As with the introduction of Leopard and Tiger before it, Snow Leopard brought reports of new problems with file sharing with Windows servers and clients. Check this page for updates to problems and solutions for cross-platform file sharing with Mac OS X 10.6.

Apple reports a problem with Mac OS X Server 10.6 where AFP users cannot authenticate with Kerberos after the server is upgraded. Apple posed a fix that requires restarting the server:

On the AFP server, execute the following command in Terminal using the correct Kerberos REALM_NAME and a user account authorized to make changes in the Kerberos database:__

sudo sso_util configure -r REALM_NAME -a diradmin -p diradmin_password afp__

Note: The sudo command will prompt for the current user's password. Optionally, you can exclude -p diradmin_password if you want to prompt for the diradmin's password as well.

James Spencer reports that he cannot browse some of his SMB shared folders in Snow Leopard, either in the Finder or the command line:

You're asking for reports of 10.5.8 update breaking SMB shares, but I have a similar problem on Snow Leopard where not all of my folders show up in the Finder or in Terminal. In the Finder, if I use go to folder, I can enter the folder I know is there, but it will most of the time knock me back up a directory. In Terminal I also cannot see the folder, however I can cd to it and copy files from it. I get this error while browsing the SAMBA share: smbfs_smb_lookup: smbfs_smb_qpathinfo error = 16

I've rebooted both systems, removed and created a new share. The problem persists.

If you've seen this problem

More readers are reporting that SMB file sharing no longer works after updating to Snow Leopard. Although we received a number of reports, two readers sent some details trying to connect to servers and to Windows workstations. Greg Masada found that the problem only occurs when there is a Windows domain. Otherwise, file sharing works with Windows 2000 and 2003:

I've encountered an SMB file sharing problem using Snow Leopard as well. AsI work in a testing lab I have tried various configurations to try and see

what is affected. Just to be specific about configurations and the exact details of the problem I will list them below.

The problem was first noticed when trying to connect Snow Leopard to an SMB share on a Windows 2000 Server box. The SMB connections work fine under Leopard and Tiger.

1. Hit Cmd K - Connect to Server window appears
2. Type "smb://IP_ADDRESS" where IP_ADDRESS is the well, the IP addres of the server
3. Hit Connect
4. Enter your name and password for the server appears
5. Type in authentication credentials (note both domain\user and just user name were tried)
6. Type in password and hit Connect
7. Message appears: "You entered an invalid username or password. Please try again."

The same happens when I tried connecting to an AFP share on the same box. There is no WINS server and the credentials are handled by an NT 4 domain controller box. All the Intel Mac machines in the lab have been tried with no success. I have tried most of the stuff mentioned on Apple's Discussion Board and none of the suggestions given have worked.

I went and did some more investigating. I set up a Windows 2003 Server box and tried connecting Snow Leopard to its share. It worked. I set up another Windows 2000 server box and tried connecting and it also worked. Both of these boxes were not set up on the domain and used local authentication. When I added the boxes to the NT domain, voila! Snow Leopard could no longer connect to either box. I have also tried connecting using local authentication again (while still on a domain) and that doesn't work now either. So, adding the box to an NT domain broke connecting to the 2000/2003 boxes whether connecting to a domain account or local account.

I still haven't come up with any reasonable workaround and am looking forward to hearing about any that comes about.

Jeff Emmel encountered file and print sharing problems with a connect Windows XP workstation:

I installed Mac OS X 10.6 last night and lost connection to my Windows XP machine that has the printer and files I need to access. Yikes.

I installed 10.6 on Friday, 09/04/09, one week before 9/11. I immediately lost my email, print and file share.

MacBook Pro w/ 10.6. File and print share are checked in the share window. XP Pro with HP 6L attached. Netgear router and Qwest DSL.

1. I can talk to the wan/Internet.
2. I can ping my XP print and file server.
3. The file server does not show up in Finder.
4. I get a disconnect error when I Go, Connect to server,
5. I can not get my MacBook Pro to see it in Finder or any other program to share files or to print.
6. Mail is intermittently sending. I can't tell if it is intermittent receiving.

I called Apple tech support and they acted like I was from Mars and they have never heard of these problems.

If you've seen these problems

Hermann Vorster edited a text configuration file in Snow Leopard to fix a problem logging on to Windows SMB file servers:

I've fixed my problem. As far as I can tell, Snow Leopard is fully capable of discovering the network share, but it is having problems resolving the IP address of the server. So, if you edit /etc/hosts and add the IP address and host name of your server, Snow Leopard knows exactly where to find the server and all is solved.

For example: 192.168.1.x hostname

I'm sure there is an easier way to do this with DNS masquerading on one's router, but this is certainly a quick fix.

If you've tried this approach

Meanwhile, Hasan Saydam from Germany verified a workaround for connecting to a Windows workstation from Snow Leopard:

Thanks a lot for your report. Connections to the share as described in the post are working fine. Now I can connect to my share from my MacBook Pro to my Thinkpad and everything is fine.

David S. verified a suggestion of editing the /etc/hosts file on a server to workaround to Snow Leopard problems logging into Windows file servers:

Yes, this works. Annoying, but I don't have a WINS server on the LAN, so it's the way to go.

If you've tried this

Chuck Sumner has a new workaround for Snow Leopard problems with SMB shares. He also said another workaround didn't work:

Changing my samba share password to an all numeric password did solve the problem for me. Editing my /etc/hosts file did not work as far as allowing me to connect to a SMB share via 10.6.1.

If you've tried the password approach

Greg Masada updated his previous report to describe what worked and didn't work for him with password connection problems:

The workaround from Andrew Cunningham works for me:

Machine_Name\Local_Account_Name
Password

I had been using Domain_Name\Domain_Account_Name for NT Domain testing (which still doesn't work under 10.6.1) and for local accounts I had just been doing Local_Account_Name without the machine_Name preceding it. To summarize, this failed:

Local_Account_Name
Password

This worked:

Machine_name\Local_Account_Name
Password

Carlos Martins adds to our collection of reports about Snow Leopard file sharing problems, which he has with access Windows shares and network attached storage via SMB (samba):

I started having some issues when I upgraded to 10.5.8 but usually after a reboot it worked fine again; It was kind of random. When I upgrade to 10.6, all was well but last night I lost my Windows shares. Same as some people, can ping Windows, can even VNC to it or remote desktop but no share. I have a NAS with some samba shares and I have the same problem. The first it occurred, I rebooted like I did for 10.5.8 and all was well again until I closed the MacBook lid again and the shares disappeared. When trying to connect to it, it says that the path cannot be found or something similar. I even tried recreating the shares--same result. A reboot won't help anymore.

Two readers offered another workaround for problems connecting to SMB file sharing in Snow Leopard. Stefan Karos offered this:

In the Connect to Server dialog, type in smb://share:139 .

Where share is the name of the share on your network. I don't know why port 139 has to be specified but once you connect this way, all samba shares appear and can be navigated in the standard network window.

Aaron Maras also reported the same suggestion:

I could not connect to my (Windows SBS 2003 hosted) SMB shares from Finder in 10.6 or 10.6.1 using cmd-k, smb://servername, however using smb://servername:139 works immediately.

If you've tried this suggestion

Two readers confirmed the workaround of using smb://share:139 to log into an SMB server from Snow Leopard, to get around file sharing problems. Jordon Cheung said "Just wanted to say a quick thanks for writing up the below tip. It worked like a charm!"

Serge Rose agreed, "I tried workaround and it works great."

If you've tried this

Brad Carter reports success using the form smb://share:139 to overcome file sharing problems in Snow Leopard:

I have a friend that has two Mac mini's and the one with Snow Leopard quit connecting to his PC. I had him append port 139 to his PC's address in the Connect to Server dialog and it connects. Thanks for the tip on your site.

Dustin Good found that last week's suggestion to fix Snow Leopard problems accessing network attached storage also works accessing an SMB Linux file server. The fix involved adding a line to the device's /etc/smb.conf file. Good reported:

The tip worked for me. Though I was having a problem attaching to a Samba server on an Ubuntu box, the symptoms were identical.

If you've tried this approach

Andrew Rowe, who reported the tip last week, said in his report "Writing files now creates files with proper Windows ACLs instead of just Unix permissions and error code 36 is no longer occurring."

Peter Roehl in Hamburg, Germany verified a fix for Snow Leopard problems accessing Linux SMB file servers:

We have the same problems (on 2 Linux Samba Servers) but the Tip from Andrew works for us. Thanks for that. But we have 2 other Linux-Samba-Servers where we can just connect as usual. Even with the same smb.conf file. Strange.

If you've seen this

Dave Hetherington confirmed a tip last week to fix the problem of Snow Leopard -36 errors. The suggetion is to add "unix extensions = no" to the smb.conf file (or settings) on a Linux server or Mac OS X Server. Hetherington said "We have previously done this on our machines and it works!"

We've also recently posted a variation of this, which is to add "streams-no" to the nsmb.conf file on Snow Leopard clients.

Howard McCollum is another reader who can't connect to a Windows printer from Snow Leopard:

I have a new Mac Pro with snow leopard and cannot connect to my Windows XP machine shared printer.

If you've seen this

A number of readers have confirmed previous reports of Snow Leopard not printing to shared printers connected to Windows PCs. The problem occurs with Windows servers and workstations, where printing works with older versions of Mac OS X. Some users see it as an authentication problem. Patrick Marquetecken sees this with Windows XP:

I have Snow Leopard but it seems impossible to print to an SMB printer connected on a Windows XP machine, I can select the printer but the print job disappears. The file sharing is working without any problems. A machine with Tiger can print without any problems.

Gary Smith sees it with network printer attached to Window Server:

I recently installed the newest version of MAC OS X Snow Leopard on my macbook pro. I then installed the Parallels Desktop upgrade to 4.0 and now I cannot print from the Parallels platform. I am not sure if it is associated with the Mac security update 2009-001 or not, but my print jobs are not even getting to the print queue on the mac side. The job will show up in the print queue on the Parallels desktop, but not in the print queue on the Mac operating system.

Brian W. has the problem printing to a Windows 7 workstation:

I have not been able to find my Epson 9400 printer on my new MacBook Pro. It is hooked up to my Windows 7 64-bit machine, I can see the shared folders just not the printer.

Nicolas Keller sees an authentication problem with a Windows 7 printer

Snow Leopard printing to Windows 7, I can't get it to work. The printer use to work with Leopard. It Printer can't seem to authenticate. It is an HP OfficeJet 6200. I believe that the problem is more at the OS level than at the printer level. Running Snow Leopard on the Mac and Window 7 RTM on the desktop.

Becky also seems to have an authentication issue with Windows XP:

Though I set up a wireless printing thing between my MacBook and my mom's PC running XP, connected to an HP LaserJet 4 by a serial cable, and it worked fine in Tiger, and even for a day in Snow Leopard, now when I try to print it asks for a user name and password, and nothing I can come up with works. I never set any passwords myself, and neither did my mom on her own end, so we can't figure out where this is coming from. Obviously, I tried both my shorthand admin name "iroha" and my real name "becky.reid" with my administrator password and neither of those works; logging in as a guest does not either. I get "errdos: errbadaccess" errors instead.

I read somewhere online about editing the server configuration file in CUPS, but I have no idea how to do this or work with CUPS or Unix whatsoever. The guy on the phone I talked with at Apple Tech Support gave up on this after about 45 minutes, saying that because I was trying to access the printer through a Windows computer, he couldn't give me any more help. He kept suggesting I connect the printer directly to the Macbook, even though I told him several times that I can't because my MacBook doesn't have a serial port, and my mom needs the printer more than I do.

Michael Hallett:

I recently upgraded to OS X 10.6 from 10.5 and can no longer access a Windows network shared HP printer, which was formally accessible. I can see directories and files just fine, but have no ability to print.

Michael Hausman:

I'm experiencing a similar problem with the Okidata C5500n laser printer. The driver has been disabled by the new code in OS 10.6. It works in Leopard 10.5.8 using the Coco code.

If you know of a workaround

TIP: Fix for Snow Leopard printing issues with Windows shared printers

Pat Crail fixed his Snow Leopard probem printing to a Windows-connected printer:

I had the same issue others have reported: new MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard (fully updated), but could not print to a shared printer on a Windows machine via the network. I was able to find and add the printer on the Mac, and the printer model was listed in the drivers setup box, but it wouldn't print.

To resolve the printing issue, I reset the printer setup, then added the printer again. This time, I chose a Canon MP520 Guttenprint driver rather than the Canon MP520 series driver, and used the login and password information that I use to login to my user account on the Windows machine. I don't know if it was the driver or using the incorrect password, but printing works fine now.

Michael Bentley used Terminal to edit his Mac's printer.conf file to fix Snow Leopard problems accessing Windows printers. Previously, we reported a suggestion to remove AuthInfoRequired from the printer.conf file. Bentley took a different approach, changing the line "LPD://[IP Address of Windows Box]" to "smb://username:password@[ip address of windows box]/[Printer Share Name]." Bently said:

I ran into this today and was able to fix it with a bit of hacking printer.conf in /etc/cups/. I blogged the fix here.

If you've tried this fix

Rich Vuduc verified a previously reported fix for Snow Leopard problems accessing Windows printers. This fix edits the printer.conf in /etc/cups/. Vuduc said:

Regarding Michael Bentley's tip, Another fix for Snow Leopard issues with Windows shared printers, just letting you know that the tip worked like a charm!

If you've tried this workaround

Two readers report problems with network attached storage (NAS) devices and Snow Leopard. A number of readers had previously reported problems with Leopard, since the Mac OS X 10.5.7 update. Nick Bensema sees the problem with both SMB and AFP:

I'm experiencing problems with Snow Leopard and my Buffalo LinkStation NAS device. I had a couple of network folders in my sidebar, and I used to be able to click right to them and it would show the whole directory -- maybe it would take a few seconds to sync up if it was for the first time that day. Now, it takes about ten seconds to sync up the contents of the folder every time I visit it. It's a large folder full of jpg and gif images.

The problem persists whether I use SMB or AFP to connect. The LinkStation supports AFP but doesn't recommend it for modern MacOS machines. But when I use SMB, it displays the same "old-school CRT with blue screen of death" icon that it does for Windows boxes, and folder color labels don't carry over.

Matt Whiting gets an Error 36 and a spinning beach ball:

I too have this problem, although different symptoms to James Spencer, as follows: - constantly spinning 'clock' in the Finder window whilst trying to list long directories (e.g. my iTunes Music folder), with no listing displayed. iTunes can still play music from these directories, though, and I can browse them through Terminal. - error -36 when trying to write to ANY directory on the share (i.e. even the shorter ones that are visible).

I am using a cheap Landisk NAS box, which I believe may run some sort of BSD - and probably an old version of Samba. It worked fine, albeit slowly, under Leopard.

If you're having problems connecting Snow Leopard to NAS devices

Two readers shared two very different workarounds to Mac OS X 10.6 problems connecting to network attached storage (NAS). One reader uses a web browser to type a path. Another found that the problem partially resolved after he installed iTunes 9. A third reader forwarded some German-language links for our German speakers.

Matt Whiting fowarded the web-browser workaround, which also fixed the Finder problems:

You may want to add the experience and work-around that I discovered this morning. I'd not made any progress with this (and the new iTunes was still hanging), and was resigned to waiting for 10.6.1 (which according to the rumours, may address Finder issues with shares). But then I discovered an extremely odd work-around: before trying to browse the share in the Finder, go to the directory via a browser, Firefox in my case, and in my case the URL is file:///Volumes/Media/Music/. This displays the folder just fine (as per going via Terminal). But subsequently, the share is available via Finder too! How weird is that?

We agree, that's pretty weird. But so is John Harris's fix, who found that iTunes 9 partially worked:

I have a WAG54GS Router and hanging off of it is a 1 TByte FAT32 disc which was accessible prior to Snow Leopard. Strange thing is I downloaded iTunes 9 on 09/09/2009 (no coincidence I hope) and it recognizes my server disk and music on it. I am in no technical but I find this very strange when the normal Go/Connect to Server does not work. Using the Finder route and stored username and passwords gets me nowhere.

(As John Lennon said on the White Album, number 9, number 9, number 9...) If you've tried either of these fixes for NAS storage

Marcus Kammerlander sent us some links about the problem a couple of German-language forums:

It seems it's a larger problem and a lot of NAS are included. In the German apfeltalk forum is a thread and on MacBug.de.

We continue to receive reports of Mac OS X 10.6 not connecting to network attached storage devices. The problems occur with both AFP and SMB sharing.

Dennis Ostrovsky can't connect as a guest:

I have an Addonics NASU2 unit which has a 1TB HD plugged into it. In 10.5.8 I had no problems connecting to it as guest, which I have enabled. Now in 10.6.1 (and 10.6) it will not allow me to connect as Guest, claiming that the server does not allow guest access, which it does. I have not changed anything on the NAS since upgrading to SL. I tried adding an account with a password to my NAS and it still won't connect! Something is just really screwed up.

Frank van Brenk sees the error -36 message:

I have the same problems as Matt Whiting. I can browse my Freecom Network Disk but when I'm opening files I get an error "An unexpected error occurred (error code -36)."

Malcolm Heath finds that the Finder stops responding:

I have a new iMac with Snow Leopard installed and have the same issue with a QNAP NAS device. Connects OK and can view the first directories but if I browse to a subdirectory then Finder stops responding.

If you know of a workaround that works

Today we a number of reader reports regarding Snow Leopard's problems accessing network attached storage (NAS), with both SMB and AFP protocols. The problem seems affect many different brands and models, including Apple's Time Capsule. The 10.6.1 update has not fixes the issue.

Vas had a workaround that worked until the 10.6.1 update:

Accessing NAS constantly getting errors 36 and 8072. Workaround which I hope is temporary is CyberDuck ftp login. It was working fine until recently even in 10.6.1 and then it just all but crapped out.

Dirk Moeller tried using aliases to connect to his Time Capsule:

I upgraded my MacBook Pro from Mac OS 10.5.8 to Mac OS 10.6 and now to 10.6.1 I use a Time Capsule 1GB as a NAS over Ethernet. I had aliases on my desktop to connect to some folders. With Snow Leopard it's impossible to get a connection, the original is missing (but I can get Information of my folder with this alias!) If I connect with the Server on the left side of the Finder I get a connection, but it not stable, sometimes it works for 10 minutes, sometimes only for a minute.

Someone told me to connect via SMB, and it works, but even then the Alias works only sometimes! I made a screenshot-film ( MB) https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/943870/TimeCapsule.m4v

While one reader previously reported that iTunes9 fixed his problem, Craig McBain thinks problem may have begun at the time he updated to iTunes 9:

I too am having a problem accessing my NAS files. I am using a WD Mybook World Edition 1TB and using SL 10.6. I think (although not too sure) that my problems started when I installed iTunes 9.

I can see my server in the 'Shared' section of Finder and but when I try to connect to it I cannot see the shared folders. iTunes can still see all the shared music on the NAS and I can still access it via Safari (the admin pages) but Finder cannot see anything on the drive.

After updating the Firmware for the NAS, the only change was that I can now see two entries in my 'Shared' section in Finder: both the same name but the second one has '-Back-Up' after the name. Still no access to the shares.

I have tried the suggestions at your site but still no luck. I cannot see any of the existing shares. If I create a new share, I can see that! I cannot get into the old shares to transfer the data to the new one!

Tommy Birchett sees the error -36 with a NetApp Filer device:

We are getting this error when we copy files to our NetApp via CIFS using 10.6.1. The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "filename" can't be read or written. (Error code -36). The file copies, but I believe the extended attributes are stripped. I discovered this link where someone else with a netapp is having the same issue.

Bill Ambrose is seeing very slow connections:

I have seen your page. I have a Buffalo network storage attached, with a Windows network running off SMB 2003. Worked (just - bit flakey often dropping connection) with 10.5.8. Doesn't connect at all in Snow Leopard (well connected once very briefly but lost again almost straight away) SMB2003 is accessible but usually takes 3 tries at about 2 minutes each to get connection working. I would have though Snow Leopard would improve connectivity. Opposite seems to be true.

Chris McGonagle's other computers can access the device, but Snow Leopard can't:

I was just reading your page and I am also reporting (like Matt Whiting) that I am getting an Error Code -36 when trying to access a Freecom Network Drive from within Snow Leopard. It must be the upgrade as my wife's PC and Xbox Media Center can still connect to the device.

Keith Smith forwarded the Console log entry:

I have just installed Snow Leopard and now cannot read or write files to my Landisk NAS drive. My Mac sees the drive just fine and shows the folders that can be browsed but no files will load or can be written. This generates a 'unexpected error (error code -36) and the respective application cannot be opened. Updating the Landisk firmware to NAS-BASIC48B6, loader 69 has not solved the problem. The Console logs show the following log: kernel smb_maperr32: no direct map for 32 bit server error (0xc0000161).

Dmitry Krapivin verified a previously reported problem with Snow Leopard AFP and SMB problems accessing Apple's Time Capsule:

Absolutely the same problem exists for me on my MacBook Air! I cannot use my Time Capsule disk via AFP. And via SMB it mounts, but the connection is very slow.

Jon Harris found that the tip about using numeric passwords worked for network attached storage. The tip originally was reported for file servers. Harris said:

I encountered this same reported problem trying to access SMB shares on my NAS (D-Link DNS-323) having upgraded to Snow Leopard. I'm only on a small home network, so no fancy domains or name servers. I tried the numeric password fix and it solved the problem - although I'm concerned that a numeric password is not as secure as a full alpha numeric one, so would be hoping for Apple to sort this out.

Philomeno Cappador verified that using an all-numeric password fixes Snow Leopard problems accessing network attached storage (NAS) via SMB:

I have an iOmega NAS and recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and noticed that I could not access any of my password protected shares. I have experienced issues in the past connecting via SMB or CIFS with Leopard (10.5.x), many times my MacBook would just freeze while trying to copy files. I followed the advice to change the NAS share password to all numeric, and it worked.

I suspect this has something to do with the SMB configuration in Snow Leopard. I have experimented with Linux quite a bit and getting SMB to work with Windows or Mac machines is challenging and most of the time it has to do with authentication. I am positive that this issue has to do with configuration at the OS files dealing with SMB in Snow, and I certainly hope for Apple to acknowledge and resolve the issue.

Kyle reports success with using a numeric password to fix Snow Leopard problems accessing network attached storage (NAS):

In regards to your helpful page I used numeric passwords on my western digital NAS and it worked.

Five more readers report success with adding port 139 to the SMB file sharing logon (smb://share:139) as a workaround to problems with Snow Leopard accessing SMB servers. One reader said it didn't work. Tyler Gingrich reported:

Snow Leopard "139" SMB server access tip port trick worked once but after I unmounted the drive, can't get it mounted again.

It did work for Scott Ficek, however:

I was so frustrated that I could not see my Windows Machines. I found your article via Google and it worked like a champ!

Michael Reeves reported success:

I was very happy to come across this tip. This has been the only way for me to successfully access my files. Thanks.

As did Rob Dickerson:

I added port 139 to the SMB address and it worked first time. Thanks for posting this.

And Pastor Russ Troester

Just saw work around on your website regarding using port 139 to access SMB shares in Snow Leopard as I have been having issues at work. I tried this workaround, and it worked immediately.

George Richards:

Just confirming that I tried the port 139 to connect to an smb drive from snow leopard. It worked great.

Andrew Rowe found a solution to the Snow Leopard problem accessing network attached storage (NAS) via SMB. He added a line to the /etc/smb.conf file to clear up the problem:

Our Snow Leopard upgrade was experiencing was an issue with an SMB connection to a samba-based NAS device (Snap Server 410) joined to a Win2k domain. When the Snow Leopard Macs are bound to Active Directory trying to write files to the NAS device results in the "Error Code -36" message many have seen. A 0-byte file is created, but that's it. Any number of folders can be created without trouble. Reading from the shares is unaffected. If using the CLI, writes to the share are fine, it is only when using Finder.

I got on a hot lead thanks to your reader Tommy Birchett who provided this link. I also found this, which suggested that Snow Leopard is now sending chmod commands to change the Unix permissions. I have observed this to be the case in 10.5.x, noticing that the Unix permissions then trump the Windows ACLs and cause havoc with my Windows users.

I had success by adding a line to the /etc/smb.config on the NAS device: "unix extensions = no". After setting that and restarting Samba, these issues were immediately resolved. Writing files now creates files with proper Windows ACLs instead of just Unix permissions and error code 36 is no longer occurring.

If you've tried this suggestion

NOTE: readers have reported that this fix also works with Linux SMB servers.

A software developer reports that Novell AFP Server is incompatible with Snow Leopard. The Condrey Corporation called it a bug in Mac OS X 10.6 that prevents Snow Leopard from mounting AFP volumes hosted on NetWare and Open Enterprise Server 2 SP1. Whether or not it is a bug in the operating system, Condrey does not claim it is a problem with AFP in general. Group Logic's AFP server, ExtremeZ-IP does not have this problem.

If you've seen any problems with Snow Leopard and AFP file sharing

Craig Chambers is having problems saving Office 2008 files to a Windows server:

I've encountered a problem saving Office 2008 documents to a Windows server (SBS2003 SP2, not RC2 in my case) in 10.6. It looks like I am not the only one having this problem. Please see this post I started at Microsoft.

After upgrading to 10.6 everything seemed to be fine with my Office installation until I tried to save a document that I had opened from a network share. When trying to save a document opened from a Windows share I receive the following error message:

Word cannot save this file. The disk may be full or write protected. Try one or more of the following:

• Free more memory
• Make sure that the disk you want to save the file on is not full, write protected, or damaged

The error in Excel is similar, I have not tried PowerPoint but I would expect the same message.

Needless to say the disk is not write protected and the file is not read only. I can open and edit other files in the same folder in different applications, I can even open Word docs in TextEdit and overwrite the file but Office 2008 will not save the file. If I try to save the file to my local drive after the error message is displayed, Office crashes.

I am connecting to the share through the network browser in the sidebar but have also tried the Connect to Server menu and tried both smb and cifs connections. Neither works.

I have removed and reinstalled Office 2008 and run the updates to 12.2.1, I have reboot several times, repaired disk permissions and run a disk check, all to no avail. I am trying to connect with a MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz with 4GB or RAM running 10.6.

I can now create a new document in Word and save it to the server in .docx format (.doc will NOT save at all which is what we use around here) When it saves however is becomes a read only file even though the permissions show that I have read/write permissions on the file (I see this both on the Mac side as well as the server side security properties). At this point I can make a change and do a Save As and it will save, but as a read only again and they have to be .docx files to be able to even do that.

If you've seen this problem

David Doerksen is seeing the problem with saving Office files from Snow Leopard to Windows servers. He updated to Snow Leopard and Office 12.2.1 at the same time, on an Activite Directory network:

Regarding Craig Chambers' report on the above issue, his experience mirrors mine exactly. Mac Mini running Snow Leopard, Office 2008 with updates through 12.2.1. Document-saving to the Windows SBS 2003 Server worked normally before I did the following:

• Upgrading to Snow Leopard
• Joining the machine to Active Directory
• Installing the Office 12.2 and 12.2.1 updates

After which I put it into production today, only to have this come up within the first hour of use. This is our first Mac machine in a Windows environment.

If you've seen this issue

Responding to reports of problems saving Office files from Snow Leopard to Windows servers, a reader forwarded a suggestion that worked in Leopard:

I had similar problem under Mac OS X 10.5.8; Disabling autosave/autorecover solved the problem.

If you've had this problem in Snow Leopard and tried this suggestion

Marco Junge from Germany confirmed the Snow Leopard problem of saving Office files to Windows servers:

I have got installed a SBS 2008 and ,what a luck, I only updated one client to test. The following things I did:

• Upgrading to Snow Leopard
• Office 2008 was already installed with service pack 12.2 and 12.2.1

Failures I have seen up to now:

I can't save excel documents in xls but can in xlsx

If I save Word documents on the server they are marked as read only until I shut down everything.

Previously, a reader reported that disabling autosave/autorecover fixed the problem. If you've seen the problem and tried this approach

Although there were indications that the Snow Leopard 10.6.2 update might fix problems with Office apps saving files to SMB file servers, Antonio Luis Duarte still sees the problem:

We're having same issue. Can't save any Office 2008 file on a volume shared, even with 10.6.2 and the last update of office 12.2.3. We've tried :

installing all Macs with 10.6.2, then Active Directory and then Office

installing all Macs with 10.6.2, then Office and the Active Directory

adding administratives rights to the machine for users--still nothing.

If you've seen this with the 10.6.2 update

A number of readers agree with a previous post that the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update does not fix the Snow Leopard problem with saving Office 2008 files to SMB servers. (We've previoulsy posted one suggested workaround, described above.) Rocky Spain describes the issue:

We are still unable to save files to our Windows Server from Office 2008, we can save once but then it is marked as "read-only." Disabling autorecover didn't fix this for us. Mac OS X 10.6.2

Ted Varias said that dragging files to the server works, but saving from Office doesn't. However, the problem doesn't occur with AFP:

We too are having the network file saving problem with Office 2008 and Snow Leopard. Our file servers are Windows 2003 R2, and our affected client machines are running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 with Office 12.2.3. Any Office file that is saved on a Windows file server cannot be saved to the server. It must be saved locally and then dragged to the file server from a Finder window.

This issue only appears to be limited to SMB shares. AFP shares seem to function correctly. This behavior does not occur with any Leopard (10.5.x) clients; they function correctly regardless of the server type.

Ben McEniery in Australia:

I also have this problem. The problem remained after the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.2.

Jacob Piotrowski:

Our company has also been experiencing a very similar issue too this with our first 10.6 Mac being here. We recently purchased a new Mac that was running 10.6.1 and Office 2008 (12.2.1). Our main file server here is running Windows 2008 SP2. Though we have also reproduced the issue connecting to an old file server running Windows 2003 R2. Whenever the user opens a file with either Word or Excel (have not tested PowerPoint since she does not use it anyways) it creates TWO locks on the file on the file server. It is like the user has opened the file twice which then creates a lock on the file. It is not labeled as read only in the title bar, but if she goes to save it will not allow her since the file is in use.

If we open the documents with anything else (such as text edit) they work fine.

I have tried unbinding and rebinding the machine to AD, uninstalling and reinstalling Office 2008, upgrading Mac OS to 10.6.2 now and Office to 12.2.3. Same result along the way. This issue is not affecting any of our other 10.5.x machines on the network which leads me to believe this is a 10.6.x issue. Also as a side note this user has a second machine running 10.5.6 and Office 2008 and has no issues on that machine.

We've previoulsy posted one suggested workaround, described above.

Microsoft and Apple said to be working on Snow Leopard/Office 2008 file saving problem

We've had some comments on the suggested workaround for the Snow Leopard problem saving Office 2008 files to SMB servers. Gopal Patel said it didn't work:

I tried the workaround of disabling autosave/autorecover mentioned at your site. That did not solve the issue, if you want to let others know.

Several other readers asked how to disable this in Office 2008. Here's how: In and Office app's Preferences, click the Save icon, then uncheck "Save Autorecover info every ____ minutes."

We have five more reports on the Snow Leopard bug that prevents users from saving Office 2008 files to SMB servers. (AFP servers do not have this problem.) Krister Laag has a theory. Like some other users, Laag sees this only in Active Directory domains:

It appears that only Macs that are bound (and restarted) to the AD gets the problem (I have not tried when the user at logon is authenticated to the AD). When looking at the permissions of a file on the SMB share (from the Mac client), the local users name is in the permissions profile and not the credentials used to log onto the share. If you try (and have the permission) to alter the permissions of that file, the permissions go haywire and require an AD admin to fix it as the file will now have an owner that is not listed in the AD. Unbind the Mac (and restart) and the problem goes away. This is tried on both Windows server 2003 and 2008, both with latest updates.

My personal belief is that it's related to how Office saves the files as there is a copy made and some renaming done in the background. I think the bug really is the same as the 10.6 Finder copy bug.

Tommy Birchett confirms that the problem is with Active Directory and certain file types:

I can confirm that our AD bound Snow Leopard computers with Office 12.2.x have problems saving .xls, .ppt, .doc and .docx files to our SMB shares. Funny thing is I have someone using 12.1.x with Snow Leopard and he is not having this problem. I have not had time to test all versions of 12.1.x and 12.2.x, but it appears possible that older version of MS Office might be OK with Snow Leopard-- at least with regard to this particular issue.

Jason Worf said the problem leaves an unreadable file on the server:

I have the same problem as the user you quoted on your website. It started when I installed Snow Leopard. If I try to save something to the server in a legacy format from Word or Excel it rejects it with this message: "Word cannot save or create this file. The disk may be full or write-protected. Try one of the following: Free more memory. Mac sure that the disk you want to save the file on is not full, write-protected, or damaged."

The process leaves a non-readable file on the server like this: Word Work File D_1.tmp.

Matt Lee reported that the workaround of disabling Autorecover doesn't work:

Just an FYI the auto saving feature does not fix this issue, nor does the recently released Office 12.2.3 patch.

Gregg Sales agreed:

I have this option unchecked. Creating a file in Word and saving it to a Win 2008 server as an domain admin creates a read only file. No fix yet.

TIP: Workaround for Snow Leopard/Office/Adobe file saving problem

Several readers responded to the workaround we reported on Monday for the Snow Leopard problem saving Office files to SMB servers in Active Directory environments. Randy Tamura reports success with the workaround :

I tried the work around of making the owner "NETWORK SERVICE" and it worked for me. I tried both xls and doc files and they both saved to the SMB directory and also to subdirectories of the shared directory. I'm running 10.6.2 on the Mac and WinServer2003.

Anthony Gomez had a question about the security of this solution:

I can confirm that while a Mac is bound to AD server it has trouble saving MS Office docs to directories on that server, and turning off AD binding from the Mac will correct this problem.

I have a question about Chris Eads fix though, as he mentions on Thursday Dec 14th, and I'm maybe "NEW" in asking this, but how does changing ownership of the shared directories to "Network Service" effect the security of those same directories; also how does this affect how other things behave with regards to those directories having "Network Services" as the new owner.

If you know the answer

The workaround didn't work for Allen Escobar, and he sent some observations:

I was glad to see the posting by Chris Eads and the suggestion about making NETWORK SERVICE as the owner of the folder, unfortunately after trying his suggestion it does not appear to be working for me. I am not sure if I just didn't follow his suggestion correctly or if the fact that I am running Windows Server 2008 (in a VM environment) and not Windows Server 2003 that makes a difference. I am still having this same issue on the two Macs that I have joined to our domain - each one is running 10.6.2 and Office 2008 and the users are logging in with their Domain accounts.

Here are some odd things that I do want to point out in attempting to troubleshoot this issue:

* Both Mac users can save files to their Home folder without any issues. Since they are part of the domain I have their Home folders redirected to a folder on the same network/server. By this I mean that their Home folder is redirected in the same fashion as a Windows user has their My Documents folder redirected to a location on the server. I believe this is what is referred to as a Mobile Account/Login.

* Even when logged in with an account that has both Domain and Local Admin privileges, the results are the same. So is it a privileges or authentication issue?

* This I think is the oddest part that I have noticed about this issue, which I hope I can explain correctly - I open Word 2008 and create a document which I save to the Windows server without any issues, of course after which the file becomes "READ-ONLY" once it is saved. However, what I noticed is that regardless of the permissions that the file has, if I select the file that was saved to the server and "Get Info" for the file, I am able to reopen the document without it being READ-ONLY. This then allows me to make changes to the document and resave it as you would normally be able to, of course the file once again becomes READ-ONLY after resaving it. I can repeat this step over and over without making any changes to the file or folder permissions. My thought is that when you query the file info, it sort of rewrites the correct permissions to the file which allows you to open the document as you normally would open any document.

It also works when you query "Get Info" on the folder that contains the documents. Doing so allows you to open every document contained in that folder without it being a READ-ONLY file, of course it still holds true that once you resave the file, it reverts to READ-ONLY again, but the other documents are still ok until you open and save them also.

Christian Volk finds that Snow Leopard Macs are not updating Windows server folders in the Finder:

SMB shares out of Windows 2000 Server don't update properly as long as a Snow Leopard machine has attempted to delete a file or folder. Even viewing from the server, the file is "locked" until Snow Leopard logs out of the share, at which point everything updates correctly, such that a deleted file actually disappears. When Snow Leopard logs back in, it sees a correctly updated directory.

If you've seen this problem

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We've had reports of slow Snow Leopard connections to network attached storage devices, but Ron Breton is seeing this with a Windows server:

I have an iMac running 10.6 and connected to a server running Windows Home Server (WHS). Everything is hard wired, no wireless. Until 10.6, everything worked nice and fast. Now sub-folders take really long to open, sometimes upwards of 10 seconds.

This is most definitely an issue with Snow Leopard.

If you've seen this problem

Several readers responded to the problem of slow Snow Leopard SMB connection to Win servers. One reader said typing the path solved the problem, another said it didn't. Don Wershba said that not connecting through the Finder resolved the issue for him:

My fix was to connect directly via the "Connect to Server" (Command-K) and not use an alias of the server. Connecting in that manner resolved all speed issues - Folders and files display immediately (probably as much faster than 10.5 as I see others improve). A bit of a drag that I cannot utilize a Desktop Alias for my server anymore, but I'll take speed over convenience any day!

Sven Geisler, however, still sees slow performance when using a path:

I do have the same issue. I'm running a Windows Server 2008 SP2 as file server. I have three iMacs which using the Windows file share with 'smb://<hostname>/<path'. The network is a switched gigabit-network - no WiFi. Everything works very well until I installed 10.6. It takes very long if you open a directory before the Finder does show the content of this directory. I left one iMac on 10.5.x and this Mac works still very well and doesn't have this issue.

Stephen Walton sees slow SMB access on two Macs, as well as other SMB problems:

I have exactly the same problem, both on my iMac running 10.6 and on my MBP running 10.6.1. Also the MBP running 10.6.1 will not mount any Win Server drives. No problems in 10.5.8.

Tom Waterhouse in the United Kingdom reports that the Snow Leopard 10.6.2 did not fix a problem with slow access to Windows servers:

Although 10.6.2 fixed Windows server browsing for some, my problem still remains after the update. I've had full access to our Windows servers here since 10.6, however compared to 10.5 performance was very poor. Every now and then the Finder (or any application trying to access the server) will pause, appearing to be waiting to reconnect to the server.

If you've seen this problem

Four readers responded to SMB Windows browsing still slow in 10.6.2, with tales of slow browsing as well as slow file transfer with large files in Snow Leopard. Callum Spence reported:

Regarding Slow Snow Leopard SMB connection to Win server, this is a very frustrating bug in 10.6. I have a large amount of data saved on a Windows server that I continuously access and each time I open a different folder it takes 10-25 seconds to show the contents.

Jan Willem Heining in Amsterdam had the same problem:

I'm having the same problems as mentioned in the update of Monday, November 23, 2009. The configuration of my MacBook Pro is 10.6.2, 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM

Jeremy Varnham only sees the problem with large files over 5 MB in size:

At work I am on a large Windows-based (Active Directory) network, I don't know what version. The management has recently been generous enough to buy me the latest i7 iMac with maxed-out specs. It is running OS X 10.6.2. My computer is not bound to the Active Directory, but I can browse network shares, and have saved the credentials in my keychain. I can access the SMB shares either by Command-K or by clicking on a shortcut I put in the Finder toolbar.

Browsing the directory structure on the SMB share is usually fast; however, if I copy a file over approx 5Mb in size the Finder becomes almost unresponsive (beachballing) and the file takes an unreasonably long time to complete. Files over 100Mb will not make it - the Finder hangs completely. While a file is copying, it is almost impossible to browse the share, or if the file is large, even to browse local folders.

Occasionally I have the issue where deleted files remain visible until I disconnect and reconnect to the share.

Aaron Green:

I was reading the site for the first time and I wanted to tell you that I am also having the same problems with SMB connections to my SBS 2008 server. I am an IT admin using a MacBook Pro in a completely Microsoft environment. Before I had Snow Leopard everything was pretty fast, but now connections are a pain in the butt because they take too long. And when I do finally connect to the share, on a wired network connection, copying files is painfully slow, it took me hours to copy 2 GB of data from my computer to the server, hardly fast for state of the art computing.

Ethernet connections sometimes stop working on John Wiegley's Snow Leopard-installed Mac, particularly when he is using network attached storage:

I'm also having issues with my NAS and Snow Leopard. The problem from me -- both from a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro, both running 10.6.1 -- is that Ethernet will inexplicably stop working at random times. When it does, any attempt to use networking in any way, whether ping or running netstat, will completely lock that process until I reset the machine. I can still use the machine in every other way, but of course the NAS and the Internet are locked out. I'm not sure if this is network AFP related or not, but I only notice it happening when I'm using the NAS constantly.

If you've seen this

Jürgen Kirkovits discovered that using an umlauted character in an SMB user name gave him a "wrong password" error in Snow Leopard. Removing the character fixed it:

I had a problem with connection to shared directories from my Snow Leopard MacBook to a Windows 7 PC as well. I recently re-installed my HTPC ("updated" from Win 7 RC to final), but chose a different username (Jürgen instead of JK). I started getting a "password incorrect" error when trying to connect to my shares (which worked with Snow Leopard before the new Win 7 installation).

I just then a new account named 'JK' and it works! So I can definitely confirm that Snow Leopard has issues connection to SMB-shares with special characters in the user name. Hope that Apple fixes that soon!

If you've seen this

Readers have previously reported problems printing from Snow Leopard to Windows-connected printers, but Mausy's problem is the other way around:

Have an iMac (early 2008) with an Epson DX7450 connected via USB. This printer is being shared across the network. Earlier this week this set-up worked fine. I could print from my Windows XP SP3 PC to the Epson printer without any problems. However, things changed after installing Snow Leopard (10.6.1). Now, when I print from the Windows PC I get a print-out of the page; BUT the print-out is reduced in size and centered on the page.

I believe my problem is Snow leopard related, as I've not changed anything on the Windows box. I had the same problem also on virtual machines running locally. I've solved that by configuring the VM to show the USB-port to the virtual OS. Then I just installed the printer's driver in Win XP on the virtual machine. It detected the printer and that's working fine now. Of course, that is not an option when I'm connecting across the network to my Mac.

I've looked at the printer's settings on the Windows machine. The printer is set-up to print to http://AlphaMac.local:631/printers/<printername>

I've tested with the print processor set to RAW, NT EMF 1.008 and TEXT. The first two gave similar results, the latter doesn't work at all (as expected).

On the Mac side I get messages in the log from the firewall when I'm printing from the Windows-box: Firewall[60] Allow cupsd connecting from 10.0.1.4:1153 to port 631 proto=6 Firewall[60] Allow smbd connecting from 10.0.1.4:1155 to port 139 proto=6

So, that's where I'm stuck.

The Windows XP SP3 computer has Bonjour installed. I've configured a printer driver through Bonjour to my Epson DX7450 (that uses the driver for HP Color LJ 4550 PS). I've also configured a printer-driver directly as a network printer also to the same Epson DX7450. However, here I'm using a slightly different driver: HP Color LJ 8500 PS.

Printing to the Epson from within OS X with the Epson drivers supplied by Apple seems to be working fine.

If you have a suggestion

Although one reader previously reported that the 10.6.2 update fixed his problems with file sharing, Stephen Graham still has the problem. His workaround is to use the command line in Terminal:

I've only ever used OS X on and off over the years so I'm no expert in these things, but I've found the attempting to connect to a Windows/Linux SMB share from the Finder 'Connect to Server' dialog doesn't work. I have tried all of the solutions offered here, but none have worked for me.

However, I have found that I can connect if I setup the connection via the command line.

Assuming that your local account name (on OS X) is the same as the account name on the SMB share that you're connecting to the following will work.

mount -t smbfs //<server-name-or-ip>/<share-name> /Volumes/<mount-point>

You will be prompted for your password.

You will then hopefully be connected to the share. However, the share doesn't show up in the Finder, so it can only be used from the command line. I'm wondering if there are any OS X users who know how to complete this solution. In any case, this might show that the problem exists in the Finder rather than in the underlying Samba code.