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The setup:

  • 8TB drive partitioned into 2 partitions of which one is 3.99TB (NAS-HOME)
  • This drive is hooked up to a Proximus (ISP) B-BOX-3V+ (router) USB1 port
  • The partition is formatted EXT3 as the router only recognizes FAT (all versions except exFAT), EXT2 and EXT3
  • The protocol in use is SMB1 as the router is an ISP-provided piece of &#$%
  • MacBook Pro (MBP) running macOS Big Sur Version 11.6

The issue:

  1. Whenever I reboot the MBP and go to Finder and click on Go To → Server and type:

    smb://192.168.1.1/NAS-HOME/username

    that just works and going to iTunes and importing the music library works.

  2. Restarting the machine and doing the same with Photo library works too!

  3. Trying to play iTunes music after Photo library has been opened (and not rebooting) fails with the following error message:

    Connection to the server "192.168.1.1" has encountered an error

    Please try the server name or IP address again. When you still have problems, please contact your system administrator

    (translated from the local language in use on the MBP, so the exact error message might differ a bit)

  4. Opening a photo in photos after the error occurs with iTunes fails as well.

  5. Restarting the MBP makes it work again. :O

  6. My Linux does not have this problem when mounting with mount -t cifs -o rw,guest,vers=1.0,noperm,sec=none //MYMODEM/NAS-HOME/myuser/ /media/NAS/. (it's just slow because of the USB1 port)

  7. Yes, I tried with MYMODEM first and changed to IP address because that failed on the MBP. :-(

What I've tried already:

  • Adding the connection to /etc/fstab: Same problem
  • Automounting the share: Same problem
  • hdparm -S /dev/sde 0 on my computer to ensure the HDD doesn't go to sleep (in case it's a time-out error): Same problem
  • /var/log/system.log on the MBP doesn't contain anything relevant
  • The router only has a web interface and doesn't expose its smb.log

About me:

  • I know very little about Darwin, except that it's a BSD variant
  • I know a ton about the SMB protocol
  • I'm familiar with a terminal (Arch-derivative Linux user)

Has anyone encountered this error before and has a solution?

Failing the above: What can I do to do a Root Cause Analysis???

Fabby
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    Is there no way to get logs of the SMB "server", i.e. the router? That would perhaps help you narrow down the issue. Also, you use the mount command on Linux, can you do the same from the Mac (instead of the Go To -> Server)? Not sure if is actually different, but who knows... – Saaru Lindestøkke Sep 18 '21 at 12:06
  • No, the router only has a Web interface, no telnet interface. :-( From this one I tried all of the answers including manually mounting and it gives the same error... – Fabby Sep 18 '21 at 15:41
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    Can you share any details about the router model? Is there anything in the logs on Mac side (/var/log/system.log etc)? Can you access files and folders directly via the mount or does the problem also occur there? – nohillside Sep 18 '21 at 16:33
  • @nohillside verified system.log and there is nothing relevant except the WiFi being lost once while I was testing the mount. – Fabby Sep 18 '21 at 18:15
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    Not sure if helpful, but apparantly there is an API for (another?) bbox router, Maybe it can help you get the logs? https://api.bbox.fr/doc/apirouter/index.html#api-Device-v1_device_log – Saaru Lindestøkke Sep 20 '21 at 17:11
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    Maybe this is helpful? https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/362739/24324 (BTW I am just suggesting anything that comes to mind now, without the faintest clue fi this would work). – Saaru Lindestøkke Sep 20 '21 at 17:22
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – nohillside Sep 22 '21 at 05:36

1 Answers1

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It looks like I can reliably reproduce the error and I have a workaround as well.

  • The MBP, even when turned off, does not disconnect from the NAS, so ejecting the drive fails.
  • When the drive is forcibly disconnected, the MBP cannot connect to the NAS again, whereas the Linux machine has no issues.

Workaround:

  • Instead of forcibly disconnecting the drive, the modem must be rebooted so it dismounts the drive regardless of any active connections
  • Then the drive can be disconnected from the modem while it's in its start-up sequence.

:-(

Fabby
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    If you turn off the Mac it for sure forgets about any mounts (you have to remount after booting it). Maybe an issue with the SMB server not discarding connects (or with macOS not specifying a timeout for the server when mounting)? – nohillside Sep 19 '21 at 09:56
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    Can you share the model of the router? It might help others in the future who search for " smb issue" or others who are more knowledgeable might suggest a different solution for this specific model. – Saaru Lindestøkke Sep 20 '21 at 10:21
  • @nohillside The MBP is set to autoconnect in the system settings - users – Fabby Sep 20 '21 at 12:31
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    @SaaruLindestøkke that's an edit I made to the title of the Q. I'll edit I've edited the text to provide ISP and model number there too! 0:-) – Fabby Sep 20 '21 at 12:33
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    Why do you need step 1 from the question then, if it autoconnects (and how does it do this)? Look, we are not questioning the problem as such here, but somehow I have the feeling that we miss essential parts of the setup. – nohillside Sep 20 '21 at 12:53