How to Map a Network Drive / Server to MacOS

Map a network drive on Mac

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Once macOS finds a network drive, you will be able to connect to it and access the resources you have permission to access. We can configure macOS to automatically mount the drive in the future to save having to do this every time you want to access something. Mounting is the technical term for opening the drive to use it.

1. Open Finder and select Go.
2. Select Connect to Server and enter the address of the network drive. The format will be something like ‘smb://files.gordon.edu/departments1$/public/foldername’ or ‘smb://files.gordon.edu/departments2$/foldername/subfoldername" or the like.
3. Select the ‘+’ icon to add it to your favorites list.
4. Enter the username and passphrase to access the resource when prompted. Select ‘Remember this passphrase in my keychain’ to avoid having to enter the login every time.
5. Select the new icon to access the contents of the network drive.

As you enter the login details of the network drive you should see a new drive icon appear on your desktop. This will be the share. Now you can double click or right-click to access the contents of that drive as you would any other.

If you don’t have the network address to hand, you can do one of two things. Select the little clock icon to reconnect to a previously used network drive or Browse. Browse will perform a quick search of your network to locate the network drive if the drive has been set up for network discovery, which is automatic on most network devices. Once the drive is located, select it and click the ‘+’ icon as above, and then follow the rest of the steps as usual.

Automatically connect to a network drive on Mac

As stated earlier, you can configure macOS to automatically mount a network drive every time you start your Mac. This makes it easy to access shared resources with the least amount of effort. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Perform the above steps to map the network drive.
2. Open System Preferences (the silver and black icon with the gear in the middle, somewhere around the center of the dock) and select Users & Groups.
3. Select Login Items and uncheck the lock icon in the bottom left.
4. Drag the network drive icon into the Users & Groups window to link.
5. Check Hide next to the drive to stop it opening a window.

From now on, every time you log in or reboot your Mac, the network drive will appear and be available for use the same as your installed drives. Now you should be able to access shared resources on any network you are connected to at the time.

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