"The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password", when trying to connect to a drive remotely.

Anonymous
2010-11-08T20:31:13+00:00

Original Title: The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password.__To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share.

I am trying to connect to a drive remotely. I have clicked to map to the drive, entered the name of the drive, entered the login name/password for the computer it resides on and then it give me this error message:The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2010-12-22T17:45:15+00:00

In Windows 7 Enterprise, I would like to point out that if you map \\server1\share1 as drive letter X using "user1" and "password1", then try to map \\server1\share2 (a different share) as drive letter Y using the same "user1" and "password1", and you click the "connect using different credentials" checkbox in the Map Network Drive dialog box and specify "user1" and "password1", you will get this INCORRECT ERROR MESSAGE that says "The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password". 

The message is wrong because:

  1. The network folder specified (share2 in my example) is not mapped at all, and
  2. the server ("server1" in my example) is already mapped (to a different drive letter and different share) using the SAME userid and password. 

The error message is wrong on two counts!

This baffled me for a while until I realized that once you have mapped to "server1" using those credentials, you can map to different shares on the same server without re-specifying the credentials.  This is NOT CLEAR from the "Map Network Drives" dialog box, which leads to users (like me, and I'm a programmer by trade) trying to enter the credentials again and getting this incorrect error message.

David Walker

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-09-13T18:45:40+00:00

    Another way to get this to work is to just trick windows that its a different machine. 

    For the first connection use:  \myServer\myPath

    For the another connection use: \myServer.MyDomain.com\myPath

    For yet another connection you can use: \(the IP address here)\myPath

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-07-15T20:51:33+00:00

    hmm, could be the culprit. Otherwise another location for mapped drive information is stored under this key in the registry:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network\

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-01T22:23:24+00:00

    Thank you so much  David Walker,

    I had the same problem and it solved now !

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-11-15T01:31:43+00:00

    This thread contains an unconfirmed solution by the original poster and has been left unanswered. Microsoft Support will no longer attempt to contact the original poster.

    Cody C

    Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

    Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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