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I installed Microsoft's Remote Desktop and connected to a PC. How can I share files between my Mac and PC?

When I use RDP on Windows, I can simply add a file to the clipboard and paste it inside the RDP window. The same thing doesn't seem to work in the mac version of RDP.

If I try to share one of my Mac's folders with the RDP computer, and then double click that drive in RDP it says:

\\tsclient\Downlo1 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

Access is denied.

Community
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Senseful
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  • Can you browse \tsclient ? – Harv Feb 08 '11 at 02:30
  • @Harv: yes, it shows me a single folder, \\tsclient\Downlo1, which when I try to access, gives the same error message. – Senseful Feb 08 '11 at 03:07
  • sounds like a permissions error, not RDP. Are you on the same LAN? It looks like RDP is trying to access the target windows box using SMB, which is a whole ordeal in and of itself. – Fake Name Feb 09 '11 at 06:57
  • @Dori: won't the tag [remote-desktop] be very confusing since both Apple and Microsoft have products named "Remote Desktop"? – Senseful Feb 10 '11 at 08:14
  • there are good reasons on both sides; my own opinion is that, given that less than 1% of this site's questions are on any "Remote Desktop", there's no real need to split them. – Dori Feb 11 '11 at 00:08
  • @Senseful I think you should clarify that you're using RDC's file sharing feature, not Mac's native "File Sharing" via SMB (in File Sharing options). RDC's file sharing sets up something that looks like an SMB share (starts with 2 backslashes). – Kelvin Dec 12 '12 at 19:40
  • @Senseful - Did any of the answers work for you? – Dan King Apr 04 '17 at 18:53
  • Why sometimes/randomly (big) files are corrupted when copying/pasting from remote Win 11 to Macos ? – sabiland Sep 19 '23 at 09:27

10 Answers10

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When copying files from Mac to PC using Microsoft Remote Desktop I prefer to share a subfolder, not the entire drive.

Here's how:

  • In Remote Desktop on your Mac select your PC in the "My Desktops" section.

  • Click the "Edit" button (pencil icon).

  • In the popup click the "Redirection" button (folder icon; see image below).

  • Check the "Enable folder redirection" box.

  • Click the "+" button at the bottom of that window and browse to the Mac folder you want to share.

  • Connect to the remote PC.

  • Look for your shared Mac folder in your PC's "My Computer" directory (see image below).

enter image description here enter image description here

Finally, as noted by @Bart and @robbpriestley in the comments below, if you are already connected to the remote computer you need to re-establish your connection in order to see the shared folder.

Dan King
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  • Thanks for sharing the new method of establishing the link. It confused me at first since the option mentioned by previous posters is not available, but I figured it out -- before reading your post... ;) – Evan K. Stone Nov 07 '14 at 19:41
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    Definitely better than sharing your hard drive – DagW Apr 24 '15 at 09:18
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    Great! The only thing which had me stumped was that I didn't see my folder immediately under 'Computer' of the remote after I had added the 'redirection' folder on local. I figured out I had to restart the remote desktop connection first, because I had already been connected whille adding redirection. So step 5 can also be read as 'Connect to the remote PC (or reconnect if you had already been connected)'. – Bart Oct 22 '15 at 11:36
  • It seems that Microsoft Remote Desktop can't handle paths that contain spaces. I tried hard to share a folder with such a path – no luck. Then I created and shared a folder on my desktop, and it showed up immediately when I reconnected to the remote PC. – Rolf Staflin Sep 27 '16 at 15:32
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    I'd recommend editing the answer and adding that if you are already connected to the remote computer that you need to re-establish your connection in order for the shared folder to appear. I spent quite a few minutes until I read @Bart comment above. – robbpriestley Sep 20 '17 at 22:45
  • Thx Bart and @robbpriestley for the comment regarding the need to re-establish connection in order to view the shared folder. Answer has been updated accordingly. – Dan King Sep 21 '17 at 00:33
  • Thank you. Microsoft support chat wouldn't help me and their Pro Support line wanted $499 to answer the question! It seemed to work just fine. – Doug Lerner Dec 30 '17 at 03:54
  • Rebooted but still I see only disc C :( – Vitaly Zdanevich May 01 '19 at 15:14
  • Its 2022 and this method still works in Windows 10. The Mac drive shows up under what Windows 10 calls "This PC". Thanks for the help. – Jroonk Oct 21 '22 at 09:13
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Troubleshooting steps for the inability to copy between a Mac and PC - http://mac2.microsoft.com/help/office/14/en-us/rdc/item/2aae839c-7f91-4738-aea7-9ffb25dbfe2e?category=ff488916-8b5e-4a0c-af96-37d065645612.

I think this answer will likely fix it:

Solution: Before you start the Remote Desktop session, make the Mac disks available to the Windows-based computer.

1.On the RDC menu, click Preferences.

2.Click Drives, and then on the pop-up menu, select the option that you want.

Your disk or folder is now available so that you can access files that are on your Mac from the Windows-based computer.

If you make this change after you connect, the disk or folder that you select becomes available the next time that you connect.

3.On the Start menu, click Computer or My Computer.

The Mac disk or folder that you have made available is listed with all other disks and folders on your Windows-based computer.

Note If you can't see the Start menu, on the View menu, click Full Screen.To return to window mode later, point to the top edge of the screen until the RDC menu bar appears. On the menu bar, click View, and then clear the Full Screen check box.

4.Open the disk or folder that you want to copy from.

5.On the Start menu, click Computer or My Computer.

6.Open the disk or folder that you want to copy to.

You should now have two windows open, one for the location that you want to copy from, and one for the location that you want to copy to.

7.Drag the document that you want to copy to the location that you want.

edusysadmin
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  • This fails at step 4, which doesn't let me access the Mac's contents with the error message I posted above. – Senseful Feb 10 '11 at 04:42
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    This isn't an ideal situation, as that connection is a two-way street. Anyone on the remote machine can access your local files. – kristina childs Feb 06 '13 at 18:48
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Try copy pasting the whole folder. It is easy and quite flexible at the same time It worked like a charm for me.

  • Mark the folder in the macOS Finder and press Cmd+C
  • In the Windows Explorer in the remote Desktop press Ctrl+V

(Tested with macOS 10.14.6 + Microsoft Remote Desktop 10.3.8 + Windows 10 Home 1903)

yairchu
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Tech guy
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    Welcome to Ask Different. The OP stated that simply pasting from a Mac isn't working for them (it works from a PC). Please see [answer] for tips on providing quality answers and avoiding downvotes. – fsb Sep 25 '19 at 13:10
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    @fsb but it is working on my Mac OS High Sierra – Tech guy Sep 25 '19 at 16:23
  • @fsb works for me on macOS 10.14.6 and Microsoft Remote Desktop 10.3.8 and Windows 10 Home 1903. And this is the best answer imho – yairchu Feb 16 '20 at 13:27
  • @yairchu You can edit this answer to provide more detail such as the versions you used. This question is 9 years old so it's possible that the problem was fixed in the years between the question and this answer. – fsb Feb 16 '20 at 16:31
  • @fsb cool, suggested an edit then – yairchu Feb 17 '20 at 13:10
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    @yairchu Thanks for helping improve the answer! I approved your edit. Once one more user approves it you'll see your changes reflected in the answer. – fsb Feb 17 '20 at 13:21
  • The key is the use the ctrl + v in the windows. I can confirm this works for me too. – Arefe Apr 17 '20 at 14:34
  • This answer worked for me too; using Windows 2019 Base Server + MacOS Catalina 10.15.2 – Sumax May 06 '20 at 05:51
  • Wow this worked like a champ (for a file in my case) whereas drag and drop does not. Go figure... – rogerdpack May 27 '20 at 20:40
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Clipboard RDC is a free open source cross platform utility that uses clipboard to transfer files much like we transfer text to/from servers in RDP.

Note, requires Java.

Disclaimer: I am the author

nohillside
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Gaurav Kumar
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Good news, copy and paste seems to work now (and for single files even)! But drag and drop does not seem to. At all.

copy and paste:

copy (command + c) in OS X Finder, then open an explorer window in rdp and "ctrl+v" in windows

rogerdpack
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Another possibility is to use a dropbox (et.al.) account. Just log into the same one from both the Mac and the PC.

hotpaw2
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    There are some organizations that block Dropbox, or in my case, I just really didn't want to use it on my work machine, since who knows what they're snooping... However, this is a GREAT suggestion for anyone who doesn't have those concerns (or who doesn't work in a highly/strictly-regulated corporate environment). Well done. – Evan K. Stone Nov 07 '14 at 19:38
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I ran into the same issue but I was able to paste to \\tsclient\OSX\Users\Shared

Matthew Hudnall
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  • I too was able to map a folder in /Users/Shared whereas anything in /Users/ failed due to permissions. – Josh Nov 06 '12 at 10:46
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If you right-click on the folder on your Mac and then "Get Info", what permissions do you see?

Make sure your username (the user that initiated the RDC session) has read and write access to the folder. If that doesn't work, give "read & write" to "everyone" (be careful with this one - anyone with access to this folder will be able to modify the contents).

Kelvin
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Your shared folder has a name that is too long. Try calling the share "foo," connecting to terminal services, and then accessing \\tsclient\foo.

Harv
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I will second the Dropbox recommendation. This is the single greatest way to keep many different machines in sync with files there is. If you save a file on your Mac, within seconds it seems, the same file is updated on your PC.

A second approach is to use LogMeIn Pro which can do this but it costs money. In my experience, the speed of LogMeIn is much faster than RDP for remotely controlling another machine.

john busteed
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