Apple Issues Solutions for Macs Unable to Access Windows Shares

Apple published a support article with solutions for an issue blocking macOS devices from connecting to CIFS/SMBv1 network shares hosted on Windows servers when using NTLM user credentials.

macOS users who attempt to access a CIFS or SMBv1 network share from a Windows device after installing a Windows update from June 11, would get the following error:

There was a problem connecting to the server '{Server Host Name}'. Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator.

The list of affected Windows platforms is quite long, with both impacted client and server Windows versions being listed in the table below.

Affected platforms
Client Server
Windows 10, version 1903 Windows Server, version 1903
Windows 10, version 1809 Windows Server, version 1809/Windows Server 2019
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 Windows Server, version 1803
Windows 10, version 1803 Windows Server, version 1709
Windows 10, version 1709 Windows Server 2016
Windows 10, version 1703 Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016 Windows Server 2012
Windows 10, version 1607 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2015 Windows Server 2008 SP2
Windows 8.1  
Windows 7 SP1  

Microsoft lists this known issue as resolved, with detailed solutions to be followed being provided by Apple on its support website.

Apple's solutions to inaccessible SMBv1 shares

"macOS Mojave and earlier might not be able to use NTLM credentials to connect to CIFS or SMB1 shares on a server that has received Microsoft Windows Server updates from 11 June 2019 or later," Apple describes the issue.

"After entering your user name and password, an alert says that there was a problem connecting to the server, and to check the server name or IP address and then try again."

Users who are certain that the NTLM credentials they used to log into the network share are correct can use one of the following solutions to connect:

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