MacOS – How to restart SMB client on macOS Catalina? (Finder not connecting to shares)

catalinafindermacossmb

Once in a while Finder stops connecting to SMB shares.

Finder → Cmd+K → Connect → It shows a window like this infinitely:
Finder connecting to SMB infinitely

What I've tried already:

  1. I have tried connecting to multiple shares (Linux, Windows), Finder didn't connect to any of them
  2. Connecting with alternative client works. For example, Kodi media player includes its own SMB client and it connects just fine.
  3. Connecting from other running Mac works too
  4. Reset Finder settings by deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
  5. Kill Finder with killall Finder command
  6. Add username and password explicitely into the Cmd+K connect to server dialog: smb://myusername:mypassword@192.168.1.2/MyFiles

I assume this is a macOS SMB client issue.

This issue will go away with reboot. I'd like to fix the issue without restarting macOS – how can I restart SMB services only?

Best Answer

I had the same problem, solved it by launching Activity Monitor and stopping netbiosd process, it gets restarted and then the connections started working immediately. It's possible that I also stopped NetAuthSysAgent process as well, so if it doesn't work for you with the netbiosd process only, try stopping NetAuthSysAgent as well.

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