With four Thunderbolt ports fast enough for external accessories that add things like storage, the Mac mini is pretty customizable. Thankfully the Mac mini is easily outfitted with such hardware. But if you want multiple people accessing your server, or to stream media from it, you’ll need some additional hardware in addition to the macOS features we described above. Many features built into the Mac mini can make it into a good private server. Then hit the plus button ( +) under the Shared Folders menu that appears to add folders you want accessible via the server. Note that this is different than the Family Sharing option.Ĭheck the box for File Sharing under the Service menu on the left. Once that’s done, you can set the Mac mini up for file sharing by opening System Preferences and clicking on Sharing. Related: How to Keep Your Mac From Sleeping: Methods That Work Namely, you have to make sure your Mac mini is set up to stay powered on and won’t go to sleep due to inactivity so you can continuously access it. If you’re looking to make a server mostly to access or back up your own files, and to share across devices rather than several users at once, this is the perfect setup method for you.įirst, there are a few hardware adjustments to make. Turning a Mac mini Into a Server the Simple Wayįortunately, macOS already has many sharing features available that make turning a Mac mini server incredibly easy, particularly when everything is on the same network. We’ll help you figure all that out, and help you decide if the Mac mini is the best device to use as your server.

Which one you choose depends on your needs in a server. There are a few ways to set up a Mac mini to have it specifically act as a server rather than a computer. You can create that server pretty easily and pretty cheaply with just a Mac mini. Having a server is the best way to easily share and back up files or stream media across multiple devices.

Fiesta private server for mac