Apple Filling Protocol – deprecated, will quickly disappear

Apple has deprecated assist for Apple Submitting Protocol in macOS Sequoia 15.5.

Apple Submitting Protocol is certainly one of Apple’s unique file-sharing applied sciences. Its shopper software program will quickly be gone from macOS eternally.

The yr after Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984, it launched a proprietary networking customary 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 information throughout Macs on native space networks.

This was a decade earlier than the Web and its open protocols grew to become common within the mid-Nineties.

Apple developed AFP partially as a result of the unique Mac OS and most Mac software program used one other proprietary know-how referred to as useful resource forks. Most early Mac software program information contained two forks: an information fork and a useful resource fork containing person interface and different components.

The issue was that should you copied early Mac software program uncompressed throughout non-Mac computer systems, the vacation spot laptop would strip the useful resource forks off information, damaging them.

Apple later developed a further collaboration and sharing surroundings referred to as Apple Open Collaboration Surroundings (AOCE) and PowerTalk, each of which had been failures. AOCE was launched in Mac OS 7.1.1 however did not acquire 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-Nineties, Apple deserted AOCE in favor of web requirements akin 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 website.

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 had been accessed via an unique Mac software program part 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 Companies 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 yr 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 flexibility to run an AFP server in macOS 11 (Large Sur). Nonetheless, customers can nonetheless use the AFP shopper within the Finder in macOS through the Go->Connect with Server menu merchandise and the afp:// protocol to attach.

While 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 Basic, 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 purchasers sooner or later sooner or later. Apple has signaled within the enterprise launch notes for macOS Sequoia 15.1 that will probably be “eliminated in a future model of macOS,” with out stating precisely when that may happen.

As such, it’s best 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 effectively.

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, akin to Synology and others, embrace AFP assist of their merchandise, however that is prone 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 person 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 out there and continues to be being maintained as of 2025. How lengthy Netatalk will have the ability to 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 could 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 info on AFP, see the now considerably dated Apple Submitting Protocol Programming Information. There’s additionally a technote TN3151: Choosing the proper networking API.

AFP has served Apple effectively. It was easy and straightforward to make use of – and it was dependable. However since we stay in a TCP/IP and Home windows-based world now, it has outlived its usefulness.

It is effectively previous time to retire it.