Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 Won’t Connect to Windows Server Using AFP Appletalk

If your new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Mac won’t make an AFP connection to a Windows 2000/2003 Server running File Services for Macintosh, it’s because Leopard no longer allows sending passwords in clear text to a file server. This is an undocumented new “feature” from Apple. And to make matters worse, the option to allow sending passwords in clear text has been removed from the Connect to Server dialog box!

There are two ways to fix this. The first way involves using terminal to edit the com.apple.AppleShareClient.plist file which lives in the User… Library… Preferences folder. The second way uses a text editor (like the free TextWrangler) to edit the same file. (Note! Do not use TextEdit to make changes to the plist file! Apple’s built-in Text Edit can not save files in the proper format and will corrupt the plist file! You must use a plain text editor or use the terminal command outlined below.)

Method 1 Using Terminal

With no AFP connection active, open Terminal (in the Applications… Utilities folder)
Type the following commands hitting enter after each line:

defaults write com.apple.AppleShareClient “afp_cleartext_allow” -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.AppleShareClient “afp_cleartext_warn” -bool YES

Reboot the Mac.

Method 2 Using TextWrangler

1. With no AFP connection active, open TextWrangler. Navigate to the User… Library… Preferences folder and find the file named com.apple.AppleShareClient.
2. Drag this file onto TextWrangler to open it.
3. Change the value of the item called “afp_cleartext_allow” from FALSE to TRUE.
4. Change the value of the item called “afp_cleartext_warn” from FALSE to TRUE.
5. Save the file.
6. Restart your Mac.