MountedStorage Support

Requirements

Mac: A Mac with Apple silicon. Intel Macs aren’t supported yet.
macOS: macOS 13 Ventura or later, on the Mac with the drives and on every Mac you reach them from. Transcripts of spoken words need macOS 26.
Drives: External drives formatted APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), exFAT or FAT. NTFS drives are read-only on a Mac: your other devices can read them, but they can’t hold photo backups.
Network: An internet connection on both ends. No router setup or port forwarding. Away from home, speed depends on your home connection’s upload speed.

Common problems

My other computer doesn’t show up

Both Macs need MountedStorage open (it lives in the menu bar), and the Mac with the drives must be awake: leave “Keep Mac Awake While Sharing” on in its menu. If the computer is listed as Offline, choose it in the menu and then Reconnect. If it isn’t listed at all, pair the two Macs again with a new invite.

The invite doesn’t work

An invite works once and lasts 15 minutes. Choose Add a Device… on the Mac with the drives for a new one, copy it on the other Mac, then choose Connect to a Computer… there. MountedStorage reads the invite from the clipboard.

A drive is missing

MountedStorage shares external drives, never your Mac’s own startup disk. If a drive was unplugged, it stays searchable in the Library and appears again when you plug it back in.

I can’t save to a drive from my other Mac

That’s by design: in Finder on your other Macs the drives at home are read-only. Copy files from them freely; changes have to be made on the Mac the drives are connected to.

Video stutters away from home

A video plays smoothly when its bitrate is below your home connection’s upload speed. Over a 50 Mbps upload, H.264 and HEVC files and proxies play well; camera originals such as ProRes or Blackmagic RAW need more and are better copied first. If both networks block direct connections, traffic goes through an encrypted relay, which is slower.

A share link opens a web page instead of the app

That’s expected in 0.2.1: a link opens a page on mountedstorage.com first. Click Open in MountedStorage there. Or copy the link, then choose Download from a Share Link… in the MountedStorage menu. The app reads the link from the clipboard, shows what’s offered and asks before downloading into your Downloads folder. You need MountedStorage on a Mac; links can’t be opened on an iPhone or Windows yet.

A share link download is waiting

The file comes straight from the sender’s Mac, so that Mac has to be awake and online with the drive plugged in. The download waits and carries on by itself when it’s back, even after a restart. If the link has expired or been turned off, the menu says so: ask the sender for a new one.

I can’t share a whole drive, or a file on my startup disk

That’s by design. Share a Link… shares one file or folder on an external drive. A drive’s top level can’t be shared, and neither can anything on the Mac’s own startup disk.

Backup says a drive has no room

To protect everything else on a drive, backups always leave at least 5 percent of it free, and never less than 2 GB. Choose another drive, or make room on this one.

Remove a paired device

On a Mac that connects to your Mac at home, choose that computer in the menu, then Remove. On the Mac at home, choose the device under Your devices, then Remove…, and confirm. It takes effect at once, including for connections already open, so anything it’s opening or backing up stops. Backups it already made stay on the drive. To use it again, pair it with a new invite. The Security page has more.

MountedStorage won’t open or quits

Quit any copy that’s running, then open Terminal and run /Applications/MountedStorage.app/Contents/MacOS/easynas-tray. The app starts with its messages printed in the Terminal window. Copy them into your email, then press Control-C to quit it.