Apple - Shared devices not appearing in Network

I found a fix. I had the same problem after installing OS X Server.

Simply put, I did the following:

1. Go to ~/Library/Preferences and find the file com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
2. Copy the file for backup purposes and open original with Xcode

3. Leave the following items and delete the rest:

   • finderprojects
   • favoriteitems
   • systemitems
   • savedsearches

4. Go to the Apple Menu > Force Quit... and relaunch Finder (which really did nothing but I did it)

5. Shutdown/Restart your Mac so the changes to take full effect.

Now I can see my network devices under Shared in the sidebar.

I had the same missing shared device problem. I actually stumbled into a quick fix.

1) In Finder select "Go" then "Connect to Server"

2) in the dropdown list on the right side to the right of the server address there's a drop-down icon. I clicked on it and it showed a "Recent Servers" list. I figured I'd see if an old connection would work. I clicked on one of the "Recent Servers" and it worked. (I didn't have to put afp://> or IP addr. or anything in the server address field)

3) weirdly/magically/cosmically, the "Shared" section in Finder instantly re-populated itself with the other missing devices I used to see on my network. All of them.

Don't ask me why, but I don't feel like wasting any more time on it and it was super easy. Perhaps it forced a refresh of the plist or something.....

A much simpler way is to delete the plist, reboot and reconfigure. I have the same problem after upgrading to 10.11 and this fixed it.

1. Go to: ~/Library/Preferences
2. Move the file named com.apple.sidebarlists.plist (and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist.lockfile if there is one) to the Trash.
3. Reboot.

The plist will regenerate and you can go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar to reconfigure.