How to mount an SMB share on macOS

Mounting an SMB share on macOS makes a Windows, NAS, or Samba folder available as a local filesystem path for Finder and Terminal work. A terminal mount is useful when the share needs a predictable mount point, when Finder is not enough for scripts, or when the operator needs a command that can be repeated.

macOS includes the smbfs filesystem client, and the system mount command can attach an SMB/CIFS URL to a local directory. Apple's Finder path uses Go → Connect to Server with addresses such as smb://files.example.net/team, while the command line uses the same server and share parts with mount -t smbfs.

The examples use files.example.net, the share team, and a user-owned mount point at ~/Volumes/team. Keep passwords out of the command line so they are not stored in shell history, and confirm that the account has permission on the server before treating a local mount failure as a macOS problem.

1. Create a local mount directory for the share.

   $ mkdir -p "$HOME/Volumes/team"

   Use a user-owned directory for a temporary mount. Mounting under /Volumes usually requires administrative privileges and can conflict with Finder-created volume names.

2. Mount the SMB share with the system mount command.

   $ mount -t smbfs //sguser@files.example.net/team "$HOME/Volumes/team"
   Password for files.example.net:

   Do not put the password in the SMB URL. Enter it at the prompt so it does not appear in shell history, process listings, or copied command examples.

3. Confirm that macOS attached the share to the expected path.

   $ mount
   ##### snipped #####
   //sguser@files.example.net/team on /Users/sguser/Volumes/team (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by sguser)

4. List the mounted share contents.

   $ ls "$HOME/Volumes/team"
   quarterly-plan.txt
   shared-reports
   team-calendar.ics

   If the share should allow writes, create and remove a small test file after confirming with the share owner. A successful mount can still be read-only because of server-side share or filesystem permissions.

5. Open the mounted share in Finder.

   $ open "$HOME/Volumes/team"

6. Disconnect the share when access is no longer needed.

   $ umount "$HOME/Volumes/team"

   Ejecting the volume from Finder performs the same disconnect for Finder-mounted shares. Close open files before unmounting to avoid interrupted writes.