Windows 10: Ghost shared folders appearing on other computer networked

I shared the Downloads folder on the main home PC, ( so that I don't have to download everything twice)
On my laptop there's a share called Downloads which eventually comes up with a message when I click it to say that the folder isn't accessible. I also have showing a folder share called "downloads2" which opens perfectly to the correct "downloads" folder on the main PC. i.e. it points to the correct \\main\downloads folder. ( I somehow now have another share called Downloads3 which seems to have appeared when I tried to rename \\Main\Downloads to Downloads2 to try and at least get a match.)
What I really want is to get rid of the Downloads share icon on my laptop, because I tend to automatically click on that ( reasonably) when I need to get to the \\Main\downloads folder. Ideally then rename Downloads2 into a proper "Downloads" but if not I can live with that.
I assume the issue is on the laptop, since on the main machine nothing appears to be wrong. But the laptop has this ghost Downloads network folder showing that just doesn't exist. There's a screen shot.

:)

 

How do I remove a child folder from a network share?

I'm attempting to share my iTunes Media folder but I only want the Music, Movies and TV Shows folders to appear in the network share without it displaying the other folders (e.g. Automatically Add to iTunes). I'm then going to map this as a network drive
on my other computers so that my media collection can be accessed (read-only) by anyone on the network. I have separately shared the Automatically Add to iTunes folder so that I can add to iTunes from my laptop. So my question is:

How do I share a parent directory but exclude some of its children from the share OR how do I share multiple folders in the the same share?

Thanks for any help.

 

Windows 10 machine can't access shared folder

I have a customer with a peer to peer network. They have just added a Windows 10 Home computer to the network. The new computer shared folders can be accessed by any of the other computers on the network. Additionally the new computer can access shared folders
on a Windows 7 computer but is not able to access shares on another Windows 8 computer. The Windows 8 computer can access shared folders on the new Windows 10 computer.

Network discovery and file sharing are turned on on all computers. Password protected sharing is turned off. When attempting to see the shared folders on the Window 8 machine from the new Windows 10 machine a prompt asking for a Username and password appears.
I enter the logged in username from the Window 8 machine and the password that user enters to log on to the Windows 8 machine. Each time it tells me the username or password is incorrect. The shared folders are set for full access by Everyone. The shared folders
on the Windows 8 machine are easily accessed from the other two computers on the network. I can successfully ping the Windows 8 machine from the new Windows 10 machine.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding what might be causing this and how to fix it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

No one with any ideas? No one met this before? Disappointing.

 

Hey terryBernstein,
I can't tell from your screen shot. What is the mapped drive (shared folder 2) you show, pointing to? Just a guess, but if it also points to \\Main\downloads it might be causing the duplicate Downloads Folders.

 

OK the original "downloads" icon pointed to the folder \\main\downloads on the other PC. If I remember correctly that link just stopped working. and it told me that I didn't have access to that folder. So I went to the target folder and its properties and set it as shared again. When I returned to the remote computer the original downloads icon was still there, and still claimed that I didn't have access to the folder called \\main\downloads. But a new icon had appeared, called downloads2. Clicking on that took me to the remote folder \\main\downloads . So as in the screenshot I have a link called "downloads" which won't connect to the shared folder, or delete or disappear or rename or anything. And I have a second link-icon that also points to the remote folder and works perfectly, but is called "downoads2". The original "downloads" link is a phantom that needs to be removed somehow. But how?

 

OK, try this ... On the laptop open a Command Prompt and type net use and post the result.

 

OK
Copied and Pasted the result. It doesn't look helpful to me.


Status Local Remote Network

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK
M: \\MAIN\shared folder 2 Microsoft Windows Network
The command completed successfully.

And that's all.

 

My Downloads folder on the Main machine is in the path T:\Downloads i.e. its location is in a partition T:\

I'm wondering if maybe Windows, at some point, might have decided to try and force the downloads folder back to where Microsoft wanted it to be by default (i.e. C:\Downloads) on the Main PC.
A Downloads folder does sometime reappear in that C: partition, maybe after updates, but downloads do save to the correct folder on partition T:

 

The net use command is helpful in finding phantom mapped drives (ones that don't show in File Explorer) and it appears you don't have any. The M: is the drive letter that \\MAIN\shared folder 2 got assigned on the laptop.

Laptop:
If you don't need/want the shared folder 2 - in File Explorer Right Click on shared folder 2 and Disconnect it.

Desktop:
Lets see a list of all the shares on your desktop. It could be that some of those shared downloads folders got moved/renamed without removing the share first and we might can use net share to deal with them.
Open Command Prompt and type net share and paste result.

 

That's the problem in a nutshell. If I could just remove that link I'd be satisfied.

 

K, try this on the laptop to remove that share folder 2

Open a Command Prompt
net use m: /delete

Note: You might need to reboot the laptop.

 

Try using the net share on your Desktop PC and check the list of shares for ones you need/want to remove.
Open Command Prompt
net share - to see list of shares
net share sharename /delete - to remove unwanted share


Note:
1. You may need to reboot Desktop when finished.
2. It might take some time for them to disappear from the laptop. After you remove unwanted shares from the Desktop, you could try rebooting Laptop to see if they no longer show.

 

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Yes. That did it. The Main computer thought it had a shared folder on a partition path G:\Downloads . There is no real partition G: on the Main machine, but for some reason there is actually a listing for partition G: in My Computer showing that is to do with Macrium Reflect. I've never worked out what that's for, though I've assumed it's reserved by Reflect for mounting the image, should I choose to mount an image. But using a net share pathname /delete from an admin command prompt deleted the share. When I rebooted the laptop it was no longer reporting that inaccessible share. *Smile

 

Your Welcome .... glad you got it sorted out *Smile