For these cases, a Chrome OS app called Network File Share for Chrome OS does the trick. Network File Share for Chrome OS lets you access and edit files on your network-attached storage, on another networked computer, or on a hard drive attached to your router as easily as if they were in your Google Drive or on your Chromebook’s local storage. I use it with my Synology DiskStation and a USB drive attached to my ASUS router. It’s super simple to set up. I’ll show you.
Add a Network Share to Chrome OS
Here are the basic steps. I’m going to assume that you’ve already set up your Chromebook and connected it to the same local area network where your shares are hosted. If you don’t know how to set up a network share, check out this article: How to Share a USB drive from Your Wi-Fi Router.
Go to the Chrome Web Store and install the app called Network File Share for Chrome OS.Open the Files app on your Chromebook.On the left side, click Add new services.Choose Network File Share for Chome OS.Enter the share path for your network file share. You can use the standard Windows format like \EXAMPLE-HOST\SHARE or an SMB URL like smb://EXAMPLE-HOST/SHARE. You can also use an IP address instead of a hostname.If your network share requires credentials, check the “My file share needs a password” box to enter a username and password.Click Mount.
Your network share will now show up on the left side of your Files app. You can copy files here, move files from here, add new files, delete files, and edit files just like they were on your Google Drive. Playback for movies is seamless. Really, it’s the next best thing you can get to having a DVD player on your laptop, now that optical drives are “legacy hardware.”
Pretty handy! Interested in more Google Chromebook tips? Send me an email and let me know what you’d like us to cover. Viv Xxxxxxxxx Could the issue be caused by spaces in our Time Capsule’s naming structure? We’ve always used it with Macs, I know other OS’s are finicky about this. What gives? for ref: I am utilizing the same configuration as described above smb://192………./Movies the sys is PW protected so I put my configured creds in.. I have also tried to utilize my server name still no joy. I have tried it with vpn on, off, verified OS is up to date. to verify user name etc… I have mapped a laptop and sync it just fine. At a loss here Link sys EA8500 is what the device is on. Re: Router with SMB v2 or higher Options 03-25-2019 01:03 PM Hi @YoelP. Currently, we don’t have any devices which support higher than SMB version 1. Rowena_B 22017 Linksys Technical Support That would mean I cant connect my unit. Thanks II, hadn’t noticed that one yet. Have tried it and it’s much faster indeed. And the extension/app will be gone in a while, so your info was important! Much faster indeed! Even the option anywhere in Chrome’s Files app to ‘install new service’ is missing (Chrome OS version 93.0.4577.85). The option to set up SMB sharing is still present in the Files app, but it keeps disconnecting the network drives (connected to WD My Cloud NAS) or just hanging during simple file operations or even listing directory contents. When it hangs, it typically causes Chrome (the browser) to become unresponsive as well, and I need to reboot the machine. Let me try to understand Google’s logic here. We have a native Unix/Linux protocol for sharing files (NFS). We have an inherently insecure Windows protocol as well (SMB). Many standalone NAS devices are Unix/Linux based, so how about we get rid of all support for this native file sharing, and use the non-working Windows file sharing protocol instead? Makes perfect sense… Not! Comment
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