"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
    2013-12-02T18:57:13+00:00

    Windows 7 and Windows 8 computer attempting to share folders. The Window 7 computer is attempting to connect.

    At first I tried old fashioned networking, share, public, everybody full control, both computers in the same domain.

    The error on the FIRST attempt was "The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different username and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share".

    Double checked in net use, only the mapping I just tried to make was there, deleted it, tried again, same thing.

    Then I decided to be nice and use Microsoft's new HomeGroup feature. I shared the folders, authed the Win8 computer to the Win7 homegroup and shared.

    None of the folders are accessible, they all say "You do not have permission to access \computer name\folder\subfolder"

    To date I still haven't solved this. The folder is on a secondary drive.

    The home group troubleshooter says everything should work.

    I can see the folder names to click on them on the Win7 computer

    I can not access any of the actual folders despite home group sharing and earlier the user/pass I attempted to use was the Win8 email pass.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-30T17:12:49+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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-07-15T20:26:45+00:00

    Have you checked under COMPUTER for any mapped network drives? also is there more than one user account on the Windows 7 machine? If there is try my suggestions on May 7, 2013 on all accounts.

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