TUAW Tip: Using FTP in Finder
This week, Apple posted a tip about using FTP directly from Finder. What Apple fails to mention in its tip is that whenever you connect via the Finder's Go -> Connect to Server option, make sure to include the user name in the ftp address. Don't connect to ftp://foo.org, instead, connect to ftp://erica.sadun@foo.org. Adding the user name fixes nearly all the connection problems that people write to me about. Instead of getting "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in (address) could not be read or written. (Error code -36)." an authentication window appears.Update: Apple appears to have removed the tip page. Interesting.
Thanks, Arlo.
Update 2: Apple's tip is still live here. (Thanks Francis.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael said 5:17PM on 6-21-2007
You can type an ftp address in Safari's address bar, too--Safari will pass it to the Finder.
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Ryan said 5:25PM on 6-21-2007
But can you upload files? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107415
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djb said 5:30PM on 6-21-2007
That page is 404'd. My guess is somebody screwed up and released something related to Leopard.
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xyz3 said 5:36PM on 6-21-2007
For the love of the iPhone - Apple needs to fix the Finder so we can upload files over ftp!
All this technology and no ftp upload? For shame.
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David said 5:54PM on 6-21-2007
I've never understood why they wouldn't allow uploading? Is it some kind of security thing? I admit I don't know much about FTP, except for my little friend CyberDuck who takes care of all my FTP needs.
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Rafe H. said 6:03PM on 6-21-2007
My guess: Apple doesn't provide FTP upload through the GUI (of course fully functional FTP is available from the command line) because they can't guarantee a Mac user experience. That is, FTP probably doesn't support resource forks, metadata, spotlight comments, etc., just the data. If you upload such a file (for example for backup purposes), you may be bummed when downloading it later and its crippled. And then you'll hit the Apple Discussion Boards. And then Apple gets blamed for not supporting FTP (why should they, its antiquated and sends your password in plain text!), and it'll just turn into a big PR mess.
Best to have users download a 3rd party app for silly protocols. I'm hoping for SFTP support in the GUI in Leopard.
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Arlo said 6:05PM on 6-21-2007
I think I might have been too vague when I submitted this link to TUAW. I sent this link because the tip was wrong.
Here's the content of that tip:
---SNIP---
Need to email somebody a file that’s larger than his 5MB email limit? Use FTP, because you can upload huge files with no restriction. You probably already knew that, but did you know that you don’t have to buy a third-party FTP client to FTP your files? That’s right, you can do it right from within Tiger. Here’s how: go to the Finder’s Go menu and choose Connect to Server. When the dialogue appears, just type the FTP address where you want the file to go and click Connect. You may either get directly connected, or depending on whose server you’re connecting to, it may ask you for your Name and Password (that keeps people from just jumping on anyone’s server and uploading files at random).
Once you’re “in”, you’ll see a folder — now you can just drag-and-drop the file you want to transfer into that folder and the transfer will begin.
---SNIP---
This tip is saying you can UPLOAD to an FTP server from the Finder. But you can't. @2's link indicates as much. The tip was rightfully removed from the site. (Though a note that it was wrong would be nice.)
Also note this discussion:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4764616�
Apparently this tip was posted last year, too.
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Magnus said 6:11PM on 6-21-2007
What good is this when you still have no writeaccess?
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Arlo said 6:16PM on 6-21-2007
Sorry, the link to that discussion got mangled. Try this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4764616
@6: It doesn't stop Apple from providing access to SMB shares. Not as restrictive as FTP, but it sure can mangle some files, like Type 1 fonts.
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Michael said 6:23PM on 6-21-2007
" But can you upload files? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107415"
Thanks, Ryan. I knew it would open the directory, but I never tested moving anything.
Actually, what's not clear to me is why Safari hands off to the Finder. It's not my default ftp client, which is set as the default for that protocol in its own (the ftp client's) Preferences. Why doesn't Safari know that?
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Francis said 6:39PM on 6-21-2007
http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/tips/ftp_files.html
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Christian Jones said 7:06PM on 6-21-2007
One other important note about Finder's FTP implementation---as opposed to the command line version or several third-party apps, the one built into Finder won't properly transfer files larger than 2GB. This may have been fixed (I no longer run an FTP server on which to test), but it can cause some problems when trying to use large files over FTP. Just that word of warning....
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Dan said 1:38AM on 6-22-2007
They removed it from the US site most likely because myself and I am sure many others informed them that the tip was incorrect.
They are very clear though that the tip came from Scott Kelby’s “Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips”.
I find it interesting that their web designers did not check this information out before posting it.
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Walter said 8:22PM on 6-22-2007
I'm unable to connect to a server with MacBook Pro 17 when my other Macs have no problem. Also "Connect to server" does not work on yhis Mac. All updates installed etc. Any thoughts? What FTP settings are required in Network Preferences?
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