"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
    2013-02-10T21:05:21+00:00

    This helped me and I was able to solve my problem.  Thanks for posting.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-12-13T13:52:13+00:00

    Thanks from the heartland, DWalker, your advice did the trick! I would never have guessed.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-27T13:44:59+00:00

    I have a similar problem and it drives me nuts...

    We are a small office with 6 computers all running WIN7 pro or ultimate. 

    • We have a hardwired network set-up as a Work connection on all machine. 
    • We have a workgroup and no Home group. 
    • We have no server. 

    We recently had to change the dedicated machine where we share a common folder.On that machine(#1) the folder is shared and permissions are set to all.

    All machines have multiple id's.  On all but two machines we have been able to connect to the share folder with no problem. we point to it a pop up comes up and ask for id and Password. we make the connection permanent and it all works.

    On the other two machine the symptoms are somewhat similar but with few differences.  What is common:

    • I have the same ID on all machines with the Same password and have Administrator priviledges on all. 
    • I can see the shared folder when logged with my ID.  If I click on it to connect, a pop up appears telling me that I do not have the right priviledge to access the machine and it does not offer me the option to enter user Id and the rest.
    • I have checked the credential vault and none are stored for machine #1.
    • I have checked the advance setting for shared folder and turned the  pasword sharing on and off with no change.
    • Network discorery is on
    • On both machines if I try to map the folder I am told that I am logged with a different user name password
    • Turn Firewall and Anti virus on and off with no change.
    • I can ping Machine 1 from all location both by name and by IP.

    What is different:

    Machine A:

    I was able to go to Net Use see that a connection was exisiting, delete it then create a mapped drive.  However this morning after reboot I could not connect. at first I had to delete the mapped connection then recreate it.

    If I use a different ID on the machine I can connect with no problem using the generic account information from machine 1.  I cannot connect using my credentials either on Machine 1(machine#1\UserID, Pwd) or machine A(machine#A\UserID, Pwd).

    Machine B:

    Net use shows no connection.  I cannot connect to the drive neither by Mapping nor by cliking on the shared drive. 

    When logged using other credentials, I cannot even see the shared folder.  As soon as I click on the computer logo I get the Access denied, contact administrator(me) to to get permission...

    Any Idea other than the standard microsoft answer which I have exhausted are welcome.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-08-20T15:09:55+00:00

    The old school way of dealing with this was to drop to command line and do a net use /delete command. That no longer seems to work since Windows 7. I dont know if it works under Vista or not. As a matter of fact doing a net use for me shows no entreis in the list. Yes I am using an elevated Administrator:cmd command prompt.

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