Can't get SMB File Sharing to work - MacOS Ventura 13.7.5

[GH1852]

Until a couple of months ago, file sharing was working well. The current situation - My laptop appears as an SMB network server on other Macs on my LAN in a Finder Window. From another Mac, dns-sd -B _smb._tcp shows my Ventura laptop as being an SMB server. dns-sd -L "Machine Name" _smb._tcp shows "can be reached at MacBookPro.local.:445 (interface 7). If I try to connect from the other Mac, and I choose to connect as a registered user, it refuses a bad username and password - expected behavior. But if I put in the correct username and password, I see "connection failed".

From VLC installed on iOS or Apple TV, the share is also seen, and I can login using the username and password for the Ventura laptop. I don't see "connection failed". I see "Empty Folder" and the current IP address of the Ventura laptop. Even though I have 2 shared folders at the moment. With read/write permissions on each, and those permissions applied to enclosed items.

I've tried toggling File Sharing off, rebooting, and turning it back on. I've tried it in Safe Boot mode. And I've tried it with a new user. I've also verified that smbd has full disk access and file and folder access. And I've tried toggling that. The folders that are shared on the laptop all say "Folder shared with File Sharing" if opened in Finder. MacOS Firewall is OFF.

I feel as if I've run out of sensible things to try.

 

[Slartibart]

A. you can e.g., check the file sharing logs via console to better understand what‘s going on.

B. By any chance the shared folder(s) are using custom icons? If so, remove these and try connecting. (to remove: select folder -> right click »Get Info« -> select left upper small custom icon -> "cut" it via menu bar)

C. what is the output from running smbutil statshares -a in the terminal?

 

[GH1852]

A. you can e.g., check the file sharing logs via console to better understand what‘s going on.

B. By any chance the shared folder(s) are using custom icons? If so, remove these and try connecting. (to remove: select folder -> right click »Get Info« -> select left upper small custom icon -> "cut" it via menu bar)

C. what is the output from running smbutil statshares -a in the terminal?

Output of smbutil statshares -a is suspicious, IMHO- looks like nothing is really being shared?:

% smbutil statshares -a

==================================================================================================
SHARE ATTRIBUTE TYPE VALUE
==================================================================================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have done some hunting in Console, filtering for the term smbd and smb. Nothing. Would something show up is system.log or launchd.log? The 2 folders DO have custom icons, but "CUT" is grayed out. I may have to stop sharing them to do the cutting.

 

[Slartibart]

yep, you have to stop sharing/eject the shares. then remove the custom icons.

I suggest after that to check /etc/nsmb.conf - and adjust the credentials there according to your needs (using e.g., nano in the terminal):

[default]

# Only use SMB2/SMB3
protocol_vers_map=6

# Prefere wired network connections
mc_prefer_wired=yes

# Disable spotlight
spotlight=no

# Use NTFS streams if supported
streams=yes

# Enable soft mount
soft=yes

# Disable signing - that seems to cause often problems
signing_required=no

 

[GH1852]

yep, you have to stop sharing/eject the shares. then remove the custom icons.

I suggest after that to check /etc/nsmb.conf - and adjust the credentials there according to your needs (using e.g., nano in the terminal):

[default]

# Only use SMB2/SMB3
protocol_vers_map=6

# Prefere wired network connections
mc_prefer_wired=yes

# Disable spotlight
spotlight=no

# Use NTFS streams if supported
streams=yes

# Enable soft mount
soft=yes

# Disable signing - that seems to cause often problems
signing_required=no

OK, I went into file sharing and, at least for the time being, chose a folder in my home folder that has no custom icon and added it to File Sharing, and deleted the two that I had been sharing that indeed had custom icons. And my current content of nsmb.conf is as follows:

[default]
# Only use SMB2/SMB3
protocol_vers_map=6

# Disable spotlight
spotlight=no

#Use NTFS streams if supported
streams=yes

#Enable soft mount
soft=yes

#Disable signing - that seems to often cause problems
signing required=no

I still have identical symptoms - another Mac on my LAN sees my laptop, and refuses "connect as" if I put it in a bad password, but upon putting the correct one, I see "connection failed". VLC on my Apple TV lets me connect, but all I see is the IP address of my laptop and "Empty Folder". And the folder I am sharing isn't empty.

However: If I attempt to Connect to Server from another Mac, and give the complete address of the shared folder, i.e. smb://IP address/shared folder, the share mounts. smb://IP address refuses. Web browsers on MacOS and iOS also work, if I type in smb://IP address/shared folder name.

But anything in Finder itself - that is, My name's MacBook Pro, is impossible. From another Mac or from VLC, attempting to connect to "My Name's MacBook Pro".

So my Mac IS sharing the folder. But the only way of accessing it currently is using a complete IP address.

 

[stephenharrington]

The upgrade from 13.7.4 => 13.7.5 broke "normal" (click on the computer in Finder sidebar) smb file sharing to other Macs for me, on 4 different systems, 3 Intel and 1 Apple Silicon, so it doesn't discriminate. Symptoms are that once you click on the computer in the sidebar it just "hangs" as though trying to connect. File sharing works fine to Windows and Linux machines etc.

Symptoms seem similar to what you describe. It hasn't been fixed in 13.7.6 either.

Please read this thread on the Apple Support and file your own bug report:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256034165

That thread has some workarounds suggested by various people, but so far deathly silence from Cupertino about rolling out any proper fix ... Ventura probably getting a bit old now and all their time now taken up with macOS 16 / iOS19 and that AI thing?

Cheers Mate

 

[GH1852]

The upgrade from 13.7.4 => 13.7.5 broke "normal" (click on the computer in Finder sidebar) smb file sharing to other Macs for me, on 4 different systems, 3 Intel and 1 Apple Silicon, so it doesn't discriminate. Symptoms are that once you click on the computer in the sidebar it just "hangs" as though trying to connect. File sharing works fine to Windows and Linux machines etc.

Symptoms seem similar to what you describe. It hasn't been fixed in 13.7.6 either.

Please read this thread on the Apple Support and file your own bug report:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256034165

That thread has some workarounds suggested by various people, but so far deathly silence from Cupertino about rolling out any proper fix ... Ventura probably getting a bit old now and all their time now taken up with macOS 16 / iOS19 and that AI thing?

Cheers Mate

Hey, thanks. I wasn't suffering alone.

Very strange - SMB is actually working, provided you type out a full address, and Bonjour is working, since the device appears in the finder. But the combination of the two to make file sharing easy (Apple style) - not.

I actually reverted to 13.7.4 because of an unrelated issue, and can confirm that File Sharing is once again completely functional. I'll file a bug report. There's hope that Apple will address it (maybe). When MacOS Catalina was in its final months of support, a Safari update made it impossible to save a web page as a .webarchive file. And it continued that way for several months, but very late in the game it was corrected.

I'd say this one is higher negative impact.

Thanks again.

 

[stephenharrington]

I actually reverted to 13.7.4 because of an unrelated issue, and can confirm that File Sharing is once again completely functional. I'll file a bug report.

Thanks for adding to the bug reports. I'm hoping if the number of reports keeps increasing, it may get their attention and bump it up the list of "things to do", but we'll see?

Meanwhile I've moved on to Sequoia 15.5, which I didn't really want to do for various reasons but at least I got my easy file sharing back!