Thursday, January 25, 2007

Windows: The Network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password

Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8 ; Server 2003, 2008, 2012:
Ok so if you have ever had this problem you know how really annoying it can be... You try to map a drive and you get this:

The Network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password.

You check your drives and there are NO Mapped drives to that computer at ALL! I have had this problem many times and one thing I found to fix it was to try and map the drive using the IP-address instead of the computer name... Well what if that fails? Go crazy and try a million things until it works. Thats what I have always been forced to do until today! I finally found a solution (now granted this might not always be the problem, but I have a suspicion that it is the culprit more then not)...

So I was working on this very problem and thought I would try the "net use" command in the command line... And I saw something interesting... There was a resource connected... IPC$ was connected... So I deleted that resource with "net use (resource name) /delete" and that did it! That fixed the problem and I was able to map the drive no problem... I think that IPC$ is used when you browse to the computer with network neighborhood but I'm not sure... I feel so much better now that I know what has been happening all of those frustrating hours I have fought this problem!

133 comments:

ubernatural said...

Thanks for the tip. In my case, C$ was listed but showing as disconnected. /DELETE did the trick.

Paul S said...

Another thanks for the tip. I had to specify...

net use /delete \\MyServer\MyShare

to get it to delete what was there but this worked...

Mike said...

ahhhhhh! Thank you... just wasted a few hours on this till I found your post here...

Gareth said...

You are the bomb!! Saved my bacon this did....

Ramesh Janjyam said...

At last I found it here!!!!!Thaks a lot.. U saved my time..

Shone said...

Thanks a lot. This really helps me to sort out my issue.

Unknown said...

Thank you, thank you! I wasted a couple of hours fighting this until I found your post.

John Richard Clement said...

you r the dude ! it worked !

Amit Kathuria said...

Thanks for the tip. This problem was driving me nuts since morning.

citizentools said...

Thanks - I've spent hours as well over the course of my life in Windows world, and this resolved my latest problem in seconds.

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot... I was about to blow my top... Trying to recover user's data that didn't copy over in backup I made... (stupid my documents)...saved me hours

Matt said...

You just made my day! Thanks for posting this tip. The official Microsoft support page for this problem was of absolutely no use and just said, "update to the latest service pack" - which doesn't help since we all did that years ago...

KRMK said...

Thanks a lot. grate, now i can do it without log off.

RyanE said...

You can also do:

NET USE * /delete

Which will delete *all* shares.

I had to do this, because I had a share with a space in the name, couldn't get rid of it by name easily.

RyanE

Deryn said...

Thanks from me, too! I am magically un-annoyed now!

fishmonger said...

Wow this post is this new and your the savior of 15+ people already. Add me to the list. Thanks a ton.

DDB said...

Thanks man! My previous workaround was cussing and rebooting. This is why geek blogs are a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I did:
net use /delete \\server\share

And I was able to map my drive from XP SP2 to the Win2K3 server.

W00t

Jipi said...

This problem has been around for years, and finally someone (more intelligent than me) goes and finds a solution for it... A round of applause is in order I believe.

Clap clap clap!!!

Thanks for the help.

hoinarut said...

Hello. My name is Tudor, and i am a sys admin. Thank you for this issue solve.
Doing a net use on my client computer, found that the folder was mapped (probably when i first tried to connect to it and got permission error, because i am sharing it on specific user), but it had no map name; so i used net use /delete \\comp\share, and all was all right. This was brilliant :) Thanks. If i may be of any help ... hoinarut@yahoo.com :)

Jimmy said...

Thanks for the posting. I am an IT Administrator as well and have a simular blog at http://qvlweb.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Now what can we do to get Microsoft to fix this problem. Its rediculous that you have to type that in command line. When it gives the error message saying it is already mapped, it should allow you to delete the other mapping, or at least have the other mappings show up somewhere in the UI were you can delete them. It's still infuriating although, at least I can get my work done now. Thanks for the tip!
MSFT: To get this error... Setup a system as a general home user would. (ie, not on a domain). Take it to work and map a network drive where you have to use your domain name\username Reboot the computer. It will not remap correctly and you can't map it unless you use the /net use commands.

ColonelFazackerley said...

you are my hero too!

trying to map from a xp sp2 client to a share on win 2003 sp2 server, i found that "net use" did not turn up anything.

mapping by IP address worked sweet, though.

Unknown said...

Thanks, solved my problem!

Tim McLaurin said...

Travis, Thanks SO much for this post! Hope you don't mind, I added a reference link to this post at My blog entry about this same issue.

Damian said...

Nearly two years on and this tip is proving to be ever-useful. Congrats, and thanks!! (Why this isn't sorted in Windows yet is beyond me)

Liz said...

Thank you so much. This was yet another frustrating windows problem I have been battling with until I came across this through a Google search.

Unknown said...

You're monstar! Thank you!

Max Thrun said...

Thanks dude this worked perfectly!!

Unknown said...

Thank you for your help! This was exactly what I was looking for!

Anonymous said...

Thx 4 Help!!
U help me with a little Problem!! ;)
Thanks!!

Unknown said...

This little tip is still saving lives... saved mine today. Thanks again for knowing your stuff there brotha!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I`ve been days and days wondering about this... your trick just did my day. thx

Unknown said...

I had to remap to a share using an admin account, but kept getting the same error after disconnecting.
In my case, remapping using the FQDN worked (it was originally mapped with the short name):
net use I: \\server.my.dom\share /user:admin
Chances are simply using the IP would have worked too.

josh said...

Just about to kill myself and you saved me. Thanks! -josh

Jasper said...

Thank you!!!!!

WayLay Design said...

WOW two whole years and this tip is still helpin out. Just like a few other guys, I do IT and this tip is damn near priceless! Thanks!

tommoose said...

I LOVE YOU
THANKYOU

Unknown said...

Great tip. A real life saver! Thanks

Amalthea said...

Thanks, man! Still a useful tip. :)

Jolugo said...

Thank you very much. I learned something new today.

Unknown said...

I was having the same issue until I found your post and the IP address worked. I looked at net use and didn't see anything strang except for my current vb script mappings from my domain. Something different I wanted to add. We use DFS is connected to each server at different locations. Could the DFS share be causing this issue since it connects to each server?

Travis Epperson said...

@jimmy1264

My understanding would be that DFS would only cause a problem if it created a connection from the computer you are working on to the computer you were trying to map a drive to. The error happens when windows sees a connection that already exists between the computer you are on and the computer you are trying to map a drive to. By using the IP address I "think" you are tricking it into overlooking a connection that is using the computer name that already exists.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Thanks so much. You saved couple of hours for me.

Unknown said...

THANK YOU!!!!!

BHG said...

I'll add my thanks too. I found that the network share name wasn't quite what I thought it was so I first entered:

net use

by itself which lists the name as Windows sees it. Then this:

net use /delete \\server\share

Voila!

Unknown said...

Thanks from me too. Makes you wonder if MS do any testing at all!

Unknown said...

One of those million annoyances...you just solved mine, swift like a ninja!

Regards,
M. Bergfall

Justin Mauger said...

Yey! Finally, a solution!

tezvi said...

thx a lot for this tutorial.. you saved me from a cerebrospinal insult... wooh

BeatlePl said...

Great tip. Saved couple of hrs at least.

Unknown said...

thanks dude....solved my big problem

TiMpWeB said...

Saved my butt.... thanks!

Unknown said...

Tip has worked for me in the past, but now I am stumped again. Server has 2 nics, 192.168.0.1 & 192.168.0.2, and is registered as server in my DNS, 2008R2 member server and serves as a File Server, as well as many other services. (Client= Win7 as a domain workstation) I am able to Map a drive to either IP but I still can't Map a drive to the hostname. New to environment, and not sure how long this has been an issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Travis Epperson said...

Can you ping the server using it's name? Does an "nslookup servername" come back with the correct ip address. If no to either of these then I would say it's a dns problem.

Unknown said...

@ Travis:

I am able to ping the server using its name, or either IP address. NSlookup returns both IP addresses. Another interesting tidbit.

I CAN map network drive \ net use a share that the logged in account has permissions on.

I CAN NOT map network drive \ net use a share that the logged in account does not have permissions on, and I try to 'Connect using different credentials.' (However it does work this way to either IP address)...

Travis Epperson said...

@David
Unfortunately I'm thinking it's an issue with the fact that the DNS is passing both IP addresses and Windows Map Drive (specifically the part that uses a separate login) is throwing a general error. Bug maybe, I don't know. Sorry I can't be of more help. If it helps I found a good article explaining the basics of multiple IPs coming from DNS. If you do come up with an answer please share! I would love to have you do a guest post or something.

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_DNSNameServerLoadBalancing.htm

Unknown said...

you are my hero! It works!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Del Foxx said...

Thank you sir!

Balázs said...

Thanks, really useful post! Solved the issue accessing XP PRO (advanced file share, password protected) from a W7 workstation.

Unknown said...

Thank you , worked for me!
appreciate you taking the time to share.

Emily said...

Thank You Thank You Thank You. This made me so happy this morning. The * /Delete saved m b/c of the space issue

Unknown said...

Thanks for taking the time to post this solution. It's quite uncommon.

Unknown said...

...quite uncommon for someone to post an actual solution that is.

Johan Sugiarto said...

Thank you. Your post helped me!

Kenneth Garza said...

This is what I consider a life saving server.

I did have a bit of trouble though. Here is what I did to resolve it.

Same issue, I attempted to use the fix that was suggested. If you are unsure of the resource name type NET USE and it will list the remote resource (in my case it was listed at \\192.168.1.7\IPC$)

At which point I typed the cmd NET USE \\192.168.1.7\IPC$ /DELETE and it worked great. Which is strange because the network drive I was having issues with was \\192.168.1.7\tsusers\HelpDesk

oh well, that be windows for ya.

Shae said...

Thank you so much for this, definitely a life saver!

Srikanth said...

Thank you that was useful.

Ryan said...

This tip is one of the most helpful ones for people having to suffer through windows networking!

You are the man. Beers for you, if I ever meet you in person!

Unknown said...

Seriously THANKS! No clue if OP will ever see these comments, but cheers to you man. This tip seems to have been saving people's asses for the last 3 years. Add my buttocks to the list.

Travis Epperson said...

I do see every comment, and I'm happy my tip was able to help you!

Jim said...

This worked perfectly! Three years later and your tip is still paying off. Well done.

Unknown said...

Windows at its finest. Thanks!

Unknown said...

thanks

Unknown said...

Lifesaver - Just wanted to say thanks - was really annoying me!

And good luck for hitting the four years! :)

avanish sharma said...

woah!! what a relief!!! this problem was like a itch that you just couldn't cure.....thanks a ton Mr.Travis :)

Unknown said...

I think today was the 3rd time in 3 years I've searched for this issue and found this blog. I'm glad it only happens about once a year, and I'm glad you have the solution sitting right here. THanks!

tree dude said...

Your post helped me investigate the probem, but, I had to do something different for resolution.
I accidently mapped a drive using the wrong username/pass: so I disconnected it, tried to reconnect using the correct user/pass, but I kept getting that dang message saying the drive was still connected using different user/pass.
Only valid, mapped drives were listed when I did a "net use". After banging my head for awhile (reading your posts and others) I decided to bite the bullet and delete ALL of my mapped drives:
net use * /delete
This worked! I was able to add the problem drive, but I have to go add everything else back in again. In the long run it saved me time.

---> In the future I'm thinking that I may need to only delete the other drives that are mapped to the same computer, not ALL of the drives. I think this has worked for me in the past.

0|P said...

Thanks a Lot :)

216 Blogs said...

Hey guys, thanks for the wealth of information, really helpful. I had the same issue, even tried the * /delete and I was still not able to map the drive I needed to. However, after some trial and error I ended up mapping the drive by performing an additional last step for the fix.

Here was my fix:

net use * /DELETE

Then remapped all drives that didn't have an issue.

Finally, logged off my user account and then log back on. Poof! I was able to re-map the drive which had the original issue.

FWIW - server 2008 R2, using “\\IP\Share” for the mapped drives

Hope this helps....

-216-

podpolanec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
podpolanec said...

Thanks, it works!

astro42 said...

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this solution. Really saved me a bunch of aggravation.

Vince said...

4 years down and it still helps. thanks.

Unknown said...

Years later and still a valuable post...

never would have gone that route...

Great find!

sobhan said...

Cool... it worked. Thanks for the tip.

Sagar Agrawal said...

Thanks a lot buddy. Your article saved lot of my time and patience.

You're the best!

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for writing this article, Travis. :)

Chillout Games said...

had to use IP address of pc instead of name - did the trick

Ryme said...

Thanks so much! This works in Win Vista SP2 as well! I was going crazy and none of the tech net articles were helpful.

Sureshkumar said...

Thanks for your tip.. It saved my time...

Seth Robinson said...

You are a gentleman and a saint, sir. This also works with Win7 64bit btw.

Kurdong said...

It's 2012 and this post is still helping people with the problem. Right on dude!

Eleven11 said...

This was a huge help! Thanks for the post!

coupeborgward said...

thanks mate. Saved me hours of frustration

Oscillator said...

Thanks a lot, have been dealing with this for ages.

grasshopper said...

All, please help. I ran into this error msg in Windows 7 and even after I delete the existing mapped drive using net use (mapped drive) / delete, I still couldn't map the drive from a laptop to PC. I still got the same error.
Any ideas?

Appreciate your help.

Travis Epperson said...

@grasshopper There is most likely still a connection even though it's not a mapped drive. Try to run netuse and see if there is ANYTHING with connected. If there is delete it. You can also try * /Delete to delete ALL connections, but this will also delete mapped drives to any other servers you may have.

grasshopper said...

@Travis, looks like the wild card delete did the job however now when I tried to remapped the drive it says that the PC does not have permission to access to the group shared folder. Have you ruin to this?

Thanks.

Travis Epperson said...

@grasshopper
Check out "http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Share-files-with-someone" for more on sharing files.

Also check out "http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-70848-cannot-access-shared-folders-remotely"

And "http://www.tech-faq.com/shared-folder-permissions.html" For Windows XP

James Fleming said...

Worked for me - thanks for paying it forward!

kishore said...

Amazing article..Instantly fixed the problem that i have been working on for hours.

For some reason i was not able to remove the drive using

net use /delete \\server\drive

I used 'net use * /delete' to delete all the maps and remapped again the ones i needed.

Philip Ngai said...

Thank you, this has been bugging me for months!

robertcday said...

Thanks Travis - this tip is still working 5 years after you posted it. :)

Jonathan said...

I ran into this problem while trying to map a network drive on a W2003 virtual machine. I was trying to connect to the network drive using a different user name from the user I had logged in with.
I tried the previous suggestions with no luck:
"net use" did not return any mapped drives.
"net share" did list IPC$ but when I tried to delete it I got an error saying I did not have the permissions to delete it.

What did work was:
1. Map the network drive using the details I had logged in with. Tick the "Reconnect at logon" box.
2. Logout.
3. Login.
4. Disconnect the network drive.
5. Map the network drive and use connect using a different user name.

Robert said...

Thank you for this tip! I had some network share on a different domain, and it was a mess trying to figure out why my new Windows 7 computer couldn't map to a share that had worked before...I am so glad I was able to find this short but effective piece of advice to fix it!

seglea said...

5 and a half years on, and you are STILL a hero... this one was driving me mad, trying to connect from Win7 to a corporate share through a vpn.

trod84 said...

I ran into this issue in Win7, however the share wasn't mapped at all and trying to delete it with net use did not work. I had 2 others shares mapped to other directories of the same server. Disconnecting those other 2 allowed me to map to the troublesome share again.

Mike Roq said...

Saved a lot of time! Will remember this next time when I map with the wrong username and pass. Still going 5 years later!

kalaga1 said...

In my my case I was testing with Windows 7 Homegroup and had the homegroup working but my shares stopped working.

I could see the IPC$ share using NET SHARE but could not delete them due to access denied errors.

Then this worked:

Create an empty share to make IPC$ visible like this

C:\>net use \\server
The command completed successfully.

Now net use finally lists the IPC$ as

OK \\server\IPC$ Microsoft Windows Network
The command completed successfully.

Now you can delete the IPC$ share and remap your problem share.

Rupert said...

Five years on - still a problem!

You sir, are a genius.

Anonymous said...

any ideas what to do if it doesn't work? I did a net use * /d. When that didnt work, i disjoined/rejoined to the domain, assuming it would lose all mapping and any other connection to anything on the domain. That didn't work either, so now Im stuck.

Travis Epperson said...

@Unknown what do you see when you type net use?

Unknown said...

Try making the share without "using different credentials". Worked for me. I think a system share for homegroup or something is already shared, so I did it without entering the user/password and it worked.

Unknown said...

I found a link that explains it. http://serverfault.com/questions/141924/how-do-i-purge-or-empty-windows-explorers-network-username-and-sharename-cache

Unknown said...

Thanks it works. Posting full command:
NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
[/USER:[domainname\]username]
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
[/SMARTCARD]
[/SAVECRED]
[[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

Craig said...

I've been trying so many things to get this to work for hours. This worked straight away. Thank you!

R L said...

I was able to continue my work, thank you!

Unknown said...

Many thanks! You saved my time.

Unknown said...

Maybe years down the road already, but thank you for this. Saved me!

Unknown said...

Fantastic - thanx - fixed it for me after going a little bunkus and firmwareupdates, resets, credential checks etc etc etc.... Thanx :)
Frank

lifelongknowlegde said...

Thank you so much !!

Unknown said...

Thaaanks!!!

It didn't work the first time with net use /delete \\server\share, but when I issued 'net use /delete *' it worked!

Of course I had to remap all my network drives again, but that was the least of my worries.

Sergey Vereshchagin said...

Oh My God! What the hell MS is doing with us :)
Thanks man!!!!

Unknown said...

For some reason the net use * /delete didn't resolve the problem. However, I was able to map a level higher in the directory structure. Then i found my target folder, clicked on properties, and selected the DFS tab. On the DFS tab I clicked the "Clear History" button. This resolved the problem for me.

Kurt Fitzner said...

Windows 8.1, brand new PC copying files from an old XP computer, and bam, ran into t his problem. Microsoft's technet site was no use. This little baby did the trick.

Incidentally, accessing my Windows 8.1 from XP was drop dead simple. The other way around, Windows 8.1 quietly mapped three network shares then studiously refused to let me map them under different credentials. I thought a space in the user name was the problem. Turns out it was this.

Gotta love how XP just works, and Windows 8.1 with it's "I'm going to do what I think you want, then not tell you why what you really want to do isn't working" attitude is horribly broken.

Unknown said...

I'm wondering, did this trick fix your problem forever? As soon as I restarted my computer, I had the same connection issue.
I typed 'net use' into command prompt, and it told me "There are no entries in the list."

Now what?

Travis Epperson said...

@Sweta Shah, If your computer is on a domain then it sounds like there is a process (GPO/Script) that is making a connection to that share/server during boot up. My guess is that your having a credentials cache issue. Laurel Fitzhugh found some information on it above, I would look at an icon in the control panel called "Credential manager". If your not on a domain then I would check your start-up and see what might be causing remote connections to that box, even still I would guess the cache issue above.

Unknown said...

OMG! I can't thank you enough. I've been trying to figure this out for a week.

Had to get this link from a forum post on Microsoft that is pointing here.

IT person 1 - Microsoft 0

(FTW)

Have a good one! =)

NareshNSK said...

You are a Star Bro.