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When I followed all of these directions for connecting one mac to another to use the optical drive, using my Mac mini as the optical drive for my new MacBook pro, it just connects to the hard drive and doesn't show the CD/DVD drive. How do I access the cd/DVD optical drive?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.3
Just found this:
"Share DVDs and CDs on Mac
If your Mac has an external optical drive connected, you can share the drive with another Mac on the same network with macOS 10.14 or earlier installed.
Note: You can’t access a shared optical drive on a computer with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later installed."
Here's the link to a newer support doc than the one you were following:
Share DVDs and CDs on Mac - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-dvds-and-cds-on-mac-mh19569/mac
Just found this:
"Share DVDs and CDs on Mac
If your Mac has an external optical drive connected, you can share the drive with another Mac on the same network with macOS 10.14 or earlier installed.
Note: You can’t access a shared optical drive on a computer with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later installed."
Here's the link to a newer support doc than the one you were following:
Share DVDs and CDs on Mac - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-dvds-and-cds-on-mac-mh19569/mac
An idea may be to find suitable external optical media DVD/CD RW that would
sit nearby, instead of unreliable (or unworkable) drive within another Mac.
Examples of tray-load models were better & reliable. Best if 'Not' bus-powered.
OWC site shows some. (Suitability may vary with USB-C adapters, etc.)
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives
Issues had plagued use of 'other older' Mac as optical drives, you've considered.
The better stand-alone models had almost always been superior to built-in ones.
Yes, I think that will have to be the way to go. Not a fan of Apple removing the dvd drive from their MacBooks, plus their new software doesn’t work with most of my older and recently purchased (less than 1 year ago) games/software.
almost enough to make me go back to Microsoft, but seeing I dropped some cash on the new MacBook Pro, I’m stuck,
thanks for your help.
Hello, Noclue2021.
Have you tried to make the connection with a dvd disc in the drive?
If there is nothing in the dvd drive, it may not show up as a shared volume.
Yes, I followed their directions to the tee, but only can access the hard drive and not the cd/dvd player.
How do I connect the use my macmini as the optical drive (CD/DVD) for my new MacBook pro?
