Apple has deprecated assist for Apple Submitting Protocol in macOS Sequoia 15.5.
Apple Submitting Protocol is one in every of Apple’s unique file-sharing applied sciences. Its consumer software program will quickly be gone from macOS endlessly.
The 12 months after Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984, it launched a proprietary networking commonplace referred to as Apple Submitting Protocol. A part of a set of software program which included AppleTalk, AppleShare, and Apple cabling {hardware} referred to as LocalTalk, AFP allowed customers to share recordsdata throughout Macs on native space networks.
This was a decade earlier than the Web and its open protocols turned common within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
Apple developed AFP partly as a result of the unique Mac OS and most Mac software program used one other proprietary expertise referred to as useful resource forks. Most early Mac software program recordsdata contained two forks: a knowledge fork and a useful resource fork containing consumer interface and different parts.
The issue was that when you copied early Mac software program uncompressed throughout non-Mac computer systems, the vacation spot pc would strip the useful resource forks off recordsdata, damaging them.
Apple later developed a further collaboration and sharing atmosphere referred to as Apple Open Collaboration Atmosphere (AOCE) and PowerTalk, each of which have been failures. AOCE was launched in Mac OS 7.1.1 however did not achieve any actual traction till Mac OS 8.5 when it was upgraded.
The macOS Keychain was initially a part of Apple’s PowerTalk software program.
When the web was commercialized within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, Apple deserted AOCE in favor of web requirements corresponding to TCP/IP. Apple additionally bought a separate server product in a field referred to as AppleShare Server, which Matt Fuller has some spectacular photographs of on his web site.
A late model of AppleShare packaged as a standalone product was launched referred to as AppleShare IP, which allowed AFP to run over TCP/IP networks.
AppleShare volumes and disk volumes shared from customers’ Macs have been accessed by way of an unique Mac software program element referred to as Chooser. Later variations of the Chooser allowed direct IP connection to servers by clicking a button and specifying an IP deal with.
The now-defunct Mac OS X Server product additionally included AFP, SMB/CIFS, and NFS File Providers as a part of its file-sharing options. Apple even bought a preconfigured PowerPC-based G4 “server” Mac, which had AppleShare IP preloaded.
The unique Mac OS Chooser with the AppleShare icon chosen.
AFP in Mac OS X and macOS
Apple launched Mac OS X within the 12 months 2000. Mac OS X included assist for AFP and AppleShare till OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) when Apple switched the default file sharing protocol in macOS to Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB).
Apple eliminated the power to run an AFP server in macOS 11 (Massive Sur). Nonetheless, customers can nonetheless use the AFP consumer within the Finder in macOS through the Go->Connect with Server menu merchandise and the afp:// protocol to attach.
Whenever you connect with an AFP quantity within the macOS Finder, the related shared quantity(s) mount in your Desktop similar to native disk volumes.
Early 2000s Macs included a Mac OS 9 emulator referred to as Traditional, which additionally enabled customers to proceed utilizing OS 9 and connecting to and from OS X Macs utilizing AFP:
Apple deprecates assist for AFP in macOS Sequoia 15.5
macOS Sequoia 15.5 has deprecated AFP, successfully getting ready to finish assist for AFP shoppers sooner or later sooner or later. Apple has signaled within the enterprise launch notes for macOS Sequoia 15.1 that it will likely be “eliminated in a future model of macOS,” with out stating precisely when that may happen.
As such, you need to transition all of your file-sharing and networking workflows to SMB. For older UNIX-only servers that also assist NFS, that protocol can nonetheless be used as properly.
There’s an NFS app for macOS referred to as NFS Supervisor from Germany’s Marcel Bresink.
On pre-15.5 Macs, see the Terminal AFP command mount_afp by opening Terminal and typing:
man mount_afp and urgent Return in your keyboard. To exit the person system, press Management-Z or the q key.
A number of third-party NAS distributors, corresponding to Synology and others, embrace AFP assist of their merchandise, however that is more likely to come to an finish quickly too. You may most likely have to make use of SMB to hook up with these.
AppleShare IP 6 retail consumer information.
Third-party options
For these customers who completely want to hold on to AFP, an open third-party product referred to as Netatalk is offered and remains to be being maintained as of 2025. How lengthy Netatalk will be capable of assist AFP stays to be seen nonetheless, because it too is predicated on the protocol itself.
Since Apple eliminated native core AFP assist from macOS, even third-party AFP merchandise might now not work.
When you’re nonetheless working an older Mac OS 7, 8, or 9.x-based machine, take a look at AppleTalk over IP.
For developer data on AFP, see the now considerably dated Apple Submitting Protocol Programming Information. There’s additionally a technote TN3151: Selecting the best networking API.
AFP has served Apple properly. It was easy and straightforward to make use of – and it was dependable. However since we dwell in a TCP/IP and Home windows-based world now, it has outlived its usefulness.
It is properly previous time to retire it.
