Plex, any updates pls? What have you tried? Have you managed to replicate it? Have you tried working with Apple to find the cause? What else do you need from us to get this resolved? Anything?
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We are not alone… From Apple’s community forums:
Connection Drops with SMB Servers on macOS Sequoia 15.1
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It’s me or… no more problem with sequoia 15.1.1 ?
Realy?
Not tried but please don’t tell me that now that I have moved everything over to Emby and paid up as well!
Will be home in a few hours and will install the update and report back!
Thanks for the good news…I hope.
I am on 15.1.1 and closed my movies folder, did a scan, and saw some red trash cans. Opened my movies folder, and re-scanned and they went away. Suffice it to say, I dont believe 15.1.1 fixed this issue.
Sadly I don’t think so either. I had the same issue as well.
Back to Emby it is then!
Still seems to be fine with NFS (read only) hasn’t disconnected since I switched it over, but would prefer SMB to be fixed.
Agreed. I’m ok dealing with NFS for now, but those damn “@eadir” folders are killing my workflow. When you delete from plex, those folders prevent the show folders from deleting.
Since I switch to NFS, I also moved my server to a mac mini. Ever since than, when i use NFS, I get a lot of bottlenecking when trying to stream multiple items at once, or even when transferring data to the disk and trying to stream at the same time.
NFS doesnt seem to allow a lot of speed through it, as soon as I put SMB back on, everything is MUCH faster again…
Any ideas?
At this point, SMB is better even with the problems, because with NFS I cant even watch 2 streams at once.
I agree… I’m using NFS strictly because I don’t have to think about whether or not the finder windows stay open, but there are definitely some negatives to it. I’ll deal with this for now, but I really want SMB working again.
I recently discovered AFP actually works much better.
Apparently, due to the nature of the protocol, NFS is bad at keeping a stable connection over time, which is what i was experiencing.
In case anyone else is having issues:
When comparing AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) and NFS (Network File System) for file sharing, several factors can influence performance differences, such as the underlying protocol design, network conditions, and specific use cases. Here’s an elaboration on why AFP might perform better than NFS in certain situations:
AFP vs. NFS
AFP (Apple Filing Protocol)
- Designed for Mac Environments: AFP is optimized for use with macOS systems, providing seamless integration with Apple’s file system features like resource forks and metadata.
- Performance: AFP generally offers consistent performance, especially in environments where Mac clients are predominant. It handles metadata efficiently, which can be beneficial for applications that rely heavily on file attributes.
- Features: Supports advanced features like Spotlight indexing and Time Machine backups, which can enhance user experience on macOS systems.
NFS (Network File System)
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: NFS is widely used across different operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, and Windows (with additional software). This makes it versatile but can also introduce compatibility issues.
- Performance Issues: As noted in various user experiences, NFS can suffer from performance degradation over time. This is sometimes due to how it handles network connections or specific server implementations[1][2][3].
- Connection Stability: NFS connections may slow down the longer they remain active without being reset. This can be mitigated by remounting the shares or rebooting the server[1].
- Network Dependency: NFS performance is highly dependent on network stability and configuration. Any glitches or misconfigurations in the network can significantly impact its performance[5].
- Protocol Version: Different versions of NFS (e.g., NFSv3 vs. NFSv4) can exhibit varied performance characteristics. Upgrading to a newer version might resolve some issues[4].
Why AFP Might Perform Better
- Integration with macOS: AFP’s tight integration with macOS allows it to leverage system-specific optimizations that might not be available to NFS.
- Consistent Performance: Users often report more consistent performance with AFP compared to NFS, which can degrade over time due to connection persistence issues.
- Metadata Handling: AFP’s efficient handling of metadata might result in better performance for applications that require frequent access to file attributes.
In summary, while AFP may offer better performance in certain scenarios, particularly in macOS environments, NFS provides broader compatibility across different platforms. The choice between them should consider the specific needs of the network environment and client systems involved.
AFP was great, but it was deprecated after macOS 10.9. It’s still in there, but they aren’t actively supporting it. At some point, Apple will just remove it.
I was just typing the same thing.
AFP was last updated in macOS Mt. Lion 10.8 and is generally avoided.
While it’s hard to nail down, I think macOS 15 created security / authorization bugs.
The devs don’t have a set of steps to reproduce the issue you guys are seeing, though.
Has anyone tried a fresh install of macOS and PMS to find when it breaks?
That may be the case, but AFP works as well as SMB did until this all happened.
NFS was causing all kind of issues with connections, so this is MUCH better for the time being.
Hopefully, an actual solution to this problem will be found at some point soon.
I don’t see this as a Plex problem. It’s a MacOS problem. If I browse the folders through the terminal I can see the folders that are missing in Plex. However, when I open Finder, I do not see the files. There is something peculiar with MacOS and “seeing” folders and files on the SMB share. I do have several thousand folders in the Movie directory.
The NFS option has fixed my issue. But I would like to be able to use SMB reliably again. Maybe 15.2 will have a fix.
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Hi, While I don’t have an issue with Plex. I was unable to keep SMB network shares connected on a new M4 mac Mini. The MacOS version it came withe is 15.1.1, I also tried the beta.
When idle they would drop out randomly, sometimes only after a couple of minutes, sometimes after a couple of hours.
When under load (encoding video direct to NAS) or reading the lightroom catalog they would always die within 7 minutes.
Switching to AFP appears to have fixed the issue (no drops after 18 hours and several encodes later). It’s very clear to me that Mac’s SMB stack is just plain broken. Apple no longer recommends AFP (which works), they only recommend SMB (which doesn’t).
I didn’t try NFS as the Mac implementation is a little too basic for my use case, but I have no trouble believing that it works fine too.
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@ChuckPa …any updates for us here?
Thanks
I’m not a MacOS person. (Don’t own one ; (yet?))
all indications here are this is a SMB / permissions problem,
or even MacOS shutting down connections when idle too long “power saving”
Are any MacOS Plex people looking into this at least?
Thanks
