Mapped Drive will not connect after reboot

I just started getting users reporting this issue. It sees the 2004 and 20H2 updates broke our mapped drives. These are users offsite that connect to VPN and then click their mapped (but disconnected drives) and it reconnects because the password was saved. Now it either removes the drives on a reboot and it's simply not mapped anymore. Or it will be mapped and throw an incorrect password the first time they try to re-connect, which is causing AD accounts to become locked after some many "Bad" password attempts.

I've tried the above Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network\x (whatever letter your mapping the drive too)

"ProviderFlags"=dword:00000001 (32 bit d-word / hex value 1)

This does not work for us. The only workaround so far, is put a batch file on the desktop with the "net use" command to map the drive with /PERSISTENT:NO. Then after a restart, the user joins VPN and double clicks the batch file to map the drive.

I have updated some computers to 2004 and simply adding the provider flags to the letter and a reboot has resolved the issues

located the Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network\Z (what ever your mapping drive)

"ProviderFlags"=dword:00000001 (32 bit d-word / hex value 1)

please try it. hope you are Lucy~

Blair, thanks. Of all the things I've tried, that seems to do the trick for me. Cheers.

That's interesting too, as I would have thought the Workstation service would be stopped on PC shutdown and then restarted on boot-up - same as manually stopping and re-starting while live. Hmm...

Edit: This was working for most of a week, then my Win 10 PC stopped seeing the NAS shares again. It's like something timed out, but I don't know what reset it in the first place. I tried restarting the service again but no difference this time. I also tried adding the ProviderFlags entry below, but no difference. Back to the start... Sigh.

Hello, i faced same issue with my Buffalo NAS shared folder.  

once I open Service in control panel, stop the service Workstation and then restart. the shared network back to live. 

this issue happened after WIN10 upgraded to 19041

Geoff, after much research, this worked for me. Correction, it did for a little while - see last line. Sigh

You need to allow anonymous access to your shares on the NAS.

Use gpedit to edit your local policy:

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

Network security: Restrict NTLM: Outgoing NTLM traffic to remote servers

Set to Allow All

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation.

Set Enable insecure guest logons to Enable.

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings> Local Policies > Security Options

Double-click Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) and set it to Disabled. Click OK.

I also went into properties for the workstations ethernet interface, selected Internet Protocol V4 properties, Advanced, and set Enable Netbios Over TCP/IP  to on.

Bad news edit: I was happily accessing the NAS shares finally, then I shutdown File Explorer and tried to access the mapped shares again. Timed out with reconnection error. OMG! I rebooted the workstation and tried to access the mapped drives in File Explorer - it worked. Shutdown File Explorer and retried. Timed out with reconnection error. What?

I'll have a look at this, the NAS (Thecus 4560) is set up for passworded access.   

What I've found is that many things seem to work.  Once.   Then a reboot or two later the issue reappears.

I tried something I found elsewhere in this thread, seemed to work.  Survived a reboot (without having to remap the drives this time, which is hopeful).   Mind you I'd restarted the NAS as well so it might be meaningless.  We'll see.

Add both these keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>CurrentVersion>Policies>System

add DWord (32bit): EnableLinkedConnctions  Set Value Data to 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Network>Drive Letter 

add DWord(32 Bit): ProviderFlags  Set Value Data to 1

If there are no mapped drives, the Drive Letter Key (just a key folder for each drive letter with various parameters in them) won't exist.

I did it with the drives not working, didn't delete the mappings so the Drive Letter Keys were still there.   

Reboot.

I also noted the NAS hadn't had it's time zone set properly when it was installed some years back and NTP wasn't enabled either, so I've fixed that too.  Don't ask me how that was missed, but it's actually worked ok with Win7 like that for some years.   Go figure.  

The mapped drives all came up at once and actually work.   So I'm kinda hopeful.   We'll see how it goes over the next two days.  If it's still ok by Monday I think I might be on to something.   

Geoff