How to speed up SMB file share access on Mac OS

Question

I have been experiencing extremely slow file share access via Azure on MacOS. Is there a fix to increase access speed when using Azure as a file server or is 10 minutes for files in a folder to populate on a Mac typical?

Answer 1

We are facing the same Issue. defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE didn't help.

Answer 2

macOS from reading .DS_Store files on SMB shares. This makes the Finder use only basic information to immediately display each folder's contents in alphanumeric order. You can enable this feature by using the following Terminal command: defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208209

MacOS uses the SMB protocol to access file shares, and certain settings can be adjusted to improve performance. You can do this by editing the /etc/nsmb.conf file. Here are some potential adjustments:

• port445=both: This allows the SMB client to try connecting to port 445 first, which may result in faster connections.
• signing_required=no: This disables packet signing, which can improve performance but may reduce security.
• streams=no: This disables named streams, which can improve performance but may affect compatibility with certain applications.

Answer 3

@order safety Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum, Thank you for posting your query here!

There is no throttling on the Azure side, refer to below article. If the network and client machine can handle the traffic then we will send it.

Here's a guide for troubleshooting high E2E latency:

This article lists common problems related to Azure file share performance, and provides potential causes and workarounds: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/azure-storage/files-troubleshoot-performance?tabs=windows

Azure File provide a best IO performance to all users accessing the server with high-importance to data integrity and fairness to all users in all scenarios.

Performance tuning for file servers

Additional information: Sometimes your proxies/VMs or whatever runs in the same datacenter, network requests does not leave the local network and the speed then depends on the infrastructure. (routers, firewalls, cables, etc). I'm sure they won't limit speed between their own infrastructure so services hosted on the same network works at full speed.

Note: Windows OS/Windows Explorer is configured by default, it uses a 4K block size that will produce slower speeds for SMB compared to AzCopy/Storage Explorer which uses REST API

If the issue still persist, I would recommend you to contact support, so If you have a support plan, I request you file a support ticket, else please do let us know, we will try and help you get a one-time free technical support. In this case, could you send an email to AzCommunity[at]Microsoft[dot]com referencing this thread as well as your subscription ID. Please mention "ATTN subm" in the subject field. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter and look forward to your reply.

Please let us know if you have any further queries. I’m happy to assist you further.

---

Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.