You click the shared drive, the one that might be S: or Z: or P:, and Windows tells you the network path cannot be found. Or the drive shows a small red cross beside it and nothing opens. This happens with every brand of storage, whether your files live on a QNAP or Synology box in the comms cupboard or on a file server, and the cause is nearly always the connection going quiet rather than anything being lost.
Your files are not gone. A mapped drive is only a shortcut: a letter that points at a folder somewhere else on the network. When the letter stops working, the shortcut has dropped, not the folder behind it.
Try this first
- Click the drive once more. Windows often marks a drive as disconnected simply because nobody has used it for a while, and clicking it wakes it up. Give it ten seconds before deciding it has failed.
- Check whether anyone else is affected. Ask one colleague to open the same drive. If it is only you, the problem is on your computer. If it is everyone, the storage or the network is the problem and there is no point in each person trying their own fix. Tell us straight away in that case.
- Sign out and sign back in. Not just locking the screen. Click Start, then your name, then Sign out, then sign back in. Mapped drives are rebuilt at sign-in, and this alone clears most cases.
- Note the path before you change anything. In File Explorer, click This PC and look under the drive letter. You will see something in the form of two backslashes, a server or NAS name, then a folder name. Write it down exactly. You will need it in the next step, and you will need it if you log a ticket.
- Reconnect the drive. Right-click the drive and choose Disconnect. Then, in File Explorer, click the three dots on the toolbar and choose Map network drive. Pick the same letter everyone else uses, type in the path you noted, and tick Reconnect at sign-in. If it asks for a username and password, tick the box to remember them.
If your NAS came with its own helper software, such as Qfinder Pro for a QNAP or Synology Assistant for a Synology, it can map the drive for you and will find the box on the network by itself. Either route ends up in the same place.
If that didn't fix it
Log a ticket and include as much of this as you can. It usually saves a whole round trip.
- The drive letter and the exact path you noted down.
- The exact wording of the error, or a photo of the screen.
- Whether your computer is on Wi-Fi or plugged into a network cable.
- Whether colleagues have the same trouble, and whether they are in the office or at home.
- Roughly when it drops. First thing in the morning, after lunch, and after the computer has been asleep are all meaningful clues.
Why this happens
- The computer went to sleep. Network connections are dropped when a laptop sleeps and are not always rebuilt cleanly when it wakes.
- The password was never saved. If the drive was mapped without ticking the remember box, it works until the connection resets and then quietly stops.
- The storage changed address. If the drive was mapped to a numbered address rather than a name, and the NAS or server picks up a different number after a power cut, the shortcut now points at nothing.
- Wi-Fi connects after you sign in. Windows tries to rebuild the drives at sign-in, the wireless is not ready yet, and the drive is marked as failed before it ever had a chance.
How to stop it happening again
A drive that drops now and then after a sleep is normal. A drive that drops every day is a configuration problem, and remapping it every morning is not the fix, it is the symptom. Log it with us once and we will make it stick properly, usually by pinning the storage to a fixed address, mapping by name instead of number, and pushing the drives out automatically at sign-in.
One thing worth heading off: everyone should use the same drive letter for the same folder. When one person has it as S: and another as Z:, every instruction, saved link, spreadsheet reference and template quietly breaks for half the office. If your letter does not match your colleagues', tell us rather than living with it.
Still stuck?
Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.
Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.
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