-->![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/8/1/128177024/945336381.png)
![Samba sharing macos Samba sharing macos](/uploads/1/2/8/1/128177024/903537131.jpg)
Azure Files is Microsoft's easy-to-use cloud file system. Azure file shares can be mounted with the industry standard SMB 3 protocol by macOS High Sierra 10.13+. This article shows two different ways to mount an Azure file share on macOS: with the Finder UI and using the Terminal.
Prerequisites for mounting an Azure file share on macOS
- Storage account name: To mount an Azure file share, you will need the name of the storage account.
- Storage account key: To mount an Azure file share, you will need the primary (or secondary) storage key. SAS keys are not currently supported for mounting.
- Ensure port 445 is open: SMB communicates over TCP port 445. On your client machine (the Mac), check to make sure your firewall is not blocking TCP port 445.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/8/1/128177024/945336381.png)
Connect to a SMB Share. In the Server Address field, enter smb:// to define the network protocol for SMB, and then enter either the IP address or the hostname of the server. To add the server to your Favorite Servers list, click the ‘+’ button. Click Connect to connect to the share. On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, then click Sharing.
Mount an Azure file share via Finder
- Open Finder: Finder is open on macOS by default, but you can ensure it is the currently selected application by clicking the 'macOS face icon' on the dock:
- Select 'Connect to Server' from the 'Go' Menu: Using the UNC path from the prerequisites, convert the beginning double backslash (
) to
smb://
and all other backslashes () to forwards slashes (
/
). Your link should look like the following: - Use the storage account name and storage account key when prompted for a username and password: When you click 'Connect' on the 'Connect to Server' dialog, you will be prompted for the username and password (This will be autopopulated with your macOS username). You have the option of placing the storage account name/storage account key in your macOS Keychain.
- Use the Azure file share as desired: After substituting the share name and storage account key in for the username and password, the share will be mounted. You may use this as you would normally use a local folder/file share, including dragging and dropping files into the file share:
Mount an Azure file share via Terminal
- Replace
<storage-account-name>
,<storage-account-key>
, and<share-name>
with the appropriate values for your environment. - Use the Azure file share as desired: The Azure file share will be mounted at the mount point specified by the previous command.
Next steps
Learning has never been so easy!
It's a common complaint that in recent versions of Mac OS 10.x, browsing Windows-hosted SMB shares is incredibly slow. Not every solution works, but here are 3 simple fixes that completely solved the issue for me (Using Windows Server 2012 & 2012R2 with Mac OS X 10.9 & 10.10).
3 Steps total
Step 1: Disable writing .DS_Store files to network shares
On the Mac, open up Terminal and enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
Step 2: Make sure NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on the file server's network adapter
Adapter Properties -> IPv4 properties -> Advanced -> WINS tab -> Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP
Make sure this setting is enabled.
Step 3: Use Powershell to edit the server's SMB configuration.
On the Windows server, open Powershell as an administrator and run:
get-smbserverconfiguration
Look for the values for smb2creditsmin and smb2creditsmax. On my server, the defaults were 128 and 2048 respectively. To change these settings, run
set-smbserverconfiguration -smb2creditsmin 512 -smb2creditsmax 8192
and respond Y to the confirmation prompt.
![Samba sharing macos Samba sharing macos](/uploads/1/2/8/1/128177024/903537131.jpg)
Following these three steps instantly fixed the issue for me and others, and my Macs are now browsing the file shares just as fast as their Windows counterparts.
Mac Smb Version
Published: Feb 10, 2015 · Last Updated: Feb 11, 2015
References
- Relevant Spiceworks community discussion
15 Comments
Smb Sharing For Mac Windows 10
- PimientoOSXuser Feb 18, 2015 at 09:35amHey Chris, could you confirm that read and write speeds over SMB 3 on OSX 10.10 are the same as read and write speeds over SMB 3 on windows 8.1? Are you using 10gbe or 1gbe?We are using 10gbe and are seeing great read speeds (850MB/s) but not so great write speeds (400MB/s) even though our RAID can easily go up to 3,500MB/s.Thanks,Philipp
- PoblanoChris1474 Feb 19, 2015 at 06:22pmHi OSXUser, most (all?) RAID setups have inherently better read speeds compared to write speeds, and this has to do with the mechanics of RAID itself (see: http://www.raid-calculator.com/raid-types-reference.aspx). I suspect that if you benchmarked your Windows machines, you'd see a similar result to your Macs.
- PimientoOSXuser Feb 23, 2015 at 05:40pmHi Chris,No the RAID actually gets 3,000 MB/s write. I can also hit it with multiple Macs each at 400MB/s write. The Windows server also has a PCI SSD with 2000MB/s read and write. The throttle seems to be on the LAN side.Unlocking Nokia Lumia 830 is very costly these days, some providers asking up to $100 for an Nokia Lumia 830 unlock code. That’s one of the reasons we created unlocky, an awesome unlocker tool which allows you to get free unlock codes for Nokia Lumia 830 or other brands such Samsung, LG, Nokia, HTC and more (on this moment we can handle +150. Nokia unlock code generator lumia 830. How to Unlock Nokia Lumia 830 by Code. Unlock your Nokia Lumia 830 to use with another sim card or Gsm network through a 100% safe and secure method for unlocking. Just simply select your phone manufacturer as Nokia, select the network of your Nokia Lumia 830 is locked to, enter phone model number and imei number.When connection one Mac Pro to another Mac Pro we get 800 MB/s read and write. But when connecting from Mac Pro to Windows Server the write is much slower than tge read.Any ideas?
- JalapenoOscar3097 Mar 1, 2015 at 10:14pmThis solved the issue for me too. However, if use Hamachi to access the file shares from another country, I have to wait 2 or 3 minutes for the folders to show up. Then when the folders do show up and I open another folder, I have to wait again for those folders to show up.
However, using Hamachi from a windows computer, there is no wait time for folders to show up.
Any resolution for this? - PoblanoChris1474 Mar 2, 2015 at 06:36amOSXUser, that's strange- but you're right, sounds like it's LAN stuff. And it sounds like you're not the only guy noticing this. I googled and found this- might have some ideas: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windowsserver/en-US/46898c7f-92e0-4c99-98d2-18a7458a7d2d/slow-network-write-speeds-via-smb-cifsOscar3097, have you poked around to see if other Hamachi users have experienced the same issues? Sounds like a Hamachi issue to me.
- JalapenoOscar3097 Mar 2, 2015 at 01:07pmChris, I thought this was a Hamachi issue but I discarded that idea because I can browse without a problem from windows computers. I have this problem when browsing from macs in Argentina, Puerto Rico, Panama, Brazil Mexico but not if they use windows. I had the same problem in the local lan, but using your fix we can now browse fast from all macs in the office.
- Pimientokimcassidy Oct 16, 2015 at 07:41pmHi Chris,I know this is an older thread but it is something I need to fix for two clients. I followed your excellent instructions and was successful for my Windows 2012 client, but when I run the set-smb.. on a Windows 2008 R2 it says it isn't a recognized cmdlet. Any help that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
- PoblanoChris1474 Dec 2, 2015 at 08:32pmHi kimcassidy, just saw this now- sorry for the late reply. I know that the ability to manipulate SMB through PowerShell was added with Server 2012; I'm not sure if you can upgrade your version of PowerShell or import the SMB module into 2008. Others might have more experience with this..
- TabascoAskJaiCom Apr 18, 2016 at 09:34amI don't think this this is possible on Server 2008 R2. is it??
- Pimientomarkelliott5 Sep 25, 2016 at 04:29amI just made an account to praise you for writing this little article. It made my home theater set up go from struggling w/ 720p to streaming remux 1080p bluray with only occasional hiccups.It's still slower than I would think it would be given the pipes it's coming through, but at least it can handle the 2.77MB/s required to stream this big video.
- SonoraRichard Poole Oct 18, 2016 at 12:34pmThis seemed to do the trick here too.
OSX users instantly noticing improved browse and file transfer speeds after applying the 3 steps above. - Anaheimblacklab3l Jan 11, 2017 at 03:09pmThis worked for me..Took my searches from 3-5 minutes down to about 16 seconds. I'll take it!
- Pimientodylanevans May 22, 2017 at 08:59amThis worked for me, but then it didnt :/I was trying out a direct connection between my MBP and consumer Win10 machine connected direct via thunderbolt.They connected up nice and easily, and when running a test of disk speed from the MBP (with Blackmagic disk speed test) the internal drives on the Win machine tested at their full speed for around 500MB/s.However, external drives did not work - I was getting write speeds of around 5MB/sI ran across this page and when I enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP this seemed to fix the issue - external drives mounted on the Win side would test at their capacity of 320MB/s when testing from the MBP.However, I have connected again a couple of weeks later and the network speeds have dropped back down to 5-6MB/s.I cannot for the life of me fathom what has changed, everything is still enabled on the windows side, and crucially this is only for externally mounted drives. The internal drives on the Windows machine still test at their full speed.Do you have any ideas?
- PoblanoSam Thackeray Dec 6, 2017 at 11:44amHi,
Any chance someone could provide some details on what each of these commands do.We are an office of some 100 users and i am hesitant to make changes to fix the issues for our 1 mac user if there is any negative effect for the 99 windows users.Thanks, - SonoraOnWireIT Jan 22, 2018 at 06:40pmCould someone confirm that this is still an issue with the newest Mac OSx?