Better way to work with SMB shares?

[Faize]

I'm finding that compared to Windows File Explorer, Finder's support for SMB shares is rather limited - connections need to be manually re-established after every reboot (or is it upon logout/login?), there doesn't seem to be any way to map a complete folder path thus requiring lots of clicking in order to reach a deeply nested folder, and worst of all, it spits out DS_Store files all over the place.

Is there a better macOS tool for SMB file management than Finder? I'm remoting into a Windows PC as a workaround at the moment, but that's rather inconvenient in its own way.

 

[Bigwaff]

Is the SMB share originating from a Windows computer?

there doesn't seem to be any way to map a complete folder path thus requiring lots of clicking in order to reach a deeply nested folder

Can you share the folder instead of the drive?

worst of all, it spits out DS_Store files all over the place

Adjust SMB browsing behavior in macOS - Apple Support

The default settings for browsing network folders such as Server Message Block (SMB) shares are ideal for most organizations and users. But you can make adjustments to optimize SMB browsing in enterprise environments.

support.apple.com

 

[Faize]

Is the SMB share originating from a Windows computer?


Can you share the folder instead of the drive?

This is a corporate environment, so the answers are probably not and no, respectively.

Adjust SMB browsing behavior in macOS - Apple Support

The default settings for browsing network folders such as Server Message Block (SMB) shares are ideal for most organizations and users. But you can make adjustments to optimize SMB browsing in enterprise environments.

support.apple.com

Thanks, this is extremely helpful.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I have no issues with SMB shares with Sonoma and TrueNAS CORE or SCALE

 

[Brian33]

there doesn't seem to be any way to map a complete folder path thus requiring lots of clicking in order to reach a deeply nested folder

In my limited testing (macOS to macOS), there seems to be a way to open a specific folder with one double-click by creating a ".inetloc" file. For example, with the following file on my Desktop, I can double-click it and go directly to my "Test-Dir" (even though that folder is not explicitly shared by the server "macmini".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>URL</key>
   <string>smb://brian@macmini/brian/Documents/Test-Dir</string>               
</dict>
</plist>

I got the idea by hitting Cmd-K (while in Finder) to bring up the Connect to Server dialog, and then dragging one of my "Favorite Servers" icons to my desktop. Then I edited that .inetloc file to include the full path to my desired location.

However, I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to work with spaces in the pathname component. I'm sure there's a way to do it, but my attempts at using "\ " or using quotes didn't work.

If this works for you it could at least save some clicking to get to that deep folder...

 

[chown33]

In my limited testing (macOS to macOS), there seems to be a way to open a specific folder with one double-click by creating a ".inetloc" file. For example, with the following file on my Desktop, I can double-click it and go directly to my "Test-Dir" (even though that folder is not explicitly shared by the server "macmini".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>URL</key>
   <string>smb://brian@macmini/brian/Documents/Test-Dir</string>              
</dict>
</plist>

I got the idea by hitting Cmd-K (while in Finder) to bring up the Connect to Server dialog, and then dragging one of my "Favorite Servers" icons to my desktop. Then I edited that .inetloc file to include the full path to my desired location.

However, I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to work with spaces in the pathname component. I'm sure there's a way to do it, but my attempts at using "\ " or using quotes didn't work.

If this works for you it could at least save some clicking to get to that deep folder...

Spaces probably need to be percent-encoded.

Percent-encoding - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm guessing based on the marked resemblance of the string to a typical URL/URI.

 

[Brian33]

Spaces probably need to be percent-encoded.

You are right, thank you! Using the good old %20 for the space solved that problem.

connections need to be manually re-established after every reboot (or is it upon logout/login?)

By the way, I tried dragging the .inetloc file to my Login Items... but it didn't seem to open on login. However, one could include a line like open macmini.inetloc in one's .bashrc or something to open it automatically at login.