Transfer Files to a Mac on a CIFS Based Domain
Are you finding that is a royal pain in the rear to transfer files between a Macintosh computer and everything else on your Windows or Linux CIFS/SMB based network or workgroup? You are not alone. Not that it is impossible to do, as there are a number of ways to do it, however, it is not as seamless and transparent as it might be between windows or linux systems. As great as they are, sometimes the Macs can be a royal pain in the rear.
Since there are a number of ways to accomplish this, some will be discuss here. Applies to OS X versions relative to Catalina or perhaps newer.
Enable File Sharing on the Mac
You can share a directory on your Mac file system so that it is accessible by other machines using SMB / CIFS. The shared directory will appear as a windows hare.
- Click the Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Sharing
- check the File Sharing box from the "Service" list. It is recommended you set a logical Computer Name that does NOT contain spaces or special characters as this will appear as the hostname on your LAN.
- under the "options" (within the same sharing dialog) you can select users that may access the share. It helps of the username and password is identical on the Mac as the other system on the Windows share, although not entirely necessary especially when using handy tools like Gigolo
- also under "options" you should select SMB (Server Message Block) as this is the compatible protocol for your Windows / SMB / CIFS network.
