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How to mount a Windows shared folder on your Mac
lifehacker.com — So you've made the switch to Mac, but kept your old PC, and now you've got both connected to your home router. How do you access your Windows files from OS X? Turns out that Mac OS X can connect to Windows shared folders very easily. Read on to find out how.
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- vinchBR, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7thats great!!!
now i can share my folder with my fiancee mac..
but it would be nice to know the other way around also =)- Fedge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12It's pretty easy. Open up the sharing pref pane, and check "Windows Sharing" (or FTP Access, if that's your cup of tea). Then on the windows side, you connect to: \\Your.IP.Address.Here\username
Pretty fool-proof, actually. - TheCount, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2While we're on the topic, can someone please explain to me what to do on my mac when I try to connect to a drive on my PC and get an error saying the alias or whatever is bad, it always gives me the option to fix or deleted and neither one is exactly self explanatory since it just dumps you in Finder.
- Teaboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5And you can seemlessly create hundreds of useless files prefixed ._ too!
- Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For people trying to have your mac/linux/etc connect to a Windows Vista share and can't get it to work (it claiming invalid password among many other seemingly random error messages), read my post further down this page.
It will save you a whole lot of frustration, effort, and cursing Microsoft. - uranium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1c'mon do we really need a tutorial for this. All u have to do is click on finder -> Network. OR just press command+K and enter "smb://nameOfComp".. thats it!
- Justin6512, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah, this isn't that hard to figure out.
you open up finder, see the big button called network, then you see your network name, click on your windows computer and accept. not hard.
- Fedge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12It's pretty easy. Open up the sharing pref pane, and check "Windows Sharing" (or FTP Access, if that's your cup of tea). Then on the windows side, you connect to: \\Your.IP.Address.Here\username
- Derfus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3the other way around is just as easy, add network place, put in the IP, bam
- Gryffydd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I always have trouble getting OS X to connect to Samba shares, but never trouble accessing Windows shares....go figure.
- Herolint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't have any problems at all with Samba shares. Actually, I don't have any problems with Windows shares either; come to think of it. I just don't use them as much.
- joerod, on 10/12/2007, -6/+29come on how basic is this...
- SnowBladerX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Marked as Lame for this exact reason
- bobbydiamondz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Agreed. Especially since it doesn't mention the fact that you can browse the network in the Finder to find the share without even dealing with the IP address.
- Herolint, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3This is very basic, but the problem isn't with OS X, it is with Windows. Try connecting to a Samba share with OS X. It just works.
It is difficult sometimes to get Windows machines talking together; at least for the common user.
- DirtyBrowncoat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Here's my problem with this:
You have to do this with every "share" individually. So for every folder that you share on your Windows PC, you have to go to that "connect" window, enter the PC's address, and choose one share at a time from the available shares.
Is there any OS X program that allows a Mac to explore the different shares of a PC, instead of mounting these as drives, one at a time? Thanks in advance.- Fedge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Dave: http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html
I used to use this before Tiger and Panther. It's kinda... wonky, but it might suit your needs. - seattle98104, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2um just share your root drive. mount. explore.
- mmzplanet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 I just create an automator app that will mount all of my shares. I have 2 Automator apps in my dock, one mounts all my shares at home... the other for work. Just click the app for where you are.
- danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just create an alias on my Apple machine to the shares that I want on my Windows machine. The shares look just like any other folder on my Mac. Go into the folder and everything happens behind the seen, no need to enter an ip or share names again. Hold down ALT+CMD and drag the folder wherever you want it to create an alias. Once you've done that for the shares you care about it feels like the networked shares are actually files on your machine. I also changed the finder preferences to not display connected network drives on the desktop to avoid clutter.
- Fedge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Dave: http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html
- ButterBuddha, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1very carefully....
- scottauth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I wish I would have read this yesterday! I was on site at a branch for my bank that was without Internet access. I needed to transfer some files from the server to take to another branch. My thumb drive had died and I was out of luck. I ended up figuring out how to mount the shared folder on my iBook but had I read this earlier it would have saved a bit of time.
- awldun, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3LOL....his computer's named Gina...
"Gina?"
"G-eye-na."
/from '40-year old virgin'- truk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The computer name is SCULLY, user name is GINA. The author's name is Gina Trapani.
X-Files fan maybe?
- truk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The computer name is SCULLY, user name is GINA. The author's name is Gina Trapani.
- willk281, on 10/12/2007, -24/+0Mac users:
Q:What's better than finding tons of complicated and often boot-legged ways to mimic the functions of a PC?
A: A PC.- tdowling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7How is that even related to this article?
- locnguyen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Forgive me, I wasn't aware these common functions were Microsoft only.
What a tool!
- cfizzo, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3THAT IS HELLA EASY. I DID IT WAY BEFORE THIS GUIDE CAME OUT. I THINK ANYONE ON DIGG COULD DO THIS WITHOUT THE GUIDE. LAME.
- TheCount, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8YOU ARE SO COOL!
- ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4did you just use the *word* "hella?"
. . .
- Wooism, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"It just works". Why are we posting something so elementary?
- weneedsound, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2This is actually way more complicated than it should be for local file sharing.
- Misaiato, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Are you serious? apple + k type in smb://ipaddress and hit connect - that's complicated?
If he's being sarcastic I honestly can't tell. - dvddesign, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Actually, I'd believe him to be serious. It's like half as much work to map a drive from a windows box than this.
If you're desperately lazy, you can go to Finder and click on Go, then choose Connect to Folder and your shared systems will be listed there. - weneedsound, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Sure, for me and you this is fine. But for the average 'user' they don't understand what a IP address or what they are doing when they are following any of those steps.
Most 'users' don't know how to use google as a tool to even find information on this.
Stop being a Mac1337ist and just admit the windows file sharing is a shoddy implementation.
You can't just add 'walllah its magic' at the end of a tutorial. You have to look at it from the point of view of the damn 'users'.
- Misaiato, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Are you serious? apple + k type in smb://ipaddress and hit connect - that's complicated?
- JiveTurk3y, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I'll just stick with my floppies to transfer stuff... this is much too complicated...
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I love streaming movies off floppies. Although, you have to have quick hands since you need to put a new floppy in every 30 seconds or so.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You may need to have two quick hands depending on what kind of movie you're playing.
- emorphien, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This needs a digg article?
- dvddesign, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Jeez, that's a way-complicated writeup for sharing a folder.
I just click on my Network icon, pick out the machine I want a drive shared from, click it, authenticate and go.
The setup's about the same, but I don't spend all my time writing down IP addresses... - pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Haha. Half the comments are about this being too complicated and the other ones are about it being too simple to warrant a Digg submission. Pick one, people. :D
I've never had any problem doing this. The day I bought my first Mac, I opened the finder, went to the network, and it found my Samba shares from my Ubuntu box. Now I just have the URI saved in the Apple+K dialog so it's always just a key press and a click away. I've always thought it was interesting that the easiest way to share files between Linux and a Mac is Microsoft's proprietary protocol. - trc0, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2What about hidden shares?
- ,,|,_, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I map to the hidden D$ share on my file server by typing the smb://IPAddress/D$
- Wooism, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This article is just lame. For one why are they showing you manual ways to log into a Windows box? You don't need an IP, you only need to know what the Windows PC's name is. And you don't have to type it in. You just Open finder, select Network and your network shares will appear in about two seconds. It's actually much simpler than even pc-to-pc network sharing.
- ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5this is why i havnt been to digg in a month.
this crap making front page...
"Digg, N00b driven" - cozb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0
If I mount shares from two different computers but with the same share name, d$, how can I tell them apart? In windows the server name is displayed as part of the path on top of the window. - CrazyMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For some reason I could never get this to work. Whenever I get to the point where I enter my Windows name and password it tells me that it alias cannot be found and to either delete it or fix it. What should I do?
- egarcia79, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it isnt as hard as this article makes it. i set this up within minutes of getting my first mac a few years ago. you don't have to enter the ip address. if you go to finder and select network after a few seconds you'll see the name of your pc that's connected to the network. the mac finds it without a problem.select it and press connect. a pop up box will display a drop down menu w/ all the folders you set up to share on your pc. select the folder you want to mount and you're good to go. you can transfer files back and forth from there without a problem.
- KernelPanic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Um...
1. Go to desktop
2. Hit apple K
2. smb://machinename/IP - pminze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1you need to use:
ExtremeZ-IP
http://www.grouplogic.com/products/extreme/overview.cfm - digitallysick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have always had networking issues between windows and mac, i can connect from vista to the mac, but from mac to vista, it says my name and password are wrong, when from mac to xp it works fine. I finally just formatted vista and installed ubuntu which is great so far. I still have networking issues, i can connect from my powerbook to my ubuntu share folders, but it says my username and pass are wrong (when im useing my ubuntu login and pass??) im sure if its a permissions issue in ubuntu or what, or if ubuntu needs to be setup as windows sharing, or unix sharing?
- Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This has to do with Windows File Sharing security model set to NTLMv2 only and not, the negotiable setting.
To fix this (Go to the Vista machine):
1. Start -> Local Security Policy
2. Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Click on Security Options
3. Double click on: Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level
4. Change the dropdown from "Send NTLMv2 responses only" to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTMLv2 session security if negotiated."
5. Hit Apply, and have the mac connect. All should work now.
-- OR --
On your mac: edit your samba config.
Add the line/edit the line: client ntlmv2 auth = yes
Perform magic (I don't own a mac so I really can't help you beyond this).
But note: This method could break samba support as older versions of windows (2k?) may not support this properly. This will make NTLMv1 and LM responses inaccessible.
I just know the Local Security Policy method works fine as I did this research for my roommate to get his macbook pro to work with my vista box.
- Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This has to do with Windows File Sharing security model set to NTLMv2 only and not, the negotiable setting.
- ncaauwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hm, whenever I take my MacBook Pro to work I just go to Network in the Finder and click on our studio's network, then I connect to whatever PC I want. Not too hard...although at home we have nothing but problems, but it's not as much as an issue, since all we really want to do is add more players to our Warcraft games besides our 3 Macs, hehe.
- ncaauwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, because everyone who works at a production studio is gay.
//sarcasm for those of you not smart enough to notice. - Litespeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@shestowitz
Why? You looking for somewhere to work?
- ncaauwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, because everyone who works at a production studio is gay.
- tripstreet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Other way around: From what I understand Sharepoints are going to be available as a built in function of Leopard, but in the mean time you can you this http://hornware.com/sharepoints/ . Very easy to setup, browse for the sharepoints you want and add them to your workgroup to allow windows machines to access whatever you allow them to. Works pretty nicely for me, can finally listen to my music wirelessly on the modded xbox in the living room! Sweet.
- cphuntington97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How to: Shut Down Your Mac!
...next on digg.com- ncaauwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3OMG I've been waiting for that! All my Macs do is sleep!
*Stays tuned*
- ncaauwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3OMG I've been waiting for that! All my Macs do is sleep!
- xero9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Pretty lame..
But on a side note, something I found out not too long ago is if you want to access an entire C drive, even if any other folders aren't shared do the following:
Apple-K then type in smb:///c$- Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Those are just the administrative shares. If the user does not have admin-level access, that share (as well as any drive letter as smb:///x$ where x is the drive letter) will reply access denied.
There's also smb:///ipc$ but that I believe is used by the printer service (among other things) to list all connected printers.
- Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Those are just the administrative shares. If the user does not have admin-level access, that share (as well as any drive letter as smb:///x$ where x is the drive letter) will reply access denied.
- foxmajik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1> I'll just stick with my floppies to transfer stuff... this is much too complicated...
CD-Rs are cheaper than floppies. - foxmajik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In before 500 people describing their way of doing it.
- Jangles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1yeah I use this everyday; nothing new but great for Mac newbies.
- Churnd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can do cifs://server too... some say that's a better way to go when connecting to Windows boxes.
- peskypescado, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Holy crap, anything Mac gets on Digg now. Next up, how to use the mouse button. I can't believe that this crap got dugg. I quit.
- ttamshadbolt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I actually use Automator to create a workflow app, and set it to open on start-up. This means you always get your mapped drives. If for some reason you lose network connection - you just run the workflow and your connected again.
Matt. - CDRaff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow this is way more difficult than it should be...
Step one: Share Folder on Windows PC
Step two: Open the Mac HD on the Desktop of the Mac
Step Three: Open the Network Window in Finder (upper left hand corner)
Step four: Find your PC network (Mine Labeled Home), and open it.
Step Five: find the PC with shared files (Mine Name Leonard), open that.
Step Six: Enter the Password for your network, at the SMB/CIFS File System Authentication Window.
Step Seven: Select the volume, and there you go it is now acting like a mounted drive on the OS X Desktop...
Easy as pie... - 21.0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Now for the hard part, printer sharing (from PC to Mac).
- bedouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What's hard about that?
- wiihuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1feel free to give us the step-by-step
- bedouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Utilities > Printer Setup Utility > Add > More Printers > Windows Printers > Find Printer. Done.
- bedouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1SMB was a standard feature of OS X since 10.1, when I started using it. It might have been there since 10.0.
- Dog_Paddle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I guess I'm a retard. It took me forever to get my Mac to connect to my PC. First time it wouldn't connect at all, so I gave up. 5 months later I decided to try it again, and it magically worked =/
- wiihuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i have a macbook and i lose my internet (and thus server) connection(s) every time i close my macbook.
is there a way to get my macbook to open the connection to the servers every time my internet connects? does that make sense? maybe there's an applescript or something i can run? i have three drives on my pc that i connect to.
thanks a lot.- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's an Applescript to automate connecting to an SMB share (hopefully Digg's forum doesn't mangle it.) You have to embed your login and password but as long as it's a secure machine, it shouldn't be a problem. Save it as an application and double click to connect. Add more of the (misnamed) mountserver calls to add more shares.
----------------------------
set myLogin to "yourlogin"
set myPassword to "yourpassword"
mountServer("share_name", "machine_name", myLogin, myPassword)
on mountServer(theShare, theServer, theLogin, thePassword)
tell application "Finder"
try
mount volume "smb://" & (theLogin as text) & ":" & (thePassword as text) & "@" & (theServer as text) & "/" & (theShare as text)
on error
display dialog "There was an error mounting volume " & return & return & ¬
theShare & " on server " & theServer & "." buttons {"OK"}
end try
end tell
end mountServer
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's an Applescript to automate connecting to an SMB share (hopefully Digg's forum doesn't mangle it.) You have to embed your login and password but as long as it's a secure machine, it shouldn't be a problem. Save it as an application and double click to connect. Add more of the (misnamed) mountserver calls to add more shares.
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1One thing to keep in mind about connecting to Windows shares is that (especially on some larger Windows networks) you have to attach the domain to the machine name. That is, you have to use the fully qualified domain name in some cases. I've never actually had to do it when connecting from the Finder like this, but for some other applications, you need it.
An example would be MS's Remote Desktop Connection software for OS X. When you try to connect to a remote Windows machine, you likely won't get it without the full domain attached like this: machinename.foo.domain.com (or whatever it is.) You can enter that into the search domains field in the network control panel and it alleviates some of that, but some apps need to have it specified. - enzoweb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Can someone answer the 'alias' question? I have the same problem. I set up a share on XP, and had an alias to it. Now when I try and connect I get that there's a problem and I can delete or fix the alias, but nothing works. I don't have permission to delete the alias. Even if I go into an x-term as root I can't delete the folder. Also, I can't browse to the XP machine through Mac Network, it doesn't see it at all. However, my XBOX 360 can see the shared folders on the XP machine so it's obviously working.
So, to all the people who say "it just works" - it doesn't. It may work for you, but that doesn't mean it works for everybody. - rubah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If there's a bad alias, go back and refresh it and try again. It usually fixes itself for me.
The only issue I've really had with trying to access windows folders from my mac is that it takes forever for them to show up. Solution? Add the mac to the windows workgroup and it's there immediately.
When you can do this all from Finder, it's kinda dumb to use IPs and smb:// but that's just me and my guilove. - markfleser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lame, it's not that difficult. I learned how to do that about a week after I got my Mac.
- oldnikon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Beautiful! Are you people blind to vote for THIS?
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