Apple File Protocol: Is AFP Deprecated in macOS 13?

Apple File Protocol (AFP) is a legacy proprietary network protocol developed by Apple to facilitate file sharing across macOS systems over local networks. While it served as the standard networking protocol for Macs for decades, Apple has steadily phased it out in favor of the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB). In macOS 13 (Ventura), AFP is not merely deprecated—it has been fully discontinued, with client support completely removed from the operating system.

What Is Apple File Protocol (AFP)?

Introduced in the late 1980s for classic Mac OS, Apple File Protocol was designed to handle specific Mac file system features that other protocols of the era could not. It natively supported Mac-specific metadata, resource forks, custom file permissions, and advanced character encoding.

For years, AFP was the default protocol used by macOS for file sharing and Network Attached Storage (NAS) management, as well as the primary protocol utilized by Apple’s Time Machine network backup system.

The Transition to SMB

The shift away from AFP began with the release of OS X Mavericks (10.9) in 2013, when Apple adopted SMB2 as the default protocol for file sharing. Apple made this transition because SMB offered better cross-platform compatibility with Windows and Linux environments, higher data transfer speeds, and more robust modern security features.

Over subsequent macOS updates, Apple progressively sidelined AFP:

  • macOS 10.13 (High Sierra): Apple made the APFS file system the default, which does not support sharing files via AFP.
  • macOS 11 (Big Sur): Apple permanently removed the built-in AFP file-sharing server, meaning a Mac could no longer act as an AFP host to share files with other computers.

Is AFP Deprecated in macOS 13?

In macOS 13 Ventura, AFP has moved beyond deprecation to total removal. While previous versions retained an AFP client—allowing Macs to connect to older AFP shares hosted on legacy NAS drives or older servers—macOS 13 completely eliminated AFP client support.

If you attempt to mount a network volume using the afp:// prefix in macOS 13, Finder will fail to connect and display an error stating that the URL is invalid or that the server connection is unsupported.

What You Should Use Instead

Users and system administrators must transition to SMB for local network file sharing:

  • Enable SMB on Network Storage: Ensure all NAS devices, file servers, and shared computers have SMB (specifically SMB2 or SMB3) enabled.
  • Update Connection URLs: Change stored connection strings and bookmarks from afp://[address] to smb://[address].
  • Time Machine Backups: Ensure any network-based Time Machine destination supports Time Machine over SMB, as modern macOS releases will no longer recognize AFP-based backup targets.