Automounter Feels Like it Should Be a Part of macOS

I recently discovered an interesting utility called Automounter over at the always-useful Mac Menu Bar website. As the name suggests, Automounter connects you to network volumes automatically. That's handy for home-lab tinkerers and absolutely essential in many enterprise setups. Automounter supports five protocols:

1. SMB
2. WebDAV
3. AFP
4. FTP (read-only)
5. NFS

In my testing, I mounted shares from just about everything I had lying around: a Debian 11 server, a Windows 11 workstation, an Unraid server, another Mac, and two WebDAV cloud services--Koofr and Kdrive. It handled all of them without complaint. Automounter has a set of features that make it far more useful than a simple shell script or manually connecting through Finder:

• Multiple Servers -- There's no limit on the number of shares or servers you can connect to. You can even create multiple connection profiles for the same server if you need different shares mounted under different conditions.
• Mount Rules -- This is the killer feature. You can create rules that determine when a share should mount based on conditions such as Wi-Fi network name, running applications, VPN status, time of day, the presence of other volumes, and more.
• Wake on LAN -- Exactly what it sounds like: Automounter can wake a sleeping server and then mount its shares automatically.
• Mount Options -- Connect as a guest or authenticated user, and optionally hide mounted volumes from Finder. That last option is especially useful in education or managed enterprise environments.
• Server Discovery -- Setup is refreshingly painless. You manually mount the shares you want Automounter to manage, and the app detects them automatically. It imports all the necessary connection details into profiles, which you can then edit--renaming shares to something that actually makes sense to you.
• Rule Status -- If a share isn't mounted, Automounter will tell you exactly which condition isn't being met. No more guessing why a drive didn't connect.
• Files, Apps, and Scripts -- Automation fans will love this. Automounter can launch apps, open files, or run scripts when a share mounts. You can trigger backups, fire off Hazel rules, or pass runtime variables (like the current share path) directly into script arguments.
• Configuration Profiles -- For enterprise and education users, Automounter supports managed profiles that can be deployed to multiple machines and locked down to prevent user changes.

Years ago, I traveled between 20-plus sites, each with one or more Mac servers and multiple network shares. Keeping track of IP addresses, credentials, and share names was a constant headache. Automounter would have saved me an absurd amount of time and frustration.

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In my current home-lab setup, it solves a different but equally real problem. Automounter reconnects my shares automatically when I switch Wi-Fi networks or reboot a server. Backup jobs that rely on network storage are suddenly effortless instead of fragile. It quietly removes a whole category of annoyances.

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You can find more details on the developer's website, where you can purchase the app and an optional helper utility required for some advanced features. It's also available in the Mac App Store. The base app is $9.99, and the pro features (mainly the rules engine) are a $3.99 in-app purchase.

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For anyone who deals with network shares on a regular basis--at home or at work--Automounter is one of those small utilities that will soon be indispensable.