Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Damian Brown

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 27, 2021
36
6
I'm searching on here so apologies if it's already been addressed but...

Since updating my M1 MBA to the latest OS update, every time I plug in a drive, whether it be a SSD, card reader, whatever, I have to go into disk utility to mount it. This is very annoying. What am I missing?

My other beef with the Monterey is having to relaunch finder so often to get preview to work.
 
Probably some configuration files got corrupted, these should be responsible: /private/etc/auto_home, /private/etc/auto_master, /private/etc/autofs.conf
 
I don’t have Monterey installed, these are the contents of the files in Big Sur
/private/etc/auto_home

Code:
#
# Automounter map for /home
#
+auto_home    # Use directory service
#
# Get /home records synthesized from user records
#
+/usr/libexec/od_user_homes

/private/etc/auto_master

Code:
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
#/net            -hosts        -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home            auto_home    -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-            -static

/private/etc/autofs.conf

Code:
#
# This file is used to configure the automounter
#

# The number of seconds after which an automounted file system will
# be unmounted if it hasn't been referred to within that period of
# time.  The default is 10 minutes (600 seconds).
# This is equivalent to the -t option in automount(8).
AUTOMOUNT_TIMEOUT=3600

# If TRUE, automount(8) will print more detailed
# information about the actions it takes.
# This is equivalent to the -v option to automount(8).
#AUTOMOUNT_VERBOSE=FALSE

# If TRUE, automountd(8) will log to syslogd(8) more
# detailed information about the actions it takes.
# This is equivalent to the -v option to automountd(8).
#AUTOMOUNTD_VERBOSE=FALSE

# If TRUE, automountd(8) will disable browsing of all maps.
# This is equivalent to the -n option to automountd(8).
#AUTOMOUNTD_NOBROWSE=FALSE

# The trace level for logging information about requests received
# by automountd(8) from autofs, processing done for those requests,
# and replies sent to autofs.  The default level of 0 causes no
# information to be logged; each higher value causes more information
# to be logged.  This controls the same trace level that the -T option
# to automountd(8) controls.
#AUTOMOUNTD_TRACE=0

# Mount options.
# A string containing a comma-separated list of mount options
# that will be applied, by default, to all mounts done by automountd(8).
# The options for a particular mount can override these options.
# This controls the same default mount options that the -o option to
# automountd(8) controls.
AUTOMOUNTD_MNTOPTS=nosuid,nodev

# Force nosuid
# If TRUE automountd will force all mounts to be "nosuid".
# The default will be "nosuid" and any "suid" mount option
# will be ignored.
AUTOMOUNTD_NOSUID=TRUE

# Environment variables.  The format is AUTOMOUNTD_ENV=ENV=value.
# There should be one line per environment variable to be set and
# there can be as many of these lines as are required.
#AUTOMOUNTD_ENV=
 
Thanks a lot. This is way above my pay grade so I'll have to keep googling based on your messages
 
  • Like
Reactions: gank41
I don’t have Monterey installed, these are the contents of the files in Big Sur
/private/etc/auto_home

Code:
#
# Automounter map for /home
#
+auto_home    # Use directory service
#
# Get /home records synthesized from user records
#
+/usr/libexec/od_user_homes

/private/etc/auto_master

Code:
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
#/net            -hosts        -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home            auto_home    -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-            -static

/private/etc/autofs.conf

Code:
#
# This file is used to configure the automounter
#

# The number of seconds after which an automounted file system will
# be unmounted if it hasn't been referred to within that period of
# time.  The default is 10 minutes (600 seconds).
# This is equivalent to the -t option in automount(8).
AUTOMOUNT_TIMEOUT=3600

# If TRUE, automount(8) will print more detailed
# information about the actions it takes.
# This is equivalent to the -v option to automount(8).
#AUTOMOUNT_VERBOSE=FALSE

# If TRUE, automountd(8) will log to syslogd(8) more
# detailed information about the actions it takes.
# This is equivalent to the -v option to automountd(8).
#AUTOMOUNTD_VERBOSE=FALSE

# If TRUE, automountd(8) will disable browsing of all maps.
# This is equivalent to the -n option to automountd(8).
#AUTOMOUNTD_NOBROWSE=FALSE

# The trace level for logging information about requests received
# by automountd(8) from autofs, processing done for those requests,
# and replies sent to autofs.  The default level of 0 causes no
# information to be logged; each higher value causes more information
# to be logged.  This controls the same trace level that the -T option
# to automountd(8) controls.
#AUTOMOUNTD_TRACE=0

# Mount options.
# A string containing a comma-separated list of mount options
# that will be applied, by default, to all mounts done by automountd(8).
# The options for a particular mount can override these options.
# This controls the same default mount options that the -o option to
# automountd(8) controls.
AUTOMOUNTD_MNTOPTS=nosuid,nodev

# Force nosuid
# If TRUE automountd will force all mounts to be "nosuid".
# The default will be "nosuid" and any "suid" mount option
# will be ignored.
AUTOMOUNTD_NOSUID=TRUE

# Environment variables.  The format is AUTOMOUNTD_ENV=ENV=value.
# There should be one line per environment variable to be set and
# there can be as many of these lines as are required.
#AUTOMOUNTD_ENV=


I've also been having an issue with a few external drives not automatically mounting at Login or after a Restart. I'm on Monterey, @bogdanw, and have the same exact info/text listed in each of those files. Also of note for me, the couple drives that won't automatically mount are Encrypted/Password Protected, and even though I check the box to remember the Password, it doesn't. I've looked into deleting these in the Keychain app, too, and I do see them getting added back in Keychain after I mount/authorize them again, but they still continue to not mount automatically.
 
From the manual of automount (man automount in Terminal), there is an option “-c Tell automountd(8) to flush any cached information it has”
Maybe it will fix the problem, you can try from Terminal with
sudo automount -cv
where “-v Print more detailed information about actions taken by automount.”
 
  • Like
Reactions: gank41
The latest update to Monterey appears to have fixed my auto mount bug.
 
Last edited:
I have a similar problem.
Sonoma 14 Mac mini 14 and I can Automount Diskstation with auto_master and auto_smb files in etc
Sonoma 14 Mac mini 2022, silicon M2, same files, system create the Diskstation folder but doesn't mount nothing inside

Could be something wrong with smbfs?
Code:
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
/net            -hosts        -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home            auto_home    -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/Users/"name"/Diskstation    auto_smb
/-            -static

Code:
documentos -fstype=smbfs ://user:pass@192.168.0.101/documentos
 
Resolved, something was wrong with auto_smb
I write again with wim from terminal and it works again
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.