Windows 10: Cannot Map Network Drive in Explorer

Hello:

Lately, I am having trouble Mapping one of my Network Drives in Windows Explorer. A long time ago (early Windows 10 and before) I could simply click on "Network" and it would bring up my Drive (among others), I would click on it (right click as I recall) and it would bring up a system dialog box wherein I could select a drive letter and choose to always map on boot.

Now, the explorer doesn't list it at all! I can type 'net use Z: "\\Our1stNASServer\Our Shared Folders"' into an Admin cmd window and that partially maps the drive (only 2 out of about 10 folders); the drive still doesn't show up in Explorer, either on the right side or the left!

I am snookered! I hope someone can help me - I spend a good percentage of my time trying to correct this problem!

Thanks in advance.

Sparky

:)

 

Mapped drives not showing up on Explorer

Wanted to mention that I'm experiencing this same issue. Environment here is a Windows Server 2012 R2 domain with network shares and printers mapped by GPO. GPO drive mappings are not on a per-user basis and instead are global for all users.

Affected user can not access mapped drives via explorer, yet NET USE shows drives mapped as expected. Attempting to remap network drives via explorer results in a prompt stating that the connection is already mapped to that drive letter, do I want to disconnect and reconnect it?

Oddly, using applications that provide an 'open document' dialogue can see and access mapped network drives normally. For example, open Word, file -> open -> browse: Left pane shows network shares, clicking on network share shows share contents. Clicking on 'This PC' shows all mapped drives which are navigable and documents can be opened normally. Doing this does not correct the issue with Explorer. Similarly, a command prompt also operates as expected, so it's possible to change to a mapped network drive by the associated letter and to list / copy / delete files normally.

Issue appears to be limited to a single user profile on the workstation displaying the described symptoms. Logging in as another user results in the drives being mapped and accessible as usual. Symptoms persist through reboot. User account with symptoms does not have admin access locally or on the domain.

 

Mapped drives not showing up on Explorer


Huh?

Let me restate the problem, a bit more simply. Since at least Windows XP through Windows 8.1, using Windows Explorer you are able to open the Network View, expand a displayed computer, right click on a drive or folder that has been set up as shared under the displayed computer, select "Map Network Drive...", assign a drive letter using the "Drive" drop-down menu, select "Reconnect at logon", and !wow! you have a mapped network drive that shows up every time you start up your computer as long as that network drive is accessible on the network. You can do this also with Windows 10, just as with the earlier OS levels.

But with Windows 10, on my SP3, those mappings sometimes disappear from Windows Explorer after the SP3 is awakened from sleep. To get to them again with Windows Explorer as mapped network drives, I must repeat the mapping operation, just like in the paragraph above. But unlike with the original mapping, the drive assignments still show up like I had set them previously under the "Map Network Drive..." dialog in the list of drive letter possibilities that show up when the "Drive:" drop-down menu is expanded. (As an aside, this means that I don't have to remember the drive letter I had previously used when remapping them, which makes it a bit easier to do.)
DaveD

 

Without SMB, how do we map a network drive?


Even without SMB, open File explorer and select This PC. In the FE ribbon, select the 'Computer' tab.

Click on 'Map network drive' then again in its dropdown list and you can then just follow the wizard through.

You can also access network drives without mapping them. In FE's address bar type in the network folder address you want such as \\NetworkComputerName\SharedFolderName

Denis