Windows 10: Mapped drives not showing up on Explorer

I have several server drives mapped to my Surface Pro 3 tablet, and from time to time they disappear from Windows Explorer and XYplorer (an Explorer replacement). They are still there and mapped, as Net Use shows them mapped properly. But to get them tho show up in either Explorer or XYplorer, I have to physically remap them (right click: Map Network Drive...) and when I do so they already show up with the proper drive connection but won't appear unless I finish the remapping. XYplorer has a tool to reconnect all network drives, but nothing happens there.

Any ideas where the disconnect is?
Thanks, DaveD

:)

 

Windows 10: Mapped network drives not showing up until sign out/restart?

Exactly what it says on the tin; anyone?

This is what's happening:

After install, suddenly network drive mapping isn't working properly. When I go through the steps to map a network drive, said drive doesn't open like it's supposed to, and doesn't show up in This PC/My Computer until after I either sign out and sign back
in, or restart.

For the record, this is the process:

1) Open This PC

2) Click "Map network drive" and select the option from the dropdown

3) I select the drive letter (let's say I chose R)

4) I enter the network path: \\[computername]\R\ (the local drive letter on the network machine is also R)

5) Something flickers for half a second, but nothing happens

6) If I use the Run command, I can access \\[computername]\R\ just fine, but if I try to go to R:\, I get "Drive not found"

7) If I sign out and then sign back in (or restart), suddenly the mapped drive shows up in This PC, and Run can get to it using R:\

This is the RTM build, upgraded directly from 10041. The network profile is set to Private, so there shouldn't be any sharing or security problems.

 

Windows 10: Mapped network drives not showing up until sign out/restart?

the MS preferred way is to use the far end of the alphabet when mapping network drives - that's why their default letter to map is "Z".

However:

My network server is set up with 4 physical drives with several partitions and shares. All of the drives and partitions follow an old mapping system I've used for the past decade... It just so happens I mapped E:\ on the network server to be E:\ on the laptop.
It worked until the network drive was unavailable.; then the laptop balked. I'm sure that was never a problem with WinXP.

The fault seems to be in the drive letter mapping between network and removable drives not being resolved properly. If it fails it does not self-clean as it did in Windows XP.

USB drives can be mapped to specific drive letters... I only do that when a particular USB stick is used for say "Plans" and I want it to have the same letter (say P:\) on every computer in the hive. But plug in a fresh USB drive and then have to Disk Management
it... well... as you say: "frustrating"

Cheers,

Ian

 

If you use net use from an elevated command prompt (run as Administrator) you'll not see them in explorer.

You need to define them not a normal (non elevated) command prompt.

 

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

 

dld44,
Have the same issue over here where W10-pro is having a lot trouble showing home network shares in Explorer that did run without any problem in W7-pro. And do not laugh: also show up and run fine in W10-home.................
The internet is filled up with same W10 issues.

 

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.

 

I've noticed similar problem before. When it happens, I usually use Task Manager to kill all Explorer processes (the desktop), then from Task Manager, select File --> Run New Task, and enter Explorer to re-launch Windows Explorer. It usually can solve the problem.

 

Thanks for that fix, only thing that I can find that worked!

 

That problem was fixed, at least for me, several months ago with one of the periodic updated. I can't say which or when, but it is gone. All network drives are visible all of the time, except sometimes for a few moments after a boot.