for HDs
yes I have deleted finder prefs, reset prefers, force quit finder , rebooted...

Any other ideas?

 

[jmpage2]

OK this problem only happened to me a few days ago 2 days after upgrading to Mavericks OS X 10.9

Favorites, Shares everything is gone except for HDs
yes I have deleted finder prefs, reset prefers, force quit finder , rebooted...

Any other ideas?

I've been trying to fix it since Lion 10.7 so nope, no ideas. Apple just doesn't give a crap. You can call in to them and they will tell you they don't support SMB.

 

[sundi712]

Navigate mouse to the Finder sidebar "SHARED". Don't click, just navigate.
The word "Show" appears right of SHARED. Click on it.
You will see your network computers etc.

LOL wow thanks! I only started looking this stuff up because I wanted my mappings listed in favorites. I hadn't even realized that my actual mounts were "hidden"

Once again thanks!!!

----------

I really hope you're kidding. Clicking "hide" vs "show" has nothing to do with this problem.

You sure? This definitely fixed my issue!

----------

 

[OriginalMacBabe]

Same Issue

I have an NAS that keeps disconnecting and refusing to reconnect unless I reboot it.

My BackToMyMac remote mac also keeps disappearing and cannot be reconnected - which is a huge PIA, because it not only has files I use on it, and I use it as a backup of my iPhoto library, but I use the remote management to fix issues for my Dad (it is his computer) because he cannot follow instructions (he's 85 and insists things are not on the screen that absolutely are).

I'd love an answer, especially about how to reconnect the remote mac. I can reboot the NAS continuously myself, but not the remote.

 

[jmpage2]

I have an NAS that keeps disconnecting and refusing to reconnect unless I reboot it.

My BackToMyMac remote mac also keeps disappearing and cannot be reconnected - which is a huge PIA, because it not only has files I use on it, and I use it as a backup of my iPhoto library, but I use the remote management to fix issues for my Dad (it is his computer) because he cannot follow instructions (he's 85 and insists things are not on the screen that absolutely are).

I'd love an answer, especially about how to reconnect the remote mac. I can reboot the NAS continuously myself, but not the remote.

We'd all love an answer but Apple does not care about this issue. If you want something to happen call in a tech support case. If enough people do that, perhaps they will eventually fix this or at least improve the error recovery.

 

[Oopart]

Count me in

10.10.3 and I'm getting this on my MacBook. Very Maddening. I was able to create folders of the drives I want to access in the Favorites so I'm getting by. Not ideal, but until I figure this out I can get my work done just as easily. I also have this happening on a afp share as well as smb.

 

[jmpage2]

The favorites thing does not work long time. Eventually those will just spontaneously go away and you'll have to add them back again.

 

[Creevian]

Hallo everyone.
We ran in to this problem at work, where a colleague could not drag over the local server to her favorits.
My boss had a look at it, and tried:
1. Find Library/Preferences
2. Delete file called: com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
3.Force Quit finder

That did the trick, I hope it helps you!
Remember: It is on you own responsibility.
Did it on OS X Mavericks

 

[Oopart]

Hallo everyone.
We ran in to this problem at work, where a colleague could not drag over the local server to her favorits.
My boss had a look at it, and tried:
1. Find Library/Preferences
2. Delete file called: com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
3.Force Quit finder

That did the trick, I hope it helps you!
Remember: It is on you own responsibility.
Did it on OS X Mavericks

Now Running 10.10.4
Still not fixed and This didn't work

 

[lflier]

In 10.8.5, I can get a remote drive to show under "Devices" in the Finder sidebar if I do the following things:

1. Remove the login item for the remote drive that I had previously set in user preferences
   
2. Reboot
3. Navigate to the network drive and mount it
   
4. Go to my computer under "Devices" and drag the network drive, which should appear under "remote volumes," into the list of devices in the sidebar

Now, when I reboot and reconnect to the remote drive, it shows under devices. But it won't show automatically if I set it as a login item. I have to eject the server computer and then reconnect to the drive, and then it shows up.

 

[joedu]

This problem persists. I have not yet upgraded to El Capitan, but just this morning I found that all sidebar favorites that refer to a remote folder have disappeared. I keep a folder of aliases that I can use to "re-load" the favorites, but it's a damn pain of a workaround.

 

[jglenn]

I had this problem back in Lion days periodically but was surprised to see it again today after having upgraded to Mountain Lion when it came out.

I have about six volumes that are mounted at boot time with a script. They always mount up fine and they are not ejected (running df in the console as well as drilling into the 'shared' section of the finder both show they are mounted and available).

Today, mysteriously the icons in the sidebar for these shares have all vanished. I went into sidebar Finder preferences and confirmed that 'external discs' for the sidebar is checked. Interestingly if I go into the Finder general preferences and choose to display "connected servers" all of the volumes pop like magic onto the desktop.

Is there something flaky with the Finder in Mountain Lion (and maybe in Lion also) or is there some value somewhere that has gotten corrupted that could be causing this to periodically happen?

I'm sure a reboot would cure it, but if possible I'd like to get it fixed up for good.

This works for me when the shared server disappears from my finder: http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/automatically-connect-network-drive/

 

[Tsuyu]

I've been trying to fix it since Lion 10.7 so nope, no ideas. Apple just doesn't give a crap. You can call in to them and they will tell you they don't support SMB.

I realize this might be a bit late, and I never participate in forums, but after trying every possible solutions to make "Shared" appear in the side bar, and nothing has worked, it turned out to be something as simple as going to System Preference>sharing, and uncheck "network sharing". after days of agony, files deleting and restarting, it was just something that simple. I feel with most of the issues I have had with my mac, it was always a simple trick that does not even make sense. I hope this helps!

 

[jmpage2]

I realize this might be a bit late, and I never participate in forums, but after trying every possible solutions to make "Shared" appear in the side bar, and nothing has worked, it turned out to be something as simple as going to System Preference>sharing, and uncheck "network sharing". after days of agony, files deleting and restarting, it was just something that simple. I feel with most of the issues I have had with my mac, it was always a simple trick that does not even make sense. I hope this helps!

There is no option "network sharing"... Do you mean "file sharing"?

 

[Airush77]

Hi all, after trying the above problem solving with no luck. I was able to fix this issue (osx 10.8) by going into \\ Mac Drive-->User-->Shared. And deleting adi.Folder, containing adi.pb.lck,,,, followed by holding 'option' and right click on the 'Finder' icon and RELAUNCH. Bling all good...!

This remains intermittent, after restart or shutdown---> Cause the deleted folder and file restores it's self every now and then, stopping 'SHARED' from appearing in the sidebar. (but use the above process to re-deploy 'Shared' in the side bar).

Note; That you may have to Deselect and Reselect sidebar 'Shared' options in finder preferences as suggested earlier in the post,,, after a system shutdown or restart including a forced finder Re-launch....

 

[marvin_h]

2017 and still happening. Just [doesnt] work(s).

 

[dgtlfnk]

Still happening. And still driving me nucking futs!!! >.<