The Delayed Boot
macOS allows you to map remote network drives (like a home NAS or a corporate file server) directly to your Finder. Many users configure these drives to mount automatically upon login so they are immediately available. However, this convenience comes with a significant downside. If you take your MacBook to a coffee shop or travel out of state where that specific network is unavailable, macOS will still stubbornly attempt to automatically mount the drive when you log in. This results in a prolonged, invisible background process that can freeze Finder, delay the loading of your desktop icons, and eventually culminate in an annoying “There was a problem connecting to the server” error popup minutes later.
Removing the Startup Item
To speed up your boot times when travelling and stop macOS from automatically attempting to mount network drives on login, you must remove the drives from your user account’s startup list.
Click the Apple logo in the extreme top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, scroll down and click on General. On the right-hand panel, click on Login Items. You will see a list of applications designated to “Open at Login.” Look closely at this list; if you have previously configured a network drive to auto-mount, it will be listed here, usually displaying the specific name of the server volume. Click on the name of the network drive to highlight it, and then click the small minus (-) button located immediately below the list. The drive will be instantly removed. It will no longer attempt to connect at startup, and you will have to mount it manually via the “Connect to Server” menu when you actually need it.