File Sharing broken in Golden Gate upgrade completely.

SMB file sharing just up and stopped working completely after updating to Golden Gate. I've done all troubleshooting I can,turned it off and on, restarted router, everthing I know of, and nothing. I connect to an older Mac with my Mac Mini M4. This has been almost a daily thing for managing my media server on the older Mac for years. Screen sharing does work fine, file sharing doesn't work at all. I attached this image to show the error. Really unaccepatble for Apple to break File Sharing like this. Note, I CAN connect TO the Mac Mini from the older Mac and it works fine, I just can't go from the Mac Mini to the old Mac now. And as noted, I have been doing this for literally YEARS through many OS updates and other computers, including a Windows machine, with zero issue. It still works fine on the Windows box, so it's quite obvious this is a Golden Gate OS 27 issue.

The image indicates a drive can't be found I'm connecting to. Well yes it can, it's right there on the older box, I have no issues managing anything directly on the computer, or even managing it from the Windows computer when I connect from there, there is no issue on the older box period. This is definitely an issue on Golden Gate. I changed nothing else at all prior to it breaking and it worked just fine the day before on Sequoia.

The shares show up fine in the window on Golden Gate when selecting the other computer, the whole list of drives is there (I have 8 of them), but trying to open any of them gives the same error.

I'm calling Apple support about it, I will update this post after I do.

Edit: Okay I called support, they checked with their Tier 2 after doing all the standard troubleshooting, and they said that Golden gate is not going to be compatible with older versions of SMB on other machines because it was an issue with the new OS no longer supporting Intel things.

So per Apple's own support, File Sharing via SMB supposedly will no longer work if you are connecting to a machine that is older and not running Golden Gate, because any Intel based machine will no longer support SMB connections to it from Golden Gate.

And there is no other alternative for file sharing it seems, unless you want to go with FTP or some other form of file transfer. Thanks Apple for breaking a work flow used by thousands of people.

Seems like this will be opening a huge backlash and it will remain to be seen what they do about it.

Sorry for the double posting, seems the forum had to make a whole new post of my edit instead editing the existing one.

Going to add some more information here if it helps anyone.

My MacBook Pro (INTEL) running Catilina connects to SMB shares on a MacMini (INTEL) running El Capitan just fine Since the upgrade on the MacBook Air (M1) to Golden Gate, SMB fails after selecting a share to connect to with "There was a problem connecting to the server".

Having done some extensive SMB/SMB2 frame dumps, Early on in the handshake GG causes a Kerberos Realm Error (wrong Realm) response from the MacMini. This wasn't present under Tahoe on the Pro and the list of shares is displayed, meaning the username/password request was valid to get $IPC.

Once the protocol becomes encrypted SMB3, it crashes which suggests El Capitan can't deal with the encrypted payload. Will need to work a bit more with snmb.conf to see if I can get GG to "step down"

smtips wrote:

The other Mac is running Sierra, and never had an issue through Tahoe or any other previous (Sequoia) OS on the Mac Min M4.

I can connect fine from the older Sierra Mac to my current one, through File Sharing. I checked the version I'm connecting to on the new Mac through Terminal and the version that comes with Golden Gate is the same version as it's been for a long long time, SMB 3.0.2.

I would expect SMB3 with Golden Gate. There are major known issues with SMB 1 & 2.

Interestingly, I have an almost identical setup at my girlfriend's house on the computers there. And connecting from the Mac running Golden Gate to one running Catalina works just fine. Only difference here is Catalina, not Sierra and it works fine, which belies what Apple told me about it being incompatible with Macs running Intel. If that were the case it wouldn't be working at all connecting to Catalina either. So, that's a big you-know-what.

The important question is what version of SMB macOS Sierra is hosting. My guess is Sierra is defaulting to an older version when setting up Sharing in order to maintain compatibility with various systems back in 2016. Now that default SMB setting is causing you problems. Since macOS Sierra is able to connect to Golden Gate, then Sierra should be capable of hosting an SMB3 share, but I have no idea how you go about manually configuring that as the minimum version when enabling File Sharing.

I did find this old Apple article on how to disable older SMB 1 & 2 protocols (not sure if it also applies to Sierra, but the Apple article does not make any distinctions). However, the Apple article provides an incorrect Terminal command so ignore the Terminal commands shown in this article. I'm providing the correct command below. After modifying the nsmb.conf file (or creating it)....you should reboot the computer.

How to disable SMB 1 or NetBIOS in macOS - Apple Support

Disable SMB 1 & 2 as well as NetBIOS

printf "[default]\n\nprotocol_vers_map=6\n\nport445=no_netbios\n" |  sudo tee -a /etc/nsmb.conf

Now, here's what JUST happened when I connected from the Sierra Mac to the Golden Gate Mac, because that way works fine...I thought.

I copied a folder full of files from the new Mac to the old Mac via File Sharing. As I watched, each file VANISHED from the Mac Mini side after it finished copying. Gone. I let the run finish, it was about 25 gigs. And all those files that did exist on the Mac Mini are simply nowhere to be found after copying them. This makes zero sense, in all my years using Macs for the last 30 years, I have NEVER seen anything like this occur. So now, whatever BUG is in File sharing in Golden Gate is causing DATA LOSS.

I have not heard of any bugs regarding Finder copy operations which delete data, but I have heard of data loss when moving files (copy & delete in a single operation).

The Mac tech I was talking to did find it curious that I could connect to the Mac mini from the Sierra machine but not the other way around.

The tech would need to be knowledgeable about both SMB (old & new) as well as older versions of macOS (both technical & how those older versions behaved & how File Sharing worked). Apple doesn't provide much in the way of clear documentation especially tiny differences in behavior or specific technical details (some times Apple will, other times not).

In fact back in the day Apple used a standard open source SMB implementation, but later on changed to using their own custom SMB implementation. I don't recall when this occurred, but it may have been Sierra and High Sierra since some stuff I located seemed to indicate a change with High Sierra.

I found a workaround via terminal. It's just connecting via finder that's broken.

mkdir -p ~/smbtest

mount_smbfs //<userid>@<smbserverIP>/<share name> ~/smbtest

umount ~/smbtest

rmdir ~/smbtest

Current (recent) version SMB info:

• If you can't mount SMB share hosted by a Mac bound to Open Directory - Apple Support

Older macOS versions SMB info:

• About feature additions in macOS for SMB 2 and 3 - Apple Support

In general, macOS 26 tightened the default requirements for SMB clients including SMB3 clients.

SMB admin is via /etc/nsmb.conf

To poke at a remote SMB server (with permission) to try to ascertain its version using the nmap app:

https://nmap.org/nsedoc/scripts/smb-protocols.html

Or on macOS, for checking the SMB versions used for local (client) mounts:

smbutil statshares -a
smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/YourShareNameHere/

Most platforms have gotten rid of wildly insecure SMB1, and most that have moved on now use SMB3. Older versions can use or expect or default to SMB1, however. Apple replaced Samba server with their own Apple SMB implementation, where the Samba version Apple had been using was SMB1 IIRC, and the Apple SMB client and server implementation is now SMB3.

There was a since-fixed compatibility issue with the Time Machine server implementation in the Samba 4.9 range.

I do not have macOS 27 handy to check SMB.

The other Mac is running Sierra, and never had an issue through Tahoe or any other previous (Sequoia) OS on the Mac Min M4.

I can connect fine from the older Sierra Mac to my current one, through File Sharing. I checked the version I'm connecting to on the new Mac through Terminal and the version that comes with Golden Gate is the same version as it's been for a long long time, SMB 3.0.2.

Interestingly, I have an almost identical setup at my girlfriend's house on the computers there. And connecting from the Mac running Golden Gate to one running Catalina works just fine. Only difference here is Catalina, not Sierra and it works fine, which belies what Apple told me about it being incompatible with Macs running Intel. If that were the case it wouldn't be working at all connecting to Catalina either. So, that's a big you-know-what.

Now, here's what JUST happened when I connected from the Sierra Mac to the Golden Gate Mac, because that way works fine...I thought.

I copied a folder full of files from the new Mac to the old Mac via File Sharing. As I watched, each file VANISHED from the Mac Mini side after it finished copying. Gone. I let the run finish, it was about 25 gigs. And all those files that did exist on the Mac Mini are simply nowhere to be found after copying them. This makes zero sense, in all my years using Macs for the last 30 years, I have NEVER seen anything like this occur. So now, whatever BUG is in File sharing in Golden Gate is causing DATA LOSS.

The Mac tech I was talking to did find it curious that I could connect to the Mac mini from the Sierra machine but not the other way around.

Of course I had backups of the files copied, as well as the copied versions that went to the Sierra Mac. But this is completely bizarre and unacceptable. And I would consider calling Apple again about it, but with a Sierra Mac in the midst they are just gonna blame the old machine, even though the files disappeared off the new one. I won't waste my time here, I'm going to wipe it and go back to using Tahoe for now, and wait til someone with some pull picks up on this SMB issue, like they did with the whole window resizing issue. It took getting a lot of press for Apple to fix it.

In the file sharing settings, make sure you’ve allowed SMB users full disk access. That area you get about the folder or directory or whatever being missing happens when you don’t have full disk access enabled for SMB users.

I did find a workaround... VNC still works between Golden Gate and older Macs, so I can drag-and-drop from the new Mac to the old Mac.

smtips wrote:

Edit: Okay I called support, they checked with their Tier 2 after doing all the standard troubleshooting, and they said that Golden gate is not going to be compatible with older versions of SMB on other machines because it was an issue with the new OS no longer supporting Intel things.

So per Apple's own support, File Sharing via SMB supposedly will no longer work if you are connecting to a machine that is older and not running Golden Gate, because any Intel based machine will no longer support SMB connections to it from Golden Gate.

Older Macs may only support old outdated SMB protocols which are known to be huge security issues. Those older SMB protocols are no longer allowed.

You neglected to mention the version of macOS being used on the older Mac. However, if that older Mac is capable of connecting to the newer one, then I would expect that older version of macOS to support a valid version of SMB. The problem may be that the older Mac is not configured to use a newer supported version of the SMB protocol. It may be possible to edit the older Mac's SMB configuration to only allow support for the newer SMB protocol required by macOS 27.

Unfortunately I don't know which SMB versions are allowed by macOS 27, nor what versions various older versions of macOS supported. Nor do I know how to force the older Mac to utilize a specific SMB protocol version (may be dependent on the actual version of macOS since I know Apple changed to their own SMB software some years ago). My knowledge of macOS SMB is nearly non-existent, and even my Linux SMB knowledge is limited since I rarely need to configure it once I have it all setup. It has been years since I last created or modified an SMB share.

The other thing I thought of while reading your post is maybe the macOS 27 system is utilizing save connection details which are now broken. If you delete those saved connections & perhaps even saved credentials, then maybe when you manually reconnect to the older system macOS 27 will now have the proper connection info & credentials.

Knowing the version of macOS on the older Mac and which SMB version protocol is currently configured on the older Mac would help. I won't be of much use, but that information may help another more knowledgeable contributor to assist you.

FYI, years ago I tried to enable sharing between two Macs running two different versions of macOS and was unable to do so at that time (the need wasn't sufficient for me to take the time to figure it out). This is nothing new with macOS. Unfortunately macOS will sometimes hide the critical parts from users making troubleshooting & configuration much harder than it otherwise would/should be.

smtips wrote:

"I did find a workaround... VNC still works between Golden Gate and older Macs, so I can drag-and-drop from the new Mac to the old Mac."

I can't locate a VNC client that works, I have never had a need to use one. Tried Real VNC it wants me to create an online account to use it, which um, why do I need an online account to connect apps between my own computers. Looked at some others but they won't work on Golden Gate. VNC is enabled on the older Mac. So perhaps if you say what VNC you're using I can look at it.

macOS already has built-in VNC support. Just enable Remote Access on the older Mac (make sure VNC is checked). One the newer Mac you can use Finder --> Go --> Connect to Server..... where you can either enter "vnc://<address-of-older-mac>" or by using the "Browse" button to locate the other Mac.

If you are familiar with the command line, then you could use an SSH session or 'scp" which is an SSH Copy command to transfer items securely between two systems. There may even be some GUI app which could assist with this on the Golden Gate side.

Re: "After setting the iMac to allow remote management by anyone without a password.."

I turned off VNC on the old Mac, and through the Connect to Server menu with my computer name there, it still let me connect with user/pass. Before I turned it off, the password prompt was still there, just as it is for you. I had given full permissions on the target machine and chose remember password in the connection dialog. Seems it is indeed still prompting, but the password is filled in with dots.

I never used Connect to Server for this before. I always did it through the Screen Sharing app on the modern computer, and it has worked fine from Sonoma through Golden Gate when using the app. I believe the first time I set it up it had a prompt to remember the password in my keychain, and the app never prompts me for a password now. Just the Connect to Server method does. So yes it may be a bug, for me I just use the app for screen sharing and don't see the issue, maybe for now just try through the app not the connect to server. I got the spinning for an hour on one of my tests with the SMB connection, and I restarted both machines and it didn't do it after that, but did bring up the error dialog described in the OP.

"OP, did you try yet?"

I did not do it yet. I've done reinstalls many many times and it can be quite involved, I just need to block out 2-3 hours dedicated time to do it. Instead of doing all that I may just wipe this to factory defaults and give it to my daughter-in-law and buy one of the new M6 minis, I'm liking the specs on them a lot. I can connect from the older Mac to this one and run file sharing from that side, it's just extra messing around on the older machine and I'm still looking at VNC possibilities to do this. So, same difference if I have this one or a new M6 really. It's not like I'm dead in the water without it working to connect from Golden Gate to Sierra, as I can still come from the other side to do it (I'd really rather not have to do it that way though, this has disrupted how my workflow has gone for years).

As for how to do it, just do a search on Duck Duck Go for "Can I downgrade from golden gate back to tahoe" and choose the link for Macworld, they have a detailed writeup on it as well as direct download links for the OS (no download link in the App store for it, but MW has the direct links to download from Apple).

And also EveryDamName, I did read your other thread about this when I was researching, you do have a very similar issue. As for those versioning questions, I just looked at the smbfs extension in System Report > Software > Extensions to get the exact versions each box was using. I also installed smb v6 kext to the Sierra box, that I pulled from a Catalina machine I have, and still had the same issue with that extension, so I just went back to the original v3.1.2 smb. The version reported by Terminal for what you are connecting to seems to be in conflict with what the ACTUAL version installed on the machine is, because mine was saying 3.0.2 through terminal but the kext is actually listed as v3.1.2. In any case, Apple support was wrong to say categorically that SMB on Golden Gate isn't compatible with Intel chipped machines, because it most certainly does work from Golden Gate to Catalina, as least on the boxes I have at my GF's house.

D.E. Emery wrote:

It sure seems to me it should be MY DECISION and not Apple's decision to support a potentially compromised connection.

If you want full control over everything, then you are using the wrong OS and hardware. Everything Apple has been doing for the past 20 years has been moving their computers & macOS to an iPad/iOS like experience.

Apple has always catered to a more simplistic user experience with macOS so that people who are not technical, people who may be afraid of computers/technology can use an Apple device safely & securely. That is who Apple is targeting.

Plus leaving the old insecure code for older SMB versions is a burden on Apple and makes it more likely for mistakes to happen. Every bit of code on a system is a potential security risk & vector for the miscreants out their to compromise people's machines.

I have a Mac Mini running older software (hosted on an older version of Java, not my call...) on my local network. There's NO freakin' risk associated with my connecting from a Golden Gate machine to an older machine ON MY LOCAL NETWORK. Sure, make me click through a "this could be unsafe" warning. But to just ARBITRARILY DECIDE WITH NO WARNING YOU CAN NO LONGER CONNECT TO OLDER MACs is just bogus!

Everybody is getting rid of SMB 1 & 2....some faster than others. People said the same thing about Apple no longer providing floppy drives and optical drives, etc.

Besides, if you read my post without getting upset, then you would see that I mentioned you should be able to connect to that older system from Golden Gate. If the old system can connect to Golden Gate, then it should certainly be able to go the other way. Golden Gate is serving up a newer version of SMB & the old system can connect to Golden Gate's share. This means the old system should be capable of serving up a compatible version as well (you may just need to disable SMB 1 & 2 on that older system first).

Edit: Have you tried using Air Drop to transfer files?

No Air Drop, no wireless on the old machine, it is hard wired.

"If the old system can connect to Golden Gate, then it should certainly be able to go the other way. Golden Gate is serving up a newer version of SMB & the old system can connect to Golden Gate's share. This means the old system should be capable of serving up a compatible version as well (you may just need to disable SMB 1 & 2 on that older system first)."

Already checked no SMB 1 or 2 enabled. I agree with you, it SHOULD work that way, but does not and broke after Golden Gate update. If it allows the connection one way, there seems no good reason it won't go the other way, but it just doesn't. My findings are it works Golden Gate > Catalina, Catalina > Golden Gate, Sierra > Golden Gate, but not Golden Gate > Sierra.

Doesn't really make a lot of sense, and IMO Apple was too quick to dismiss as "Not compatible with Intel based machines any more." Short of just wiping and trying again with Golden Gate to test if something got botched during the upgrade, or trying it on the new M6 I will likely get this week, or just going back to Tahoe, I don't have any other avenue to troubleshoot this. I've done all the testing and checking I can think of about 5 times over.

After setting the iMac to allow remote management by anyone without a password - when I attempt to connect via VNC, the Golden Gate Air nevertheless demands a login & password - and after I enter my admin creds (same on both Macs), it still just says "connecting" and never resolves. I let it spin for an hour.

However, the Golden Gate Air *does* connect to my wife's Tahoe MBP over the local network. Instantly and without any login prompts. I can open its files on my Air right from the network window. Click the arrow and it displays the MBP's folders, which it does not do for the iMac. It's a 2020 MBP, Intel core i5 (that surprised me). Same processor as my 2015 iMac. It's not an Intel problem.

Nor is it an outdated SMB problem. Both the iMac & MBP are running Apple SMBclient 3, according to System Report. Remember, the MBP was updated to Tahoe via Software Update *one day* before my Air got Golden Gate. Did SMB 3 go from current to dangerously obsolete overnight? And if so, why no security patch for Tahoe?

Further, if Golden Gate was intended to deprecate file-sharing with my iMac (for any reason), why does the Air display the iMac in the sidebar & network window? Why does Golden Gate's Music display the songs in the iMac's shared library? Most of all, why does Golden Gate allow unhindered access to the Air's files from a 2015 Intel/El Capitan iMac?! This doesn't appear to be a security measure in Golden Gate. Just a bug.

I am grateful to you all for helping us rule out some plausible issues. Next?

Here's what GG has, according to my Air's 27.0.1 Frameworks report:

SMBClient:

  Version: 7.0

  Obtained from: Unknown

  Last Modified: 9/24/26, 12:10 AM

  Location: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SMBClient.framework

Private: Yes

SMBClientEngine:

  Version: 1.0

  Obtained from: Unknown

  Last Modified: 9/24/26, 12:10 AM

  Location: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SMBClientEngine.framework

  Private: Yes

And El Capitan's Frameworks report lists no SMBClientEngine at all.

cpeterpan wrote:

I have the same problem and am happy to report that I believe that I've found the solution!

First, enable "Full Disk Access" under the main File Sharing pref pane on the Golden Gate device. Then go into the "Options..." sub-pane. Enable "Share files and folders using SMB" AND toggle on the option to store the password for the user account that you use to connect in a less secure location.

Now in the Finder of older device, use Command-K (Connect to Server...) with an smb:// string to connect to your Golden Gate server.

For me, connecting from a 2020 Intel-based MBA running Sequoia, this works like a charm. And I had the identical issues to you as before.

FWIW, the Golden Gate machine that hosts the file share has a low-privilege user account dedicated to just file sharing, so I don't have to worry about putting the creds of a more privileged user account at potential risk through the aforementioned change.

Good luck!!!

I never had any issue connecting TO Golden Gate with the older machine. The issue is that File Sharing will no longer connect to the older Mac, which appears to be running SMB v3.1.2 according to the SMBFS.kext extension installed on the Sierra machine. If, as others have said, SMB 3 is supposed to be secure, then the issue lies in Apple re-writing their implementation of SMB with SMB v7.0 in Golden Gate and breaking being able to connect to the older machine running SMB v3.1.2. Golden Gate will allow a connection from something to it, but not the other way, cannot connect to the Sierra machine from Golden Gate. I was doing this for literally years from the current-at-the-time OS's until Golden Gate, all the way up through Tahoe. These workarounds given here by previous posters don't work.

MrHoffman wrote:

Current (recent) version SMB info:

• If you can't mount SMB share hosted by a Mac bound to Open Directory - Apple Support

Older macOS versions SMB info:

• About feature additions in macOS for SMB 2 and 3 - Apple Support

In general, macOS 26 tightened the default requirements for SMB clients including SMB3 clients.

SMB admin is via /etc/nsmb.conf

To poke at a remote SMB server (with permission) to try to ascertain its version using the nmap app:

https://nmap.org/nsedoc/scripts/smb-protocols.html

Or on macOS, for checking the SMB versions used for local (client) mounts:

smbutil statshares -a

smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/YourShareNameHere/

Most platforms have gotten rid of wildly insecure SMB1, and most that have moved on now use SMB3. Older versions can use or expect or default to SMB1, however. Apple replaced Samba server with their own Apple SMB implementation, where the Samba version Apple had been using was SMB1 IIRC, and the Apple SMB client and server implementation is now SMB3.

There was a since-fixed compatibility issue with the Time Machine server implementation in the Samba 4.9 range.

I do not have macOS 27 handy to check SMB.

"Or on macOS, for checking the SMB versions used for local (client) mounts:

smbutil statshares -a

smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/YourShareNameHere/"

The version cannot be checked using this command unless you are able to connect in the first place. I've seen this all over the web as a way to check, but it's not going to work if you have my issue of not connecting in the first darn place. And to re-iterate, the version on the older Mac according to smbfs.kext listed in System Report > Software > Extensions is v3.1.2 on the Sierra Machine. Another identical setup I have, except the target machine running Catalina and smb v6.0, works flawlessly. I don't think there is a way to update SMB on the sierra machine with a newer version of SMB. I already tried replacing the kext with the one from Catalina, and it worked fine to install it, but it made no difference in connecting with Golden Gate to it, still didn't work.

Continued....

Of course I had backups of the files copied, as well as the copied versions that went to the Sierra Mac. But this is completely bizarre and unacceptable. And I would consider calling Apple again about it, but with a Sierra Mac in the midst they are just gonna blame the old machine, even though the files disappeared off the new one. I won't waste my time here, I'm going to wipe it and go back to using Tahoe for now, and wait til someone with some pull picks up on this SMB issue, like they did with the whole window resizing issue. It took getting a lot of press for Apple to fix it.

I'm glad you have good backups. While this has always been important, it is even more important these days with all the hardware, software, and security changes which can make the data stored on the internal SSD inaccessible.

FYI, I find it is usually best to wait at least three months before upgrading to a new OS to give the developer (Apple in the case of macOS) time to fix release/launch day bugs. Other benefits are allowing third party developers time to update their apps for full compatibility with the new OS. People should also do some research to see what issues others are encountering in general and with specific apps. It is generally a good idea if you can test the new OS first before upgrading the main OS installation (usually an installing macOS to an external boot drive is the easiest way to minimize interfering with the main OS, but booting macOS from an external drive is not so easy these days with Apple Silicon Macs, plus some macOS features may not be available).

It sure seems to me it should be MY DECISION and not Apple's decision to support a potentially compromised connection.

I have a Mac Mini running older software (hosted on an older version of Java, not my call...) on my local network. There's NO freakin' risk associated with my connecting from a Golden Gate machine to an older machine ON MY LOCAL NETWORK. Sure, make me click through a "this could be unsafe" warning. But to just ARBITRARILY DECIDE WITH NO WARNING YOU CAN NO LONGER CONNECT TO OLDER MACs is just bogus!

"I did find a workaround... VNC still works between Golden Gate and older Macs, so I can drag-and-drop from the new Mac to the old Mac."

I can't locate a VNC client that works, I have never had a need to use one. Tried Real VNC it wants me to create an online account to use it, which um, why do I need an online account to connect apps between my own computers. Looked at some others but they won't work on Golden Gate. VNC is enabled on the older Mac. So perhaps if you say what VNC you're using I can look at it.

D.E. Emery wrote:

It sure seems to me it should be MY DECISION and not Apple's decision to support a potentially compromised connection.

And risk you suing them when your machine is compromised because Apple didn't address a serious known security flaw? Hardly.

I have a Mac Mini running older software (hosted on an older version of Java, not my call...) on my local network. There's NO freakin' risk associated with my connecting from a Golden Gate machine to an older machine ON MY LOCAL NETWORK. Sure, make me click through a "this could be unsafe" warning. But to just ARBITRARILY DECIDE WITH NO WARNING YOU CAN NO LONGER CONNECT TO OLDER MACs is just bogus!

Agree to disagree. Please move on.

I have another thread with a similar-sounding problem. But not necessarily the same. M3 Air local network connection to iMac f… - Apple Community

I've always avoided zero day OS version upgrades. The night before upgrading my Air from OS 15 to Golden Gate, I upgraded my wife's MBP to Tahoe. It seemed good. So the next night I went to upgrade my Air but Tahoe was unavailable in software update, only 27.0.

Like the OP here, I wish to downgrade to Tahoe. I have Time Machine backups from before & after the upgrade. HOW would I downgrade? I did not think it was possible. OP, did you try yet?

"macOS already has built-in VNC support."

Okay, I didn't realize that VNC is just screen sharing til I typed it in as a VNC connection through Connect to Server. This works fine, Screen Sharing has always worked through the screen sharing app and works fine in Golden Gate, it never stopped working. It's obviously not the same protocol as smb file sharing.

Screen sharing doesn't really fit for me, I'm not looking at jockeying a screen share around when I only need to do file and folder sharing to networked drives installed on the older Mac. Thanks for the education on what VNC is, I just didn't know it by that term :)

RE: "mkdir -p ~/smbtest

mount_smbfs //<userid>@<smbserverIP>/<share name> ~/smbtest

umount ~/smbtest

rmdir ~/smbtest"

Did not work for me. "RPC struct is bad" error. Everything correct in the syntax, pass is correct, share name valid and simply returns that error.

GeoffTr wrote:

…

Once the protocol becomes encrypted SMB3, it crashes which suggests El Capitan can't deal with the encrypted payload. Will need to work a bit more with snmb.conf to see if I can get GG to "step down"

I'll re-iterate: El Capitan 10.11.6 uses SMBClient 3.0.1, according to my iMac's System Report. My M3 Air had no trouble accessing shared files via Finder under OS 15, which also used SMB3, afaik.

I have the same problem and am happy to report that I believe that I've found the solution!

First, enable "Full Disk Access" under the main File Sharing pref pane on the Golden Gate device. Then go into the "Options..." sub-pane. Enable "Share files and folders using SMB" AND toggle on the option to store the password for the user account that you use to connect in a less secure location.

Now in the Finder of older device, use Command-K (Connect to Server...) with an smb:// string to connect to your Golden Gate server.

For me, connecting from a 2020 Intel-based MBA running Sequoia, this works like a charm. And I had the identical issues to you as before.

FWIW, the Golden Gate machine that hosts the file share has a low-privilege user account dedicated to just file sharing, so I don't have to worry about putting the creds of a more privileged user account at potential risk through the aforementioned change.

Good luck!!!

"Please move on."

I came here looking for help with this. I didn't come here to listen to snarky replies to other people posting an opinion. Please show some respect.

Yeah; neither of those is the SMB version, obviamente. That needs a version-to-SMB table, and I dom’t have that.

If you mean the Frameworks report doesn't indicate GG's SMB version, thank you for saying so. Seriously. That wasn't obvious to me.

My apologies for misunderstanding. I hope that you're able to find a good solution.

I found conclusive info & posted it to my own thread. But it may also be helpful to you. M3 Air local network connection to iMac f… - Apple Community