Mac OS X Server: Understanding the "disconnect when idle" feature for AFP connections

When you select the idle disconnect feature for Apple File Service (AFP) clients of Mac OS X Server 10.3 or 10.4, Server Admin may still list clients' connections even after they have gone idle. And idle client's listing will be dimmed, indicating that it's no longer an active connection.

The reason that Server Admin still lists the idle clients is because Mac OS X Server saves AFP sessions for later reconnect (known as "session caching"), allowing clients to resume AFP activity after sleep, for example. You can verify that the session was saved by these signs:

This is normal, and no further action is required. If you would like to disable AFP session caching, follow these steps:

  1. For Mac OS X Server 10.4, Log in as root at the server and issue these three Terminal commands:
    cp /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist.old
plutil  -convert xml1  /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist
pico /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist

    For Mac OS X Server 10.3, Log in as root at the server and issue these two Terminal commands:
    cp /Library/Preferences/AppleFileServer.plist /Library/Preferences/AppleFileServer.plist.old
pico /Library/Preferences/AppleFileServer.plist
  2. In the pico text editor, locate the lines that contain:

    <key>reconnectFlag</key>
    <string>no_admin_kills</string>

  3. Replace the string no_admin_kills with none, so that the line now reads:

    <string>none</string>

  4. Save the file (Control-O), press Return, and exit pico (Control-X).
  5. Restart the AFP service in Server Admin.
Published Date: Oct 7, 2016