Turning a MacBook Pro into a NAS

[hajime]

Hello, I heard that many users here have turned their Mac into a NAS to backup and share files among multiple OS platforms such as Windows, Linux, iOS, etc. What does it mean actually? Simply connecting an external storage and a Windows PC/Linux machine/iOS device to the Mac and enabling File Sharing?

Windows has an annoying 260 characters file path limitation. When using File Sharing and drag & drop from a Windows PC to a Mac, do longer files/folders get copied correctly? I encountered problems even when trying such long file paths from a Windows 11 PC to an external drive connected to it.

 

[benholt]

Enabling File Sharing in Settings > General > Sharing (with SMB checked in the Options panel — AFP has been deprecated for a while) is essentially all it takes to get a functional SMB server on port 445 that Windows/Linux/iOS can mount as a network share. On the 260-char thing though, that's a Windows-side limit, not a Mac one. macOS is fine with much longer paths (1024 bytes per component, ~4K per full path), but the Win32 CopyFile* APIs enforce MAX_PATH=260 regardless of what the destination is, so Explorer drag-and-drop still dies at 260 even when the target is a fresh Mac SMB share. Two workarounds worth knowing: (1) on Windows 10 1607+ enable LongPathsEnabled in the registry at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, reboot, and modern apps that read the manifest bit get 32k path support; (2) copy with robocopy or 7-Zip File Manager instead of Explorer — robocopy handles long paths natively without any registry change. In a mixed Studio + Windows box workflow with deep creative project folders, Explorer always dies at 260 and robocopy never does.

 

[hajime]

Thanks. Between the 7-Zip File Manager and the built-in Windows command robocopy, which is better? Somewhere I read that although one could enable LongPathsEnabled in the registry, this approach is not recommended as it could cause more problems in the future.