What is AFP NAS drive?
AFP, or Apple Filing Protocol, is the method used by Apple Inc to connect Macintosh computers. Our Ethernet disks run a server that supports this connection, so they can communicate with nearly all Mac OS versions.
Is SMB or AFP better?
For a long time SMB was recommended over AFP for Mac users for stability reasons. SMB being open standard affords better implementation compared to AFP, where it has to be by necessity based on reverse engineering of the protocol.
What is AFP in Synology?
AFP, which stands for Apple Filing Protocol, is a proprietary network protocol that was developed as part of the Mac Operating System. It has built-in support for “Spotlight” search, Time Machine, Mac Aliases and Bonjour Services, which other protocols are not compatible with.
Should I use AFP?
Hence, AFP is the likely choice as the primary supported file sharing protocol. It is well integrated with the Mac OS operating system, performs well, and is reasonably secure if password and sharing best practices are followed.
Does Apple still use AFP?
As I mentioned AFP has be deprecated by Apple in their newer macOS versions and now fully support SMB v3. x. However, as you know, Apple still supports AFP, even with macOS Big Sur. Regardless, using AFP with a NAS, typically means that device must have the latest firmware to continue to support AFP.
Do Macs still use AFP?
AFP is Apple’s own protocol which was originally developed for Classic macOS, and has been widely supported by networked devices including storage such as NAS. But its use has now been deprecated for six years, since OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Is AFP outdated?
The AFP protocol is deprecated and cannot be used to share APFS formatted volumes.
Can I connect to NAS over AFP?
While some offer AFP support, such as Synology ( DiskStation DS216+II) and TerraMaster (F2-220), connecting to NAS over AFP is not feasible in the majority of situations, such as: Operating within a heterogeneous network environment (Windows, Linux, and Macs) in which file sharing should only be enabled between a few platforms.
How to make Synology NAS a Mac file server (afp server)?
At Control Panel > File Services > SMB/AFP/NFS, you can enable AFP service to make Synology NAS a Mac file server (AFP server). Tick Enable AFP service to make Synology NAS a Mac file server (AFP server).
Should I use SMB v3 or AFP on my NAS device?
Both SMB v1 and NFS should be avoided – they demonstrated rather disappointing write performance. If specific macOS features that AFP provides are important to you, then you should test both SMB v3 and AFP on your NAS device and see how each does on its own.
Can APFS volumes be shared for network access via AFP?
In Big Sur, Time Machine volumes can finally be formatted with APFS, too. But in this transition, one capability was quietly lost: APFS volumes cannot be shared for network access via Apple’s relatively ancient Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).