Filed under: Leopard
24 Hours of Leopard: AutoFS
Feature: AutoFSHow it works: AutoFS isn't sexy, but it does correct one of the longest standing issues with OS X: connecting to network volumes always brings the Finder to its knees. No longer, folks, thanks to AutoFS. Network shares are now mounted on separate threads which means they won't take down your Mac should you try and connect to a share that isn't available (this should negatively impact the Marble of Doom, but I think we'll all agree this is a good thing).
Who will use it: Anyone who accesses files across a network (including .Mac users, AirDisk users, and people connecting to Windows shares).
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wes said 5:09PM on 10-26-2007
OMG, its about time. This has been such a curse!
Reply
Adriel Kloppenburg said 5:10PM on 10-26-2007
YAY, at last.
I just had my finder freeze from that a few mins ago (still on Tiger :( )
Leopard should arrive on Monday for me.
Reply
Eric said 5:13PM on 10-26-2007
Is there any reason they have old G3 iMacs in the radar for the icon?
Reply
Matt W said 5:21PM on 10-26-2007
This is *huge* for me -- i've run into this a ton of times. Sometimes the smallest things are really the biggest.
Reply
Scott McNulty said 5:20PM on 10-26-2007
Eric, that's the Network Utility icon in Tiger. It has been like that forever!
Reply
Ian said 5:24PM on 10-26-2007
Thank goodness for this!
When I first got my Macbook Pro, I thought it was incredibly unstable because of the way it would hang when trying to find a missing mount. I'd connect to a network drive, close the machine, and reopen it later elsewhere only to find it hung for a minute or more.
Reply
Stenar said 5:28PM on 10-26-2007
HURRAH! That's always driven me nuts when network drives froze the computer.
Reply
Mo said 5:32PM on 10-26-2007
Yes! No more having to wait around for ten minutes when I forget to unmount an AFP share before taking my laptop home (why does it take ten minutes for it all to time out? who knows)
Reply
Rob Olliges said 5:45PM on 10-26-2007
Loaded Leopard this afternoon and saw my wife's Windows drive through a Vonage router via Airport! It's always been there but until now, and with no effort, I could never "see" it. Thanks Apple!
Reply
Robert said 3:28AM on 10-27-2007
Can we mount Read/Write FTP in the Finder yet?
Reply
PSM said 6:03PM on 10-26-2007
Yay! That used to annoy me so much when I worked in an office and would forget to disconnect from the server before leaving for the night. Then I'd open the lid at home and wait forever while it figured out that the network wasn't there anymore. Finally!
Reply
escargot said 7:10PM on 10-26-2007
Thank God, finally! For me, this is the #1 reason to upgrade to Leopard. I can't believe they left it unfixed since OSX first appeared.
Reply
Luigi193 said 8:04PM on 10-26-2007
THANK YOU LORD!!!! It works GREAT!!! I remember before I knew why, whenever my other computer fell asleep, the finder spazed out, and nothing would quit, or open...just bounce...and that freaking beach ball...
SO ONCE AGAIN...WAHHOOOOO
Reply
Marshal Paul said 10:17PM on 10-26-2007
If this really works, the windows sys ad @ my work will be so happy. no more of my angry complaints
Reply
mike said 5:08AM on 10-27-2007
Hooray! Just this week I had to wait 10 minutes for my MacBook to unfreeze from this. Every app was beachballed waiting for this one file access to time out.
Reply
luclodder said 8:20AM on 10-27-2007
@robert: yes you can... ftp from finder works like a charm.
Reply
eric f. said 12:45PM on 10-27-2007
thank god they finally fixed this. One of those "little things" that really makes a difference.
Reply
rault said 1:40PM on 10-28-2007
to robert and luclodder:
FTP mounts are still read-only. Waah. : ( At least the good guys at Panic will be happy that Transmit is still needed!
Reply
kerimt said 4:58AM on 12-08-2007
Of course it is good to hear they have finally fixed this bug.
Although I don't understand why this has not been fixed earlier and made available to Tiger users.
Perhaps "299 new features in Leopard" would not sound as good as 300
Reply
Travis said 8:31PM on 12-08-2007
To be fair, this has always been an issue with almost EVERY operating system - not just OS X. It's not a simple problem to solve. I've seen Linux brought to its knees many times when a network drive became unavailable. I'd love to see other OSes pick this up, but depending on how its licensed that may be an issue (not to mention that Linux already has an existing utility named autofs, which is a somewhat different beast).
Reply