"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
    2013-05-07T15:04:13+00:00

    Open a command prompt as Administrator and run command net use to list mapped network drives. Use net use DRIVELETTER: /DELETE to delete any mapped drives.  Try mapping again if it still fails then disconnect any mapped drives in COMPUTER . This should fix it.  Re-map any previously mapped drives.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-07-15T19:47:32+00:00

    Actually, I am getting this error message when trying to map a drive for a \\server\share that does not display when I run net use.  I tried using net use \delete \\server\share anyway and received the mssage "The network connection could not be found."  In spite of this, I continue to receive the 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."  This had happened many times when I was using the VISTA OS.  I was hoping that my new Windows 7 box would not have this problem, but alas, it has the same problem.  Does anyone have a solution for this?  Thanks!

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  3. 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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  4. Anonymous
    2013-07-15T20:36:37+00:00

    Under Computer, there are no mapped network drives for the network share in question.  As I mentioned, running "net use" also shows there are no mapped network drives for the network share in question.  The Windows 7 box is my personal PC, and I have the only user account on it.

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