MyRecover
[Troubleshoot] Mapped Drive Keeps Disappearing!
Learn how to fix mapped drive keeps disappearing with 4 efficient ways and how to recover files from hard drives easily on this page. Besides, there’re some related tips about mapped drive.
By Penny / Updated on September 13, 2024
What is meant by mapping a drive?
Drive mapping is how Microsoft Windows associates a local drive letter (from A to Z) with a shared storage area shared with another computer (often referred to as a File Server) over the network. In brief, a mapped drive seems like a shortcut to a drive that is on another PC.
With a mapped drive, you’re permitted to read and modify files from the shared storage area as if it were a local physical hard disc drive.
▶ Why does my mapped drive keeps disappearing?
Mapped drives are playing an increasing role in our careers because mapped drives are ideal for ample file storage, backup, and sharing. What’s more, mapped drives are much faster than browsing the network.
'We’re having issues with mapped network drives disappearing. Only a few users experienced this problem when logging into Windows 7. Thus, I created a batch of files for them to run from their desktop, which worked every time. But on Windows 10, we got mixed results. I have never lost connection to the driver on my computer, and I have gone from Windows 7 pro to 8 pros, to 8.1 pros, to 10 pros. But not everyone is on the network. My question is: why does my mapped drive keeps disappearing, and how to fix it? Thanks."
- Question from Microsoft Community
It’s tough for non-tech users to fix mapped drives disappear in Windows 10 by themselves. If you’re bothered by this issue, please get an overview of possible reasons and feasible solutions below.
★ Accidentally unmapped
★ Misidentified by your Windows PC
★ Remapped or deleted
★ Can’t show files or folders in the mapped drive
How to fix mapped drive keeps disappearing
According to the above possible reasons, there are 2 primary directions for you.
- If the mapped drive keeps disconnecting, open your Registry Editor to change your network card settings.
- If there’s something wrong with your mapped network drive, open File Explorer to check Hidden items.
Next, I will show you how to fix mapped drive keeps disappearing in 4 ways, including File Explore, disable User Account Control, Registry Editor, and Configure Proxy and SMB.
▶ Fix 1. Show hidden mapped network drives via File Explorer
Besides Windows 10, sometimes Windows 11 mapped drive doesn’t show up shared files or folders saved on the NAS drives (mapped network drives and network drives) because they’re hidden. Let’s perform how to show hidden items using File Explorer.
Step 1. Press “Win + E” to open Windows File Explorer.
Step 2. Click This PC > View > Show > Hidden items.
▶ Fix 2. Disable User Account Control to show mapped drives
In some cases, activating User Account Control (UAC) could make mapped drives disappear from Windows 10. Please refer to the following steps to turn off UAC.
Step 1. Type “change user account settings” in the search bar and hit “Enter” to open it.
Step 2. In the User Account Control window, drag the slider to the bottom “Never notify” and click the “OK” button.
▶ Fix 3. Remap the drive via Registry Editor
Please ensure you utilize the same IP address and the original hostname before remapping the drive using Registry Editor. Let’s show how it works.
- Some of you might raise questions like how do I make a mapped drive persistent? To solve it, you can also create a new DWORD named ProviderFlags with a value of 1. To keep mapped network drives persistent, you can configure a Group Policy to prevent these drives from reconnecting until the network interface is fully enabled.
Step 1. Press “Win + R” to open the Run box and type “Regedit” in the Run box. Then hit “Enter” or press “OK” to open the Registry Editor.
Step 2. Go to the following path and right-click on the registry subkey to create a new DWORD Value.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Step 3. Rename a Value Name and set the Value data to 1. This modification will enable the “administrator in Admin Approval Mode” user type and all other UAC policies.
Step 4. Please remember to click “OK” to save these changes and exit the Registry Editor. Then you can restart your computer.
▶ Fix 4. Configure Proxy and SMB to recognize network drives
If the mapped drive disappeared because the mapped drive keeps disconnecting, you could try the following fixes to make your Windows PC recognize the network drive.
✦ Configure the Network Proxy Settings
Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings. Under the Network & internet section, click the “Proxy” button.
Step 2. Then you can add a script to manually configure the proxy.
▶Activate the SMB features
Step 1. Type “programs and features” in the search box and click “Turn off Windows features on or off” to open the Windows Features window.
Step 2. In the Windows Features window, tick the features with SMB. Then click the “OK” button.
Step 3. Reboot your PC to see if these changes have been applied or not.
Bonus tips - How to recover files from hard drives with ease
During the work, if you deleted files from mapped drives, can you recover deleted files from hard drives?
Mapped drives also are hard drives (even if located on a virtual/cloud computing system or network drives), but in this scenario, the hard drive refers to local hard drives because all the shared files and folders are stored on another computer’s hard drive.
How to recover files from hard drives with no effort? Undeniably, there’s no better way than using MyRecover, a professional data recovery tool.
Step 1. Install and run MyRecover on your Windows > hover the mouse over the local drive that saves your wanted files before data loss > click Scan.
Step 2. After clicking Start Scan, MyRecover automatically runs Quick Scan and Deep Scan to detect all the retrievable files on your chosen drive.
During scanning, you can filter and preview your desired files quickly according to Filename, Document Type, Path, Size, Date, etc.
- Name: Enter the relevant filename of your needed files to quickly locate them.
- Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, etc.)
- Size: Set the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~512MB, etc.)
Step 3. Under the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder, select the files you intend to retrieve > click Recover x files.
MyRecover- Deal with data loss caused by deletion, disk formatting, virus attacks, or system crashes.
- Recover 200+ file formats: images (JPG, PNG, DNG, TIFF, etc.), videos (MP4, MOV, AVI, etc.), MS Office and WPS files, folders, compressed files, websites, etc.
- Combined scanning method: Automatically run Quick Scan and Deep Scan to search all the recoverable files.
- Easy-to-find: During scanning, you can filter and preview your needed files according to filename, file format, saved path, storage size, deleted date, etc.
- Support NTFS/exFAT/FAT32/ReFS file systems and Windows 11/10/8/7/Server.
100% SecureRelated suggestions
"What is meant by mapping a drive? Why does my mapped drive keeps disappearing, and how do I fix it?" Please get the corresponding answers after reading this passage.
Unwilling to suffer data loss again? It’s time for you to make backups using free backup software for Windows, AOMEI Backupper Standard to back up your important files, folders, disks, partitions, or the system to an internal or external hard drive, USB drive, Network, or Cloud drive.
100%
Clean & Secure
