Some MacOS Ventura users have found that file sharing between a Mac running macOS Ventura does not work reliably between Ventura and another Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows PC, and even some NAS drives like Synology. For many users, file sharing setups that worked fine for years prior to updating to macOS Ventura are now no longer working at all or behaving in an inconsistent manner.
If you’re experiencing problems with file sharing not working in macOS Ventura, there is a fix to resolve the issue. This solution applies to SMB file sharing with MacOS Ventura and devices connecting to or from the Mac, whether you’re experiencing connectivity failures, time outs, server unavailable, server may not exist, or other similar error messages.
Fix for SMB File Sharing Not Working in MacOS Ventura
- Open the “System Settings” app on Mac from the Apple menu
- Go to “General” and then to “Sharing”
- Find the switch for ‘File Sharing’ and toggle it OFF
- Restart the Mac by going to the Apple menu and choosing Restart
- Upon reboot, return to the Sharing system settings panel and turn “File Sharing” back to the ON position
- Resume file sharing as usual, it should work as expected
You may need to repeat this process after a few days, or at random, if file sharing suddenly stops working again between the MacOS Ventura Mac and another Mac or device.
Why you need to disable file sharing, reboot, then re-enable file sharing, is a bit of a mystery. Simply toggling file sharing off and on does not do the trick.
Presumably this a bug with macOS Ventura that will hopefully get fixed in a future software update, though the issue remains in current versions. MacOS Ventura has been mostly well received by most, but some users have experienced performance issues, wi-fi trouble, and other miscellaneous troubles with Finder, and a general dislike of the new System Settings app.
Thanks to MJTSai for finding the solution to this frustrating issue.
