I have three Macs on my home network. A white Macbook, a 2015 Macbook Pro and a 2015 iMac. So, I sit at my iMac and can see the Macbook and Macbook Pro in the sidebar of any Finder window and connect to both as I have 'Screen Sharing', 'File Sharing' and 'Remote Login' ticked in 'Sharing in 'System preferences'. But while I can drag and drop files to and from the old white Macbook with this arrangement while Screen Sharing I can only drag files from the 2015 Macbook Pro. I cannot send or drag files to it. The only difference between the set-ups is that the the old white Macbook is connected to my router via an Ethernet cable while my 2015 Macbook Pro is connected to the router wirelessly. Any ideas?
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Problem sharing files between two Macs on a LAN
- Thread starter Poncho
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Try switching to column view in the Finder. If you click on the shared computer in the sidebar, in addition to "share screen" there should also be a button for "Connect As". Have you tried that? (sorry, this didn't seem clear in your post)
If you connect to the shared computer this way, you will just have a standard Finder window where you can drag/drop files either way (assuming that sharing is properly configured).
If you connect to the shared computer this way, you will just have a standard Finder window where you can drag/drop files either way (assuming that sharing is properly configured).
Tried that. Cannot connect to either the white Macbook or the 2015 Macbook Pro this way, though I have used this method in the distant past with the white Macbook. I wonder what this means?
Also, if I sit at my 2015 Macbook Pro and fire up screen sharing to my iMac from the Finder sidebar I can drag files from the iMac to the Macbook Pro, but not drag them back again.
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Do you mean that you get a message saying it cannot connect, or isn't there any button? What version of MacOS is running on these machines? I sometimes have a problem on my LAN where I can't connect to a network disk and have never found a solution when this happens, however if I reboot the client machine (the one that I'm using), then it always starts working again. I think this problem first started with Sierra on my Mac(s).
OK, I re-booted my iMac and now I can connect to the Macbook Pro using the 'Connect As' method (thanks for that!) and can move files both ways this way. But still can't drag files from iMac to the Macbook pro's shared screen. So just this one problem remaining...
Both imac and macbook Pro 2015 are running Sierra
Try right-clicking on the hard drive and choose "Get Info." When that window opens up, look at the bottom for the padlock. Click on the padlock; a box will open so you can type in your password. Then go to permissions, in the "Get Info" window. Click on everyone and make sure the permissions are "Read and Write."
Now, click on the padlock to lock it. Close all the windows. Try dragging files from the iMac.
Now, click on the padlock to lock it. Close all the windows. Try dragging files from the iMac.
For file sharing, you can set permissions for the account you're using under sharing in system preferences. I think this would be a better (more secure) option than globally allowing all users full access to your system disk.
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Thanks for sticking with me on this... Tried both of the above ideas and neither worked. One observation, when I drag a file across from my iMac desktop to the screen of the Macbook Pro it treats the mouse as if I want to move files or lassoo files on the Macbook pro desktop.
Am currently dropping files between the two macs using Dropcopy...
The only other observation is that what's on my Macbook pro is a direct carbon Copy Clone of my iMac system. Would this confuse things?
Am currently dropping files between the two macs using Dropcopy...
The only other observation is that what's on my Macbook pro is a direct carbon Copy Clone of my iMac system. Would this confuse things?
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No. White Macbook is running Mountain Lion while 2017 iMac and 2015 Macbook Pro are running Sierra. I can't update software on latter two machines as I need to run a legacy 32-bit app for my main work client which won't run on any OS newer than Sierra (and don't have sufficient RAM etc to run VMs).
If you want to share files between 2 shared desktops, you need to have 2 different distinct administrators even if you Carbon Clone your system files. My Mac Pro, MBA and Mini 2011 server work perfectly by sharing files between screen sharing, but each mac has a unique administrator account and allow screen sharing to share files with all administrators as the setup. Do you have a unique administrator user account set up for each mac that are distinct across each other?
OK, I logged out and logged into the 'Guest' account first just to see what would happen and 'Bingo!' Able to drag and drop files onto Macbook Pro screen sharing window and vice versa. Now how the hell do I configure my current cloned user account so that the Macbook Pro thinks I am another unique admin user? Still, thanks for the help!
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Create a new administrator account with a different name than current and different password using your current admin account in usersgroup. After that, logout and re-log in with the new admin account and make that permanent and make sure you always login using the new admin account if you want to screen share and also be able to drag and drop files. You can keep the clone account if you want to use that as a backup to your other mac.