Map SharePoint Team Site Document Libraries as a Network Drive, Lessons from the Field
Are you getting this message when you try to map your document library as a drive?
“\\Path is not accessible” – You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
“Access Denied” – Before opening files in this location, you must first add the website to your trusted site list, browse to the website, and select the option to login automatically”
I hope one day this process will not be necessary, with the recent announcement that OneDrive for Business will handle more than 20,000 files. But until that day, this is what works in the field for mapping SharePoint document libraries as network drives :
- Ensure you have Internet Explorer 11.
- Open services.msc and ensure that Web Client is set to Automatic and that it is Started.
- Add the SharePoint Library to your Trusted Sites in IE, and set the slider to Medium-Low.
- Add your SharePoint Library as one of your home pages in IE, and ensure that it automatically logs you into your Document Library without prompting for login (you need to click “Keep me signed in”, and ensure that IE is not deleting history on exit in Settings). Do this in the browser the user typically uses as well and tell the user not to log out of Office365.
- Click on Library, and open in Explorer. Copy the folder path in the Explorer window.
- Click on Map Network Drive, pick your drive letter and paste the folder path.
The drive should map at this point, otherwise double check you did steps 1-6 correctly.
You can also map the drive through a script. First, run the following command to save your SharePoint Credentials:
net use Y: https://EXAMPLE.sharepoint.com/Shared%20Documents /savecred /persistent:yes
Then put the below line into your script (be sure to at least do steps 1-4 before this:)
net use Y: https://EXAMPLE.sharepoint.com/Shared%20Documents /User:%username%
Voila! Enjoy your SharePoint Network Drive!