Skip to main content

Mount macOS & Windows shares on Debian

Mount macOS & Windows shares on Debian e.g. in case you need to save backups on a network share.

Step-by-Step Guide for Debian

Mounting Windows Shares

  1. Install CIFS Utilities: Open a terminal and install the CIFS utilities package if it's not already installed.

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
    
  2. Mount the Windows Share: Use the mount command to mount the Windows share. Replace the placeholders with your actual values.

    sudo mount -t cifs -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword //yourIPAddress/yoursharedfolder /yourfoldertomount
    

Mounting macOS Shares

  1. Install CIFS Utilities: Ensure the CIFS utilities package is installed (this step is the same as above).

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
    
  2. Mount the macOS Share: Use the mount command to mount the macOS share. Replace the placeholders with your actual values.

    sudo mount -t cifs //yourIPAddress/yoursharedfolder /yourfoldertomount -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword,nounix,sec=ntlmssp
    

Creating and Sharing a Folder

  1. Create a Folder: Create the folder where you want to mount the share.

    sudo mkdir /yourfoldertomount
    
  2. Replace the Placeholder: Replace yourfoldertomount with the actual path of the folder you created in the mount commands above.

Example

If you want to mount a Windows share with IP 192.168.1.100 and shared folder name backup to a local directory /mnt/backup:

  1. Create Local Directory:

    sudo mkdir /mnt/backup
    
  2. Mount the Share:

    sudo mount -t cifs -o username=myuser,password=mypassword //192.168.1.100/backup /mnt/backup
    

Similarly, for a macOS share:

  1. Create Local Directory:

    sudo mkdir /mnt/backup
    
  2. Mount the Share:

    sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.1.100/backup /mnt/backup -o username=myuser,password=mypassword,nounix,sec=ntlmssp
    

Additional Tips

  • FSTAB Entry for Persistent Mounts: To make the mount persistent across reboots, add an entry to /etc/fstab:

    //yourIPAddress/yoursharedfolder /yourfoldertomount cifs username=yourusername,password=yourpassword,nounix,sec=ntlmssp 0 0
    
  • Security Note: Storing passwords in plain text can be a security risk. Consider using a credentials file:

    //yourIPAddress/yoursharedfolder /yourfoldertomount cifs credentials=/etc/cifs-credentials,nounix,sec=ntlmssp 0 0
    

    And create /etc/cifs-credentials with the following content:

    username=yourusername
    password=yourpassword
    

    Ensure the credentials file has appropriate permissions:

    sudo chmod 600 /etc/cifs-credentials