Microsoft Word files that become invisible on SMB shared drives, suddenly become visible if the shared drive is accessed via AFP. Since neither Apple or Microsoft seem to have volunteered information about how this problem can be resolved, and since it is believed AFP is obsolete and has been deprecated by Apple, AFP seems not to be a durable solution.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.5
you can also go to windows machine to file's path and right click>uncheck hidden. then it will show on MAC
If you're experiencing issues with the current version of Microsoft Word on your Mac, you might consider uninstalling the app and reinstalling version 16.96, which has been more stable for some users.
You can find the official download link from Microsoft here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac
Additionally, turning off automatic updates temporarily can help you maintain a stable version until a newer, fixed release becomes available.
Hope this helps!
Thank you. I see the problem as the invisibility of files when accessed on an SMB share, whereby, while the file is present, it cannot be seen in the file list, and therefore, unless an alias of the file exists, the file cannot be accessed. However, if the file is accessed on an AFP share, the file/s is/are visible, just as one would expect. This is a showstopper, as the first time a newly-created file is saved on an SMB share and then edited, when the file is saved, it disappears and cannot be seen unless the share is accessed via AFP. The workaround was to turn on AFP on the NAS. Since Apple is expected to get rid of AFP in a near-future release of macOS, unless the problem is fixed, we won't be able to see our files inside SMB shares.
I don't think I can help with your problem, but I will ask a clarifying question for the benefit of any other possible helpers:
Which do you consider to be the problem, the invisibility of these files when accessed via SMB or the visibility via AFP?
Thank you. I see the problem as the invisibility of files when accessed on an SMB share, whereby, while the file is present, it cannot be seen in the file list, and therefore, unless an alias of the file exists, the file cannot be accessed. However, if the file is accessed on an AFP share, the file/s is/are visible, just as one would expect. This is a showstopper, as the first time a newly-created file is edited while at rest on an SMB share, when the file is saved, it disappears and cannot be seen unless the share is accessed via AFP. The workaround was to turn on AFP on the NAS. Since Apple is expected to get rid of AFP in the Fall, this is a major problem.
I am accessing file server from my MAC using SMB from several years and I upgraded my machine to MACOS 15.5. It hides files(excel or word) when edits are made to it. Microsoft office version is 16.98. Its not doing it with another MAC running OS14 with same microsoft app versions. I tried using windows machine and no issue. Tried to create /etc/nsmb.conf and made following edits
[default]
signing_required=no
streams=no
file_ids=off
protocol_vers_map=6
Issue is still not resolved. Tried to turn off Auto save and Auto recover still not resolved. It only happens with microsoft office files. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Further information: Once a file is flagged as "invisible", it cannot be copied to an SMB share, but it can be copied an AFP share, where it then becomes visible.
Invisible Microsoft Word files on SMB shared drives (osSequoia)
