File Sharing User Limit?
Does non-Server macOS still have a file sharing user limit these days? The way they are abandoning the idea of running Mac Servers, it seems plausible they could have removed the file sharing limit from "client" macOS.
Also was the former (and maybe current) 10-user limit, a limit of the number of different file sharing users that could connect at once, OR a limit of the number of inbound filesharing connections? In other words, if you created two file sharing users, could 15 people connect if 7 used account A and 8 used account B?
No - people will not connect due to slowness of the storage backing the share long before you'll hit a limit on connected users if there even is one.
I've got 55+ connections to a couple Mac Mini each running just normal sharing and server sharing of various flavors.
I recommend performance mode for any situation where you run a web app or server app or file sharing. The optimizations for single use that protect the system from runaway processes isn't the correct optimization for dozens of people consuming stable services that run as daemons.
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202528