Windows 7 Forgets mapped drive credentials
Does anyome else find that that win7 continually prompts for username and password of mapped drives - apparently ignoring the "remember my..." check box?
January 16th, 2009 12:35pm

I've seen that after hibernate/suspend actions and resuming the network connection.eq. connected drivemapping, hibernate laptop.Resume after 15 minutes, and with a working (webbrowsing/MSN works) network connection, Explorer pops-up for credentials for the network share.My laptop is domain-joined, btw.
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January 16th, 2009 6:34pm

It does the same for me. Forgets the drives every reboot. So I simply map them then dont restart, lol.
January 16th, 2009 7:36pm

Yeah, same issue here, it won't remember them forever, just for that session.
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January 22nd, 2009 8:13am

this is the same for XP, at least it does this to me from a computer in a workgroup mapping to a share in our domain.
January 24th, 2009 2:44am

Is this a bug then? If its a 'feature' we have to write a script to retain the mapping each time eh?- Not very good as thepassword would be clearly visible in the cmd or vbs file. Does anyone know any other work-arounds?
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January 27th, 2009 8:35pm

Same is happening for me as well. This must be a bug, there is no way this would fly in an enterprise environment.
January 29th, 2009 12:02am

Craig9876 said:Same is happening for me as well. This must be a bug, there is no way this would fly in an enterprise environment. Sure it fly in an enterprise environment lol. We spend a lot of time remapping network drive in enterprise environment where I work. It seem to be a 8 years standing bug with Microsoft!The weird thing is that linux workstation using SAMBA do not suffer from this bug!
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January 29th, 2009 2:06am

Really? I've been working ina Windows environment for a long time, and have never had that problem with my users.
January 29th, 2009 2:21am

Yep reallyLet's say a user need to connect to a network drive that he hasn't use for a long time and boom it does not work anymore!Then we just disconnect that network drive delete the link and redo it.Sure it happen a lot and in a lot of different location and company too.
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January 29th, 2009 2:44am

It used to work for me in Vista and XP. It's jaw-droppingly rubbish to have to map each time. Isn't the whole point of mapping for it to be, well, mapped!?
January 30th, 2009 11:47pm

I'm in the same situation, it works flawlessly in Vista and XP so it must be a bug. Not to worry, it will be fixed.
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January 31st, 2009 4:07am

I have been having the same problem ... I just found the "Credential Manager" in the 'Control Panel'(Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\Credential Manager)I can't guarantee that this will fix everything, but so far so good!
February 5th, 2009 8:18am

D-TrainCanadaYour fix worked. Nice job, and thanks, I was getting sick of continually entering my credentials.
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May 15th, 2009 5:55am

D-TrainCanada,This didn't work in my case. We are trying to map a Domain controlled share using different credentials than what the user logs in to the network with. No matter how we set it up either as a Windows credential or as a generic credential the mapping fails upon reboot and the drive must be disconnected and remapped. I hope someone figures this out soon, or it may delay our roll out of Windows 7 in our Enterprise.ThanksB
October 3rd, 2009 12:19am

Fix does not work in my case either and all computers are using the same credentials they use for user login, not different ones yet upon reboot it continually prompts for username and password of mapped drives ignoring the "remember my..." check box. One does not have to remap, but one does have to continually re-enter user/pass to get to drives after reboot or even sleep.
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October 3rd, 2009 12:32am

Update,We fixed the issue we were having here. It turned out that the mapping was for our FTP server and that box is not on the domain. We needed to include the box's name before the credentials just like if you are signing into a domain. Once we added the System name\username and then password, all was good.ThanksB
October 14th, 2009 7:37pm

Same here, it's driving me mad having to enter password all the time when I start a new session of VS studio 2005 using VSS web. Used to be able to save the password in the password manager, but that function doesn't seem to work anymore either.... :(
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October 19th, 2009 12:33pm

Update, We fixed the issue we were having here. It turned out that the mapping was for our FTP server and that box is not on the domain. We needed to include the box's name before the credentials just like if you are signing into a domain. Once we added the System name\username and then password, all was good. Thanks B Thankyou!!!! This has been driving me crazy for weeks! Fred 666 - your company needs to look at what they're spending their IT delivery dollars on my friend. What you describe is in no way normal.
November 4th, 2009 1:32am

The solution that puts the domain name first works.you have to enter things in this formatusername: RemoteDomain\usernamepassword: password"RemoteDomain" will show up listed under "Domain:" and if you check the remember box it will not forget them.if you do not enter the remote domain, the default settings are:username LocalMachine\usernamepassword: passwordand no matter what it will forget them on the next logon....at least it worked for me
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November 19th, 2009 7:53am

Thank you! I typed "Credential Manager" in the windows search box and added Address: \\NetworkAttachedName Login: \LoginName Pass: ****** The \LoginName starts with "\" so that windows doesn't use the current domain or machine name as a domain name in the login (which would be Domain\LoginName) I couldn't add the box to a domain because the box is an Apple AirPort with attached hard drivesSten
November 23rd, 2009 6:41pm

None of the given advice has worked for me so far. What finally worked for me was 'net use'. Get to the command shell (Win+R, cmd, Enter) net use Z: \\remote\folder * /USER:DOMAIN\username /PERSISTENT:YES Type in your password at the prompt Obviously, change Z: to whatever drive letter you want and modify the other fields to fit your situation. "/PERSISTENT:YES" is needed so it remembers it on next login. For some reason this method works, but the checkbox in the dialog window doesn't... All that fancy aero graphics and it can't even do what the command line does. For more information, try "net use /h".
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March 13th, 2010 7:17pm

_stefan's method works. Just be sure to do it TWICE if the mapped drive will be used to install software. Once in an non-administrator command prompt, and again in an adminstrator command prompt. Otherwise Win7 will ask for the password during software installs.
June 2nd, 2010 9:58am

See also the network security policy tweak at: http://www.gadgetgrill.com.au/2009/11/19/windows-7-fixing-the-mapped-drive-credentials-problem/
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June 10th, 2010 8:58am

None of the given advice has worked for me so far. What finally worked for me was 'net use'. Get to the command shell (Win+R, cmd, Enter) net use Z: \\remote\folder * /USER:DOMAIN\username /PERSISTENT:YES Type in your password at the prompt Obviously, change Z: to whatever drive letter you want and modify the other fields to fit your situation. "/PERSISTENT:YES" is needed so it remembers it on next login. For some reason this method works, but the checkbox in the dialog window doesn't... All that fancy aero graphics and it can't even do what the command line does. For more information, try "net use /h". please can someone do a 'lamens' tut on this.... reason y i say this is because after the first bit of the command ( net use Z: \\remote\folder ) i get lost. we have the next bit = * /USER:DOMAIN\username thats the bit that needs explaining for us newbies. how does this need to be entered for a home user? is the USER part referring to the laptop account username or the username of the nas share? Then we have :DOMAIN would this be WORKGROUP/HOMEGROUP etc or the name of the PC/laptop? Then the last bit, \username ..... what username is this referring to? My setup is a home network. Modem Router, NAS Drive, win7 64bit laptop set up in WORKGROUP. TY :)
June 29th, 2010 12:01am

Thank you! I typed "Credential Manager" in the windows search box and added Address: \\NetworkAttachedName Login: \LoginName Pass: ****** The \LoginName starts with "\" so that windows doesn't use the current domain or machine name as a domain name in the login (which would be Domain\LoginName) I couldn't add the box to a domain because the box is an Apple AirPort with attached hard drives Sten Just also need to add that when the 'session' came to an end and windows came back with the username and password error i was scratching my head for ages as to how to get round this. I also noticed that once this happend i was unable to find or connect to the nas drive. The quick answer to this was to goto the credential manager and delete the credential saved for the nas drive. i gave it a moment and BOOM, nas drive appear and i was able to connect to it again. TY :)
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June 29th, 2010 12:33am

DavidGLyons provided a nice description at http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-does-not-save-network-login-credentials-username-and-password-t1621p2.html I have found that if you DON'T enter the credentials when prompted, but instead go to credentials manager and add the credentials explicitly, you get a persistence level of 'enterprise'. Otherwise you get a persistence level of 'log in session'. As a result my credentials have persisted across logins.
July 11th, 2010 7:01pm

That is great that you can get it working and all but this is by no means a fix for domain environments that utilize industry standard password change policies. Users shouldn't have to change their password and then be sure to get into the control panel and update their credentials manager for each mapped drive. What if users had to update credentials saved for outlook in exchange environments every 45days when they have to change their password via group policy. They would never require this for Outlook and they shouldn't for mapped drives. Right now whenever a Windows 7 Pro domain users computer goes to it disconnects and the mapped drives and they don't reconnect when the computer is awoke. Users have to reboot or log off and log back in to invoke a script that disconnects the mapped drive and reconnects it. A temp solution that isn't very green is to turn off sleep mode so the system is always on or off via Policy. So much for Going Green and converting the rest of the organization from XP Pro to Windows 7. This is probably another under the cover attempt to push Enterprises into using SharePoint since it is not being universally accepted. This needs to be changed via patch for Professional and Enterprise Editions of Windows 7. Don't try and force us into buying more products and changing the way entire staff access their data. I don't have the political clout to force an entire government sector into do things differently and pay more to replace a system that is simple to manage with one that is complex and has worked great for the last 12 years with no complaints. If I can't force this organization to use SharePoint then don't make my life miserable because you still want me to use it.
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November 18th, 2010 7:02pm

Bit off-topic, but... For those who have mapped drives showing in Explorer with a red X: There is a also another "problem" with mapped drives, explained here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684 Note the workaround is done on the computer sharing the resources, not the computer that has the drives mapped. Cheers, G H
January 4th, 2011 1:48am

I found that if I set the mapped drive to have the exact same login as my windows login it solved the problem. If you can't do that, take a look at the Map Network Drive dialog and there is a "Connect using different credentials" option. This might defer to the credentials manager but I haven't tried it yet.
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March 22nd, 2011 4:02am

@Bradley Elder The credentials Manager solved it for me! For some reason the wrong credentials were in the vault, changed them and it works like a charm now. Thnx!
April 19th, 2011 10:38am

None of the given advice has worked for me so far. What finally worked for me was 'net use'. Get to the command shell (Win+R, cmd, Enter) net use Z: \\remote\folder * /USER:DOMAIN\username /PERSISTENT:YES Type in your password at the prompt Obviously, change Z: to whatever drive letter you want and modify the other fields to fit your situation. "/PERSISTENT:YES" is needed so it remembers it on next login. For some reason this method works, but the checkbox in the dialog window doesn't... All that fancy aero graphics and it can't even do what the command line does. For more information, try "net use /h". please can someone do a 'lamens' tut on this.... reason y i say this is because after the first bit of the command ( net use Z: \\remote\folder ) i get lost. we have the next bit = * /USER:DOMAIN\username thats the bit that needs explaining for us newbies. how does this need to be entered for a home user? is the USER part referring to the laptop account username or the username of the nas share? Then we have :DOMAIN would this be WORKGROUP/HOMEGROUP etc or the name of the PC/laptop? Then the last bit, \username ..... what username is this referring to? My setup is a home network. Modem Router, NAS Drive, win7 64bit laptop set up in WORKGROUP. TY :) Actually, a "layman's" version would be nice for the novice Windows 7 user, particularly for those of us who haven't sprung for the Pro version. We understand that there is a difference: for instance, Windows Home premium users don't have gpedit.msc on our systems, so we can't use that strategy. There's no "domain", just a workgroup. Would this strategy work for us? The router appears to not dynamically assign IP addresses: the one for my desktop seems persistent. Anyone?
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April 30th, 2011 9:30am

It's a problem with Home versions of Vista and W7, Pro and up works fine.....
September 3rd, 2011 8:55am

"It's a problem with Home versions of Vista and W7, Pro and up works fine....." Any word whether this will ever be fixed for Windows 7 Home Premium? Home networking is pretty common - most people with PCs that have been using computers for any length of time at all have a home network - so it seems a bit idiotic for Microsoft to suddenly "protect" users from auto-connectivity when previous versions have enjoyed that for so long. What I find particularly silly is that in a mixed OS-version environment like I have, the only hobbled computer is the one running Windows 7 HPrem: the other Win XP systems can connect to it, but it can't connect to them. Nice one.
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September 3rd, 2011 6:40pm

Mine problem has been solved by a pure coincidance.. I have been mapping the drive all the time like \\server.domain.pl\FOLDER. Later that day I have tried to map the share like \\server\FOLDER ... and it worked like a charm, so the domain name in share name was te problem. Pawel
September 9th, 2011 4:16am

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