Windows 10: Win 10 Pro (Only) & NAS as "Media Device" Redux

I am frustrated beyond words & losing my mind: our NAS is again not visible in File Explorer, Network on our Win 10 Pro machines -- the NAS still shows properly on our Win 10 Home machines. The NAS is again showing up as a "Media Device" under "This PC" on all our Win 10 Pro machines, which is unacceptable because only some files show up there. This NAS is used solely for A/V creation/authoring/editing files -- we need access to all the files, not just those Win 10 thinks belong on a "media device." SMH.


We have had absolutely no equipment, system, or settings changes in the past couple of months. According to the Windows Update histories, the last updates were 8/14/2018. However, this "NAS as media device" in Win 10 Pro started +/-10 days after the last update, so what gives?


And, why is this only happening on our Win 10 Pro (v 1803, build 17134.228) machines & not on our Win 10 Home (v 1803, build 17134.228) machines?! FWIW, in addition to things being fine on the Win 10 Home machines, the NAS continues to show up properly on all our other non-Windows equipment. So, it's not a problem with the NAS itself or with the router or any of that -- the problem is, at least in our network, confined to machines running Win 10 Pro.


Most importantly, how do I get the Win 10 Pro machines to properly recognize the NAS in File Explorer, Network again??


The background is this problem first reared its ugly head in our network (along with many others) with the Fall Creators Update last year. We spent many hours researching & problem-solving the issue, which was successfully resolved. Then, we were screwed again with the "Features" update to v 1803 in May that removed Home Group. Again, many hours were spent researching & problem-solving to get past that disaster. Now this . . . again. ARRGH!


I have reviewed all the changes we made after last fall's Creator Update & the May Features update to get things working properly, and I'm not seeing that anything undid itself, unless I'm missing something I didn't write down. I've also restarted the NAS, restarted the router, restarted the Win 10 Pro machines . . . and restarted the router, restarted the NAS, and restarted the Win 10 Pro machines. Wash, rinse, repeat in every order I could think of without success.


I've tested about 75% of the Win 10 Pro machines, and we are able to manually get to the NAS by typing its address into the address bar in File Explorer, Network. However, I expect to get slammed on Monday with "What the heck?!" unhappy folks, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to change how they access this network resource. On the 75% of the Win 10 Pro machines I've tested, I have pinned the NAS to Quick Access, but I don't know how many will find that acceptable for a shared network resource (in fairness, I think it's confusing myself), and/or how many will be confused by seeing it under This PC as the useless media device & think a whole bunch of files have disappeared. And, that's also a problem with mapping the NAS on the Win 10 Pro machines, I think: I cannot map the NAS itself & would have to map each folder . . . what a nightmare


TIA for any suggestions -- I appreciate it!

:)

 

NAS device shows as Media device

I have some NAS devices attached to my home network.

When Win 10 boots up it correctly identifies them as NAS devices

But when I return to my machine after a period away the NAS devices have been classed as Media devices and so cannot be accessed

In this case I have to re-boot.

 

Win 10 Pro file explorer lockup opening NAS drives

greetings,

Win 10 pro upgrade from 8.1 pro on Hannspree netbook. Install went well, now when trying to access 2 different NAS boxes on my non domain network (simple workgroup setup) file explorer can't seem to access either of the drives, and when trying to abort the
attempt, file explorer locks up for about 20 seconds. Somewhere in the process I picked up a persistent error that the temp file removal failed, and this now persists even after reboots.

Had no issues w/ NAS file access while under win 8.1. No config changes to either the NAS boxes or the win install that I have made. Also, no issues accessing from my other win 7 computers.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

WRS

 

Windows 10 & NAS Box

Hi Peter,

A few possible reasons can cause this issue. To help us identify the cause of this problem, we would like to know the following information:

• How is your NAS box connected to your computer? (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or USB)
• Are you using a program provided by the manufacturer of your NAS box to access it?
• Do you receive any error messages when accessing your NAS box? If yes, what is the exact error message?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you perform the solution provided by omiklik (Most Helpful Reply)
in the following thread: Unable to see NAS drive on Network - Win 10 PC.

Keep us updated on the status of the issue, and we will be glad to assist you further.