Mac Mini and NAS Connectivity Problems with Apps

[mjt57]

Yesterday I set up my new Mac Mini. I've migrated from Windows back to Mac so I'm in the process of replacing all of those apps with MacOS ones.

One of them is Calibre, the ebook manager. Its library resides on my Synology NAS as do ebooks which I download from free sources.

Now, when I set up Calibre, I pointed it to the NAS. That worked, library loaded. Then I tried to add a new book to it. Calibre stopped working. That spinning color wheel just spun and spun and spun. I gave it about ten minutes. Force closing wouldn't work. Ended up turning it off at the power outlet, waiting and restarting.

Tried it again. Same result.

Today I moved the library and ebook downloads to the Mini's SSD. Reconfigured Calibre to look there and then added a book. This time it worked OK.

Another app was doing similar things with the NAS across the ethernet connection. I can't scan from my Brother MFC to the Mini if the target folder for the scans is on the NAS. Works fine if the folder (or directory if you will) is on the Mini's SSD.

Is Big Sur here being a pain, is it the new M1 and how it works with networks or something else?

Thanks

 

[pldelisle]

Yesterday I set up my new Mac Mini. I've migrated from Windows back to Mac so I'm in the process of replacing all of those apps with MacOS ones.

One of them is Calibre, the ebook manager. Its library resides on my Synology NAS as do ebooks which I download from free sources.

Now, when I set up Calibre, I pointed it to the NAS. That worked, library loaded. Then I tried to add a new book to it. Calibre stopped working. That spinning color wheel just spun and spun and spun. I gave it about ten minutes. Force closing wouldn't work. Ended up turning it off at the power outlet, waiting and restarting.

Tried it again. Same result.

Today I moved the library and ebook downloads to the Mini's SSD. Reconfigured Calibre to look there and then added a book. This time it worked OK.

Another app was doing similar things with the NAS across the ethernet connection. I can't scan from my Brother MFC to the Mini if the target folder for the scans is on the NAS. Works fine if the folder (or directory if you will) is on the Mini's SSD.

Is Big Sur here being a pain, is it the new M1 and how it works with networks or something else?

Thanks

Is you NAS mounted using SMB3?

 

[mjt57]

Is you NAS mounted using SMB3?

I don't know. How do I tell?

 

[pldelisle]

I don't know. How do I tell?

How do you connect to your NAS ? You must enter smb://<ip> in Connect to server dialog box. And SMB3 must be configured in the NAS.

 

[Einz]

What model is you NAS? Synology 218+ works fine with my Mini. It is simply plug and play.
it shows up on the sidebar when connected

 

[mjt57]

Thanks for the replies, folks. However, the NAS, a Synology DS418, connects fine. No issues there. It's the seemingly disconnection when trying to access it via the above mentioned apps which is causing me problems.

And pldelisle, how do you tell if it's SMB3?

 

[pldelisle]

Ensure you have these settings in your NAS and you use smb:// when connecting the NAS.

 

[mjt57]

View attachment 1714476 View attachment 1714477
Ensure you have these settings in your NAS and you use smb:// when connecting the NAS.

Thanks. I set the upper range to SMB3 as it was set to SMB2. I'll disconnect the NAS and re-enter it in that "connect to server" dialog box and see how it goes then.

Thanks for your help, it's appreciated.

 

[mjt57]

View attachment 1714476 View attachment 1714477
Ensure you have these settings in your NAS and you use smb:// when connecting the NAS.

That worked. When connected the other way, any file that I'd open, say a PDF via Preview, then edit it, then try to save it Preview would have the spinning beach ball, then after a while a message pops up saying that it can't save it and to discard it.

Then I tried your SMB method. Now it shows up as "192.168.1.74" in the list of attached or connected drives. But I can now open PDFs in Preview, edit them and then save them.

I haven't tried any other application yet. Maybe now I can send scanned documents from my Brother MFC directly to the NAS via the Mac. Or to use Calibre to look at the NAS for its library and books to add to it from there as well.

Just wish that I could rename the IP address to "Synology NAS" or whatever.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help. It's appreciated. Learning a new computer's OS is interesting and fun, but at times it can be frustrating when you can't figure out a problem and the Google Machine isn't very helpful.

 

[lostom]

I'm not sure exactly the what smb is, but it looks like it is showing your NAS IP address, I made my NAS a static IP, so everything just gets pointed to that address for the NAS, never have any issues.

Might be worth looking into, or I might be totally off track and no help at all, I hope I can help though.

 

[mjt57]

I'm not sure exactly the what smb is, but it looks like it is showing your NAS IP address, I made my NAS a static IP, so everything just gets pointed to that address for the NAS, never have any issues.

All of my wired network connected devices are set with static IPs. The router uses DHCP to assign IP addresses to all wifi devices. So yeah, both the NAS and the Mini have static IPs.

 

[mjt57]

The spinning beachball of death has returned (not that it ever went away). Had photos Canon CR2 RAW files) open in Photoshop via the NAS. Tried to save them. The spinning wheel sat there and sat there. Finally it crashed.

I went into the Force Quit menu only to find a number of apps which weren't responding. One, a file explorer app called XnviewMP, another, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Microsoft Excel, all of which had files open from the NAS had to be forced quit (or force quitted).

Ended up restarting the Mac Mini.

I don't have anything like these problems with my Windows PCs (there are a number of them on the home LAN), or other devices such as the 4 Apple TVs which access the NAS.

I don't want to give up on this and revert back to a Windows "eco-system" as too many of my most used apps are Mac-only. So, I've installed a Samsung SSD on the Mini and have copied all of my documents from the NAS that I regularly use, including my photo library over to the SSD. Everything seems to work just fine running off of it.

 

[Spindel]

I don't know if this is any help.

I have a DS416 and I have set up my mac to automatically mount my volume of choice on startup as an startup object (under users and groups in settings).

I connect to the NAS through AFP and unless something happends with my network or NAS (i e I restart the NAS) for me it stays mounted. But if I for example have to restart my NAS (in case of a software update or something) I have to manually remount the volume before programs can access it.

I have my music library on the NAS and Music app is finicky if the volume isn't mounted before I launch Music. But I don't have problems with my M1 Mini (or the iMac before that for that matter) just dropping the connection. If the volume unmounts it has always been one of the above described reasons.


EDIT:// I have also created a separate volume on my NAS for Time Machine backups and I have never had a problem with TM complaining it can't find the NAS.

 

[jayhoo]

The spinning beachball of death has returned (not that it ever went away). Had photos Canon CR2 RAW files) open in Photoshop via the NAS. Tried to save them. The spinning wheel sat there and sat there. Finally it crashed.

I went into the Force Quit menu only to find a number of apps which weren't responding. One, a file explorer app called XnviewMP, another, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Microsoft Excel, all of which had files open from the NAS had to be forced quit (or force quitted).

Ended up restarting the Mac Mini.

I don't have anything like these problems with my Windows PCs (there are a number of them on the home LAN), or other devices such as the 4 Apple TVs which access the NAS.

I don't want to give up on this and revert back to a Windows "eco-system" as too many of my most used apps are Mac-only. So, I've installed a Samsung SSD on the Mini and have copied all of my documents from the NAS that I regularly use, including my photo library over to the SSD. Everything seems to work just fine running off of it.

were you able to find a solution to this? I've been struggling since June to find a solution, and I'm currently back and forth with apple support trying to find a solution.

Every time I work off the network drive, I end up with the spinning beach ball when I'm editing files, and then the software I'm working in crashes, maybe my file will save, and I get disconnected from the server.

My workaround is pulling files off the network drive to work on a local drive, and then copy it back to the network drive when complete. I have the macMini with the M1 chip. Before this machine, I was working off an older 2008 Intel iMac, and I had zero issues working off the network drive.

I'm going to try the SMB settings to see if that helps the Mac I'm working on in anyway (doubtful since you mentioned you started getting DCs again using the SMB protocol)

 

[fivenotrump]

Thanks for the replies, folks. However, the NAS, a Synology DS418, connects fine. No issues there. It's the seemingly disconnection when trying to access it via the above mentioned apps which is causing me problems.

And pldelisle, how do you tell if it's SMB3?

sudo smbutil statshares -a

 

[mjt57]

were you able to find a solution to this?

No. Unfortunately working with Acrobat and either opening or saving PDFs to the NAS often gives me that spinning wheel, then a window popping up with a crash report to send to Adobe (or sometimes Microsoft if it's Excel or Word).

I followed all the instructions posted in this thread. But if I open and save files to and from the attached USB-C SSD I don't have these issues.

Also, when opening files from the NAS, despite me already being logged in, the dialog box which pops up asking you where to find the files, it says "connecting..." when I point it to the NAS.

Also, I have the NAS's "homes" folder saved as a favorite. But never for long as it disappears out of the list (in Finder).

I've had enough of it.

 

[haralds]

I have moved all my file storage to a DS920+ with an additional DX517. The DX517 has t 8TB drives, the DS920+ 4 4TB. These were "harvested" from previous RAID arrays on and in my Mac Pro.
They are fast and flawless, but the heads do get noisy. We move all the equipment to a closet.
No connection problems. The NAS is configured with AFS and SMB 2/3. Bonjour is enabled for TimeMachine.
The system is very responsive.

 

[satcomer]

I have moved all my file storage to a DS920+ with an additional DX517. The DX517 has t 8TB drives, the DS920+ 4 4TB. These were "harvested" from previous RAID arrays on and in my Mac Pro.
They are fast and flawless, but the heads do get noisy. We move all the equipment to a closet.
No connection problems. The NAS is configured with AFS and SMB 2/3. Bonjour is enabled for TimeMachine.
The system is very responsive.

Did you follow the steps of Synology YouTube channel?

 

[cmaier]

Synology ds2419 and ds3612 working fine here

 

[Marshall73]

On your symbology enable afp then connect to the nas from your Mac using afp://ipaddress instead of smb://ipaddress

this should fix the issue of Apples weird samba support, by not using it, LOL.

We have a client who runs windows file servers but uses Mac client machines and we had to install Acronis Files Connect to allow AFP access because of the myriad of SMB issues.

 

[southerndoc]

Isn't AFP slower than SMB3?

 

[Spindel]

Isn't AFP slower than SMB3?

Don’t know but I can saturate my networkconnection to the NAS (1 gbps) when reading files over AFP so for me it’s moot

Write speeds are lower but that is more because I run my 4 drives in 2 banks of RAID1 and has little to do with AFP.

 

[NebukadNezzar]

I might have found a SOLUTION after two wasted days of researching and testing loads of different methods (e.g. this, this, this, this)...

I am working on a new MacStudio (M1 Max version) and ran into the same known connection problemens when copying files from and to my NAS (WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra) over ethernet/LAN via the SMB protocol. The maximum speed of the NAS is 1Gbit. Copying files wirelessly worked just fine (but is just too darn slow for me).

The FIX: an USB-C/Thunderbolt hub with ethernet port. The one I have is an Anker 12-in-1 USB-C hub. Additionally, I gave the NAS a static IP and activated SMB3-only inside the NAS' dashboard.

There really seems to be a problem with the ethernet port and/or the SMB protocol on some (?) of the new Apple M1 computers...

 

[satcomer]

I found sense the current version on MacOS uses by default Energy Saver Ethernet in System Preferences->Network, Advanced button and in drop down select Hardware mini-tab and choose a Manual IP settings instead to defeat this new Energy Saver on Ethernet! That could cause problems!

 

[mjt57]

I found sense the current version on MacOS uses by default Entry Saver Ethernet in System Preferences->Network, Advanced button and in drop down select Hardware mini-tab and choose a Manual IP settings instead to defeat this new Energy Saver on Ethernet! That could cause problems!

Thanks Sat. Just checked mine. Already set to manually config IP addresses. All of my ethernet connected devices use manual IP settings. Only those which connect via WIFI use auto (or DHCP).

Since I started this thread and followed everyone's suggestions, things aren't as bad as they used to be. Adobe Acrobat is still a PITA though, sometimes crashing, other times, sitting there with the spinning rainbow wheel then deciding that it's made me wait long enough before doing anything. That's usually opening a PDF, say from an email attachment then saving it to the NAS (usually bills sent via email).