Can't access MY OWN samba share?

The relevant info:

Ubuntu 21.04

The client of this samba share must:

[1] Have samba permissions to access the share.

[2] Have Linux permissions to access the folder being shard.

[3] Have Linux permissions to at least traverse the entire path to the shared folder.

Items [1] and [2] you have done. Item [3] you have not because of a change Ubuntu made to home directories. They made them private. For example:

tester@vub2104:~$ ls -dl /home/tester
drwxr-x--- 17 tester tester 4096 Nov  4 07:03 /home/tester

There is no way for a guest user to gain access to the share becase there is no way for him to get to the folder being shared.

The only way the client user can gain access is for him to:

[a] Access it as you.

Just remember to add yourself to the samba password database:

sudo smbpasswd -a finn

[b] Or change permissions on the home directory itself to at least allow others to traverse the directory:

chmod o+x /home/finn

[c] Or if all of your shares are going to be like this you can force all client users to appear to be you - at least for these samba shares.

Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and right under the workgroup = WORKGROUP line add this one:

force user = finn

Then restart samba:

sudo service smbd restart

This can also resolve any ownership issues you will have on files being saved.