First off, I'm not a Finder user, so I may not be aware of tricks other may know.

In Finder, the mounted server should appear under "locations".
Oddly enough the actual share will then be found under that server.
(you can find the setting here: Finder -> Settings -> Sidebar -> Connected Servers)

On that note:
I found ForkLift (one time fee - I've used my license for 3 years already without extra costs) and PathFinder (subscription model - not what I'd want to use) to be MUCH better than Finder and they both do show the share right away (my share example is called "AllShares"). Other free utilities may do the same, but so far I haven't found one I'd like (not a "commander" fan).

Tip: you can make the mounted share automatically visible on your desktop (Finder -> Settings -> General):

Not the perfect answer, but I hope it helps.

Posted by: @roscoe

↑

edit to add4: Read the main ConnectMeNow page and it described going to "/Volumes/" to see all connected drives, but I don't see the ConnectMeNow-mounted drive there. I'm really confusedx3.

If the API is used (so not the commandline option) then macOS creates a directory for a given share in /Volumes/.

Note: Some times I use a directory in my home directory to mount specific shares using the commandline mountstyle. As you probably already figured, you can do this with the API (system call) mountstyle as well. Just drag the shared foler into Favorites in Finder.

Posted by: @roscoe

↑

If I navigate through Finder (my old way of mounting it) it seems to mount, but I have no idea how that relates to the mounted drive via ConnectMeNow.  Almost seems as though it's mounted twice.  When I mount through Finder, it shows up in the sidebar.  When I mount via ConnectMeNow and "Reveal in Finder" it doesn't.  I'm really confused.

The Eject icon next to the share indicates its mounted.

Didn't have time to read through everything....but the NAS is NOT showing up under locations (it does if I mount it manually) and Finder is set to show connected servers.  The second NAS (NOT currently configured through ConnectMeNow) DOES show up there.  Same with the desktop.  ConnectMeNow NAS not visible, manually mounted NAS IS visible. 

Edit: There is no Eject Icon next to the ConnectMeNow connected NAS yet it wooers to me mounted (I can only get to the connects via the ConnectMeNow "Reveal in Finder" option.  Otherwise it's invisible

Not sure what to tell you.
On my 3 Mac's the server (not the individual shares) does show up under "connections".

In the Apple Community forums, I did read about someone toggling the "Connected Servers" option on and off (Finder -> Settings -> Sidebar) made the share visible for him/her under "Locations".
Odd observation: my "AllShares" (the ConnectMeNow name for my share) is now shown under Favorites.

This may be helpful, once we see the share in "/Volumes" (note: programmatically I have zero influence on what Finder does or does not show):

1) Makes ure the share is mounted.
2) Go to "/Volumes/" and drag teh mounted share directory to 'Favorites"

This works for me (can't reboot at the moment to see if it survives a reboot).

Like you said the directory isn't showing in "/Volumes", which is very odd since the "Mount Style" - "systemcall" (macOS API) will mount in "/Volumes".

What version of ConnectMeNow are you using?
Easiest way to find and copy this: open the ConnectMeNow menu, go to "Help & About" - "Copy version info to clipboard" and paste it here.
Note: this maybe slightly different per ConnectMeNow version.

I'm using the latest version, which gives me this info:

Version: 4.0.23 (Build 86)
OS: macOS Tahoe 26
Version 26.5 (Build 25F71)
ARM (64 bits) application

Also note: not seeing the Eject button means it's not mounted (according to what I know of Finder).

This is what Finder shows me when looking at "/Volumes/":

When your share is mounted, what does the "mount" statement output in Terminal?

Try this in Terminal:

mount | grep //

It should show something like this:

//username@192.168.22.200/AllShares on /Volumes/AllShares (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by username)

Please post the output from your Mac - keep in mind to remove username and/or password if included in the mount output like I did in my example.

Here we can see that one share is mount in "/Volumes".

If you do not see anything in Finder in "/Volumes", then you could try and see what Terminal shows in that directory with:

ls -al /Volumes

Which should show something like this:

total 32
drwxr-xr-x   5 root  wheel    160 May 28 15:13 .
drwxr-xr-x  22 root  wheel    704 Apr 30 21:33 ..
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel     96 Sep 21  2023 .timemachine
drwx------   1 username  staff  16384 May 30 11:03 AllShares
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel      1 May 16 17:20 Harddisk -> /

Note that directories/files that start with a period will be invisible in Finder.

on the road until next weekend, but I just downloaded the app the day I posted so I’m assuming it’s the most recent version. When I use ConnectMeNow to mount the NAS and use reveal in Finder I can access the contents so it’s clearly mounted, yet the eject icon does not appear and the volume does not appear anywhere except grayed out in the Finder window B opened by ConnectMeNow. 

Let me know when you're back home so you can check a few things (like the "mount" output etc).
Note that there is a more recent beta version (running that one myself for the past month or so without issues) - it won't solve the issue at hand though. Just thought I'd mention it.

I ran the "mount | grep //" command and got the following:

//Ross%20Dillon@192.168.1.--/Overflow on /Volumes/Overflow (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by roscoe)
//Ross%20Dillon@PlexServer._smb._tcp.local/PlexFiles on /Volumes/PlexFiles (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by roscoe)

The first one I mounted via connectmenow using the IP address (quite possibly I did something wrong).  The second one was mounted by double clicking on the server name in the "networks" link on the side bar (or in the list under my computer also in the sidebar)

I tried adding the top level shares of each has to my favorites in Finder but when I then select them I get "“PlexFiles” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found."

All I'm trying to do is have the SMBs mount and STAY mounted.  So far your's seems to be doing that, but it refuses to allow itself to be in the Finder sidebar (Not replacing Finder with another app.  Unlike others I've mostly got it figured out and don't want to learn something else).  Takes a few more clicks to get there but we'll see.  I tried to attach a screen capture, maybe the settings aren't completely right (I'd prefer to see the server name ("Overflow" which is also the top share name, confusing I know) rather than the IP address but I couldn't get that to work.

Your settings look correct (not sure what your settings under "advanced options" are though).

I'm not sure if IO'm quite understanding what you're saying (my bad).
What do you mean with "top level shares"? If you mean the server as listed in Finder, the I'm not sure if that would even work to add to Favorites.
A mount in the share listed under the server in Finder however should work (it is what I'm using myself).

On that note: I figured out how to add shares to Favorites in Finder in code, but have to do some more testing to see how reliable that is before publishing.

How this (manually) worked for me (keeping my share in Finder under Favorites):

1. Mount the share with ConnectMeNow, so the server appears under "Locations".

2. Go to "/Volumes/" and find the share (or an alternative mount-point if you're using that).

3. Now drag that share to "Favorites" in the Finder sidebar,

This works for me anyway. Let me know what I'm missing (not a daily Finder user myself so I may be missing something).

Clicking the shortcut in Favorites, now opens my share (if mounted).

Thanks

Posted by: @hans

↑

I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you're saying (my bad). What do you mean with "top level shares"?

Bad wording on my part (not a network guy) to describe the share on the NAS versus the folders under it. Without realizing I was doing it I created a single share on my server and then multiple folders under it.  This allows me to mount just one share and see the entire drive (as opposed to having to mount multiple shares).  Better lucky than good I always say...

1. Mount the share with ConnectMeNow, so the server appears under "Locations".

Ah, there's the rub...it doesn't show up under locations.   I also can't drag the mounted share onto favorites (I can but I get an error message when trying to open it).  That's been my point from the beginning (although not clearly).  I have to open "Network", then click on the server, then the share. The good news is despite the extra clicks it appears to be paying off in that the mount seems to be persisting which was what I wanted all along.

Question...how do I connect it via the server name rather than the IP address?  Just to make it a little more obvious to me (and because the other NAS...the one NOT connected via connectmenow) has recently somehow changed IP addresses and I'm hoping that connecting by name vs IP the system won't care.

No worries about the wording - I'm not an expert either so sometimes it take a minute and a cup of coffee for me to get it right as well. 😉 

I hear you on the network-share situation: been there, done that haha.
A long time ago I had a bunch of shares which needed to be mounted individually.
To access them all, I created new share on the NAS and on the NAS I created links to the other shares in that new share.
You'll need to login with SSH or use the file manager tool of your NAS.
You cannot do this in Finder, as it won't work.
A little write up from when I did that on my QNAP (still valid): link.

Still odd that you don't see the share in '/Volumes' - this is where I find my share to add to Favorites.

As for the IP address:
I like fixed IP addresses for certain devices (printer, NAS, camera's etc).
Ideally you make an IP address reservation in your router - you'd have to enter the MAC address of your NAS and indicate what IP address you prefer.
This way the IP address will always be the same and the network name of the NAS resolves to the IP address.

Now having said that, when addressing your NAS by network name, under macOS anyway, you will need to add '.local' to the severname.

For example my NAS has the networkname "Marvin" so this then becomes "Marvin.local".
You can ping that name (with .local) to see if it works properly.

Hope any of this is helpful 😊 

Thanks for sharing this helpful guide! The NAS share linking idea and fixed IP tip are really useful. I’ll try these steps and check the “.local” method too. Appreciate you taking the time to explain everything so clearly 😊

Posted by: @danielsmith

↑

Thanks for sharing this helpful guide! The NAS share linking idea and fixed IP tip are really useful. I’ll try these steps and check the “.local” method too. Appreciate you taking the time to explain everything so clearly 😊

You're most welcome 😊