Setting Up a Local Network for File Transfer

[bmikiten]

Using TeamViewer is another option for short term connections but you should be able to use Remote Desktop as well as file sharing as others have mentioned. If you are good with terminal, you can ping both machines on the same network to be sure there isn't a conflict there.

Brian

[sharktooth]

It has to be that way, the old Mini has its basic OS and the scanning software.
If I open a photo on the ld Mini, it opens in Preview. The M1 is where the action happens.
So the photo gets scanned and automatically appears on the M1 (via old Mini drop box folder to M1 drop box folder).
When I'm done scanning, I copy everything to a different folder on my M1, then I turn off the scanner and old Mini.

Everything you're doing is perfectly fine, but this section in brackets is completely incorrect "(via old Mini drop box folder to M1 drop box folder)". The only way this statement "(via old Mini drop box folder to M1 drop box folder)" could possibly be true, is if you have file sharing turned on on both the old Mac Mini AND the M1 Mac. Even then, I think it's highly unlikely. One way to know for sure is to check the drop box folder in the M1 Mac. It's located in the M1's main hard drive, in a folder called Users, in the Users folder there's a folder with the user name, and within that folder there's a folder called Public. The Drop Box folder will be in that Public folder. Open that Drop Box folder on your M1 Mac, and I'm sure it will be empty. If not, I'll eat my chocolate shorts

You're misunderstanding how networking works, but you seem to be doing the right things anyway.

[Ari]

You're right, the M1 File Sharing is off, and M1 Drop Box folder is empty.
But when I turn on old Mini, the M1 will receive the file from that DB folder and mirror it.
As you said, everything's working, so I'm not too concerned with the "how", just glad that it runs so well.
The link you sent earlier helped a lot.

Brian, thanks but I am terrible with Terminal.

[mike rosenlof]

Using TeamViewer is another option for short term connections but you should be able to use Remote Desktop as well as file sharing as others have mentioned. If you are good with terminal, you can ping both machines on the same network to be sure there isn't a conflict there.

Brian

If you're good with the terminal, you can open your computer ( the M1) to ssh login and use scp for the file copies. Ya, I've seen Ari's note that he's not a terminal user, fair enough! Glad you've found a solution.

From a Linux using old fart...

[Ari]

Helpful comments always appreciated, thanks Mike.

[Graham Patterson]

Once you have a working solution, go back over everything and write it down. If you have to recreate it, it is nice to be able to look over your own shoulder (speaking as someone who used to manage computer/network systems for a living - and not entirely sorry to have stopped... 8-) ).

[Ari]

Thanks, Graham. I already did that, knowing my propensity to do something well once, but not twice.

[sharktooth]

You're right, the M1 File Sharing is off, and M1 Drop Box folder is empty.
But when I turn on old Mini, the M1 will receive the file from that DB folder and mirror it.
As you said, everything's working, so I'm not too concerned with the "how", just glad that it runs so well.
The link you sent earlier helped a lot.

O.K., I've been thinking how to explain this, and decided to take a crack at it.

It seems like you're interpreting "sharing" as something similar to "syncing". That would be a reasonable assumption in this day and age, since syncing is everywhere, but file sharing has no syncing component at all.

File sharing is only about setting a protocol for transferring data from one device to another. These days, a lot of data transfer between different devices is with USB sticks. The USB stick allows you to "share" data between one device and another. A computer network is created by linking two or more computers together via wires and/or radio signals. That connection is really not much different than plugging some USB sticks into your computer using some very long USB extension cables. Each computer on the network acts much like a USB stick, and just like a USB stick those other networked computers can show up on your desktop as a separate device. Also like a USB stick, the data on the USB stick or the networked computer stays on that USB stick or Networked computer until it's actually copied to another device. It doesn't automatically transfer or "sync" in any way.

Now, here's the difference between a USB stick and a networked computer. The USB stick has no control over the data in the stick. When a USB stick is plugged into a computer, the computer user can do whatever they want with the data on the stick. When two or more computers are networked together, they may be able to see each other on the network, but that doesn't mean they're going to be willing to let another computer have access to their data. They get to determine what data they are going to be willing to "share". This is where the "sharing" comes from in file sharing. File sharing is really about setting controls and restrictions on how data is shared, rather than the wide open unrestricted data sharing from a USB stick.

Let's now look at your own setup with two Macs networked together via wifi and a wireless router. You can think of it as your old Mac Mini hard drive being plopped in a USB case and plugged into your new M1 Mac with a long USB cable. Your old Mac Mini hard drive would show up on the desktop of your new M1 mac just like any other USB external drive, except for one significant difference. The difference is that your old Mac Mini can choose what folders or data on the hard drive can be accessed. That access is controlled by the File Sharing settings in the old Mac Mini.

So, when you see the Drop Box folder under the "Shared" header in a finder window of your M1 Mac, you're really just seeing the old Mac Mini Drop Box folder that it gave the M1 Mac permission to access. The data in that Drop Box folder is still only on the old Mac Mini until you actually copy it to a location on the M1 Mac's hard drive. There is no automatic synching involved at all, just like any other basic USB drive you'd plug into your Mac. As soon as the network connection is broken (computer turned off, cable pulled, etc.) the Drop Box folder disappears from the Shared section of the finder window, just like pulling a USB stick out.

[Ari]

Thanks for a detailed explanation, it'll benefit quite a few people, I imagine.
But I do understand what's going on and what file sharing is about. I just need the File Sharing app to work for me as a substitute for the USB stick, i.e., the quick and wireless transfer of data to my main computer.
Others will have different uses for file sharing, but this is all I need, and I'm glad it works the way it does.
The ethernet cable arrived yesterday, but I don't want to disrupt what is a very smooth scanning workflow.
I'll keep the cable handy if something should go kaput.

[sharktooth]

Hi Ari, you're still missing some key points about file sharing, specifically relating to the use of the Drop Box folder. It's not causing you a problem, due to the way you've got both your computers configured, but this wouldn't work at all for most networks.

The confusion relates to the Dropbox application. It had me confused at first, too. The Drop Box folder has nothing to do with the Dropbox application, and has a completely different purpose and function. It's unfortunate that they have such similar names. Putting things in the Drop Box folder is actually a really bad thing to do. It doesn't do anything at all like what the Dropbox application does, and can actually prevent file sharing, rather than enable it.

For file sharing, Apple has created a default folder called "Public", which becomes visible to other computers on the network when file sharing is turned on. Within that "Public" folder is another folder called "Drop Box". This is all that's there to start with. If you want to make files on your computer available to other computers on the network, then all you need to do is put them in the "Public" folder. Once they're in the Public folder, anyone else can see them and use them. Why then, you may ask, is there also a "Drop Box" folder within the "Public" folder? It seems to be unnecessary. In fact, it is completely unnecessary for regular file sharing, but it still does have a specific purpose that may be useful in some cases. It's for cases where someone else on the network wants to put a file in your "Public" folder. Since the "Public" folder is read only (by default), in order to do that, they would put the file in the "Drop Box" folder. This is possible since the permissions for the "Drop Box" folder are write only for any user other than the user of the sharing computer. Any other user cannot open and see what's in that folder, but they can put files in it. It's like a ballot box, you can put stuff in, but you can't see what's inside unless you have the key to open it.

In your case, the M1 Mac should not have been able to open the Drop Box folder in your old Mac Mini if there were different user id's on both computers. That's probably why it wasn't working originally. If you really want to share files with other computers on the network, The Drop Box folder is the one place you definitely DON'T want to put them. The simplest way is just to put them in the "Public" folder.

An even better way to do it would have been to share the folder that you originally used to save your scanning file into. All you needed to do was to right click on the folder then select Get Info from the submenu, then click on the sharing box in order to activate file sharing for that folder.