I keep important documents and files on a NAS (Network Attached Storage). This NAS exports the file systems as a SMB for Windows and Mac and also as AFP for Time Machine backup.
It is easy to mount the shares using Apple Finder, but I find it more convenient to have them mounted automatically at login. This is directly supported by macOS.
This document will outline the process for setting this up using macOS Monterey as an example, but the procedure should be applicable to previous macOS versions as well.
The First Step Is To Mount It Manually
Open up Finder, select Go from the menu bar and select “Connect to server…”
For the address, type in the server address, prefix with “smb:///”, for example:
In this example, I’m mounting “data4” from 10.0.0.49 using the SMB protocol.
Second Step, Configure Automount at login
The next part is to bring up System Preferences. Got to “Users & Groups” and pick the user and then select “Login Items” (number 1 below). Example:
Select “+” (number 2 in image above), then navigate to where the SMB share is mounted, and press “Add.” This will add the smb mount to be mounted/mapped at login.
Conclusion
Mounting remote file systems via SMB or other protocols is extremely convenient and can be done automatically at login on macOS.
This applies to other protocols as well.
