I cannot enable File sharing and other sharing services

Hi eposse,

I have the same issue. I believe it is related to the most recent security update.

There is a workaround for this from a few others in these forums who have been having a similar issue...

Open terminal and launch this command to turn file sharing on:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist

To turn off:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist

Not ideal, but sadly the only thing that seems to work for the time being.

Same issue here. I disabled file sharing for some other purpose, then when I went to re-enable it, it will not allow me to turn it back on for with AFP or SMB. You can click on them, but they never indicate that they are on and will not re-enable.

At first I thought the command line solution did not work, but I was using the disable command. ha!

Yes, the command line solution works. Thank you.

Glad it worked! Sadly the issue remains even with the latest update. I was getting quite far with tech support as they managed to acknowledge that it was the update that caused the issue (I re-installed Catalina and the update hadn't been installed and the file sharing worked). Sadly and annoyingly, they stopped short of collecting data from my machine as it is now classified as "Vintage". Incredibly frustrating as it is Apple's fault. If anyone has a Catalina machine that isn't vintage, they may have more luck with getting tech support to fix the issue!

I wanted to reinstall Catalina, but didn’t trust my tech skills to do so. I am very happy with this workaround. I probably will not turn it off. I just installed 32 GB of RAM and my 2012 iMac is still working great with the exception of not running Photoshop 2022, because of the graphics card. But I can run Photoshop 2020 just fine. I even tried to connect my MacBook 2020 with iMac 2012 as a display. I spent hours after buying the correct cables, to discover that it will not work(only MacBook 2019 Will work). Again, thank you so much for this valuable Tip that I can now work on my MacBook and access my external drive through the Network to iMac 2012.

Thanks, but that didn't work for me.

Wait. It did work!!! You need to hit return and then put in your password. THANKS so much

Update: the issue remains in macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2026). This is really FRUSTRATING. Please, contact Apple to fix it:

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

Awesome! Thanks so much for helping me fix this issue! I've spent hours searching and speaking to tech support 3 times. You have been the BEST tech support yet. I will be using this site from now on.

Glad it worked! Sadly still an issue with the latest update