File sharing has gone very erratic

TidBITS Talk
1

Here’s my situation.

I have a cheesegrater MacPro running Snow Leopard. it’s in use everyday with FM Pro, Photoshop CS3, AppleWorks and a few other apps that don’t work on modern kit.

I also have a M2 Mac Mini running Sequoia bang up to date.

I have a number of devices connected to the Mini. Scanner, printer , several HDs etc.

Since moving to MacOS15 on the Mini file sharing has become very erratic. (ethernet)

Because of changes over the years, Mail on the MacPro no longer sends (it receives ok which is important). I do whatever I want on the Pro, drop it across to a folder in the mini and then mail it or upload from there to wherever it has to go.

Similarly scanning is done on the Mini to a shared drive (or to a Folder if required) and then the scans are accessed on the pro for me to work with.

This system has worked brilliantly for years. it worked on the Mini’s predecessor without a glitch.

Now it has become very erratic. Sometimes the two machines talk and sometimes they don’t.

Rebooting the Mini sometimes fixes it and sometimes it doesn’t .

At the moment the Pro is saying there is no connection to the Mini. Sometimes it says the Mini can’t be found. Sometimes when it does connect. it says I haven’t got permission to access the shared folders/drives that I’ve been connecting to for years.

Thoughts please. I have a lot of stuff to get out before everyone goes home for the break and the unpredictability is now really annoying me.

As an aside, Airdropping from iPhone and iPad to the Mini has also become erratic - but not as bad!

2

Which machine has sharing turned on? Are you sharing the mac Pro to the Mini, or the other way around? I would think sharing the Snow Leopard machine would be far more reliable than sharing the later machine.

My experience with sharing in more recent OSes has been sketchy at best.

3

The mini has all the shared folders/ files/ drives.

The Pro connects to use those files etc.

4

Sadly, I’m not surprised you’re having problems. I tried many times to get reliable sharing from a new OS (to replace an old OS X Server) and always failed. I could usually connect, but would get very poor performance, folder contents wouldn’t update, connections would drop, permissions would become corrupt - it was a nightmare. I gave up and went back to an older OS and I’m now playing with a Linux option.

If this is purely for a protected private network, maybe try sharing the Snow Leopard machine and see how it goes.

5

Makes no sense. Just tried again and it connected to the shares!