How to Map a Network Drive on a Mac

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Mapped Drive on Macs
by Luis E. Chavez Saenz
Luis Chavez is a System Administrator with 5+ years' experience writing tech guides for end users. Luis holds a BS in Computer Science.
Updated September 13, 2019

It's common to map a network drive on Mac or Windows computers in the corporate environment, but they can also be set up in your home environment where you have multiple devices that need to access the same information.

The instructions in this article illustrate how to map a network drive on macOS. While the steps may vary slightly based on the version of macOS you're using, they should generally be the same across all versions of the OS.

How to Map a Network Drive on Mac

Instead of downloading or copying the same data to all your devices, you would save this data in a single folder, then share this folder with other devices. Once you have shared the location of this data via a UNC path, you can then map the network drive to all your devices with a few simple steps.

  1. Launch Finder.

    Finder

  2. Click Go > Connect to Server.

    Connect to Server

  3. Enter the path for the network drive you'd like to map and click Connect.

    smb Path

  4. If you're prompted for a confirmation, click Connect.

    Connect to Server

    Accounts that don't have permissions to access this file/folder are unable to create a connection to the network drive.

  5. Once the network drive has been mapped, it will appear under your desktop as a mounted drive or under your Locations menu in any Finder window.

    Mapped drive

Since mapped drives show up as mounted drives on your macOS device, you're able to disconnect from them by ejecting the drive.

How to Automount a Network Drive on macOS

If you want to ensure the previously mapped drive remains after a reboot, you must enable automounting via Login items under your user account preferences.

  1. Click the Apple Logo > System Preferences.

    System Preferences

  2. Click User & Groups.

    Users & Groups

  3. Select the username that has access to the network drive.

  4. Select the Login Items tab.

    Login items

  5. Navigate to the item you wish to add. Click once to select it, then click Add.

    Add