Trouble sharing Macs on same network

[tuqqer]

For the first time in many years, I have a need to share some folders with family members on Macs on our same wifi network.

I've gone in and done the System Preference: Sharing thing and my Mac shows the wife's computer in the Network folder (as shown in the screenshot), but no folders show up, and if I try dragging/dropping a file onto her icon computer, I get that "Modifying "computer" requires an admin name and password" and asks me to click Authenticate.

But no idea where to click this Authenticate.

I've got her Mac here in my office and it's up and running.

I've repaired permissions on both Macs, but that didn't help.

I think I'm missing a step.

NOTE: the situation is identical on her Mac. She can see the icon in the Network folder, but there's nothing in it, and trying to drop any file on it gives us the same warning message.

[Sarcany]

Double-click on the icon for her Mac.

If you're prompted for credentials at that point, enter her username and password.

If you aren't prompted, click the "Connect As" button.

[tuqqer]

Thank you, Sarcany.

Weird, we're able to connect one of the 4 Macs in the house via your tip, but the main one (my wife's) accepts the password but then immediately says Connection failed in the upper left (instead of Connected as...) when it works. Both of us are on Catalina

So far we've tried deleting the User account and creating anew, rebuilding permissions a few times, restarting, and multi-verifying the password. We'll try again tomorrow.

[datbeme]

Heh. "Scott's Faster MBA."

[Sarcany]

Try the direct way instead of the network-browser:

From the Finder: Go > Connect to Server...

In the Server Address field, enter the IP address of your wife's computer.

It should prompt you for a username and account password. This should be the same username and password that she uses to log into her MBA.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Are they all on the same frequency network? Have you tried restarting everything in sequence?

[tuqqer]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Are they all on the same frequency network? Have you tried restarting everything in sequence?

Thanks, Filliam. Double-checked and they're all on the same wifi connection.

And we shut down all the units and then started them up again.

I'm next going to try deleting the User accounts again, from all devices. I also suspect that it could be some cache of the stored password/name of the user accounts.

[tuqqer]

Sarcany wrote:
Try the direct way instead of the network-browser:

From the Finder: Go > Connect to Server...

In the Server Address field, enter the IP address of your wife's computer.

It should prompt you for a username and account password. This should be the same username and password that she uses to log into her MBA.

Ta-dah. This finally worked. Thanks for this.

I'm still confused as to the rules of Sharing, but no need to dig further. What finally worked was to first set up a User account (standard) in Users&Groups, which shouldn't be required, but I figured I'd try that. Then when I went to Sharing, that User account showed up in Users column, instead of selecting me from her Contacts list (which was an option).

Thanks all for the help.