Apple Mac OSx is slow or unstable network when using Windows Server connections
You connect to a Windows Server share and your Mac either won’t find the share, connect to it, or keep losing connection. Welcome to the SMB nightmare that Apple and Microsoft have created.
There was a time when it all just worked. Yes, SMB 1.0. The good old days. Then came 2.0 and 3.0. They are more “secure”, but they don’t play well with Macs. Surely this can’t be! Right?
Let’s look at what is documented about this issue and what some have suggested:
Apple suggests using SMB 1.0 (not an option for the security conscious) or, wait for it, turn packet signing off. yes, apparently that sounds like a good idea to turn off the feature that was added for better security. Try this link for more on the Apple workaround: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205926
Another excellent workaround is from a company I know well. Acronis. Their Acronis Files Connect promises to “Make It Easy to Connect Macs to Windows File Servers”. Let’s face it. If there wasn’t a real problem this product would not exist. According to their product description “Reduces SMB protocol bugs, performance, and compatibility problems related to locked files and file naming issues, file corruption, permissions problems, non-functional Windows shortcuts, and other issues..”
Acronis basically adds AFP (Apple File Protocol) to a Windows Server making all the shares available using that native protocol. We have tested this solution and confirm that it works well and is stable.
I speak to a lot of engineers and designers. When I bring problems like this, I sometimes get comments like “everyone uses OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and so on so file sharing is a legacy problem.” I get it. The large firms want to sell cloud storage. Until everyone is comfortable (and legal allowed to) we don’t all want to be stuck with this type of basic connectivity problem.
Do you have stories or better workarounds? Drop us a note!
These may be of interest to you:
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