Network drives are an important part of modern computing, which allows you to access files and resources stored on remote servers or other devices within a network. Sometimes, you may encounter issues when the network drives may not appear or disappear from your computer. Such issues can cause inconvenience and frustration, which makes it impossible for you to open and work on network drivers.
There are many reasons why you may encounter issues like the Network drive not showing on your device. Luckily, there are several quick and easy ways to fix network drive not showing problems. Here, in this guide, we will discuss some common troubleshooting workarounds to help you resolve this issue and enjoy smooth file sharing.
What Causes Network Drive Not Showing Issue?
The “Network Drive Not Showing” issue can occur due to many reasons, such as network device problems, system issues, installed software programs, etc. Some common causes for the issue are as follows:
- Network Connection Problems: There may be network connection-related problems in both wired and wireless networks. In a wired connection, a loose or damaged network cable can cause the network drive not showing up issue while in a wireless connection, disruptions or interference in Wi-Fi connectivity can cause the issue.
- Network Configuration Issues: If you have entered an incorrect network path or address to the drive, you may be unable to access the network drive on your computer. Even issues with the Domain Name System (DNS) resolution can also cause problems while connecting network devices to your computer using their hostnames.
- Firewall or Antivirus Software: Strict firewall settings and some antivirus programs can block network traffic that can cause problems while accessing network drives.
- Permission and Access Control: Sometimes, you might not have proper or sufficient permissions on shared folders or network drives which can cause Network drive access problems.
How do I Fix the Network Drive Not Showing Problems?
Whatever is the cause for the “Network Drive Not Showing” issue on your device, it is always possible to fix the issue from your end. In this part of the blog, we have provided some effective workarounds that you can apply to fix this issue on your Windows 11/10/8/7 devices:
Method 01: Fix Network Drive Not Appearing in File Explorer
When the network drive does not appear in File Explorer on your Windows device, you can go through the following steps to diagnose and fix the issue:
- Type “regedit” in the search box of your desktop and click Enter.
- Now, navigate to the path:
- “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System” and right-click on it.
- Select New and then click “DWORD value”.
- Rename the value as “EnableLinkedConnections” and press Enter.
- Now, locate and right-click on “EnableLinkedConnections” and select “modify”.
- Modify the entered value to 1 and click OK.
Once you are done with the above steps, exit the “Registry Editor” and restart your device.
Method 02: Enable SMB Features on Windows PC
Another method to fix the Network Drive not Showing error is to turn ON the Server Message Block (SMB) feature on your device. All you have to do is:
- Type Programs and Features in the search box.
- Now, go to the “Turn Windows Features on or off” option from the left navigation pane of the Window. This will display a mini window with all the features on your screen.
- Enable the checkbox next to SMB features and click OK.
- After that, reboot your device and check if the changes that you’ve made work or not.
Method 03: Recover Hidden/Deleted Files for Not Displayed Network Drives
If the above methods fail to fix the Network Drive not Showing issue on your device, the last option is to format all your data on the hard drive. But formatting deletes all the files stored and can put you in great trouble. But don’t worry, you can use professional data recovery software, such as the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool to recover all the lost data without any cost. The software offers several amazing features which make the recovery process quite simple and easy.
Some features which make the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool best for your deleted file recovery are as follows:
- The software supports recovery of deleted files from any Laptop/PC, internal or external drives, such as USB, Flash Disk, etc.
- You can use this tool to recover files of multiple types and formats, including your deleted photos, videos, documents, and many more.
- The software supports the recovery of files deleted due to any reason, ranging from disk formatting, lost partition, and corrupted storage drives, etc.
- This recovery tool is 100% safe and secure to download and use.
- The simple and user-friendly interface of the software makes it very easy for beginners to navigate and recover lost files.
- It is compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7 and even MacOS devices.
Now, check the step-by-step instructions to know how to recover deleted or disappeared data from Network drives using this professional data recovery software:
- Install the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool on your computer and launch it. Select the type of data that you need to recover, and click the Next button.
- Select the storage location from the Recover From window and click the Scan button.
- After completion of the scanning process, preview the recoverable files and select the files that you need to recover. Click the Recover button to save the recovered data at the desired storage location.
That’s it! The above 3 steps will help you to recover deleted or hidden files from your mapped drives using the Stellar data recovery software.
Conclusion
If you are facing the network drive not showing issue, don’t worry. You can easily apply the above ways to fix the Network drive not showing issue on Windows 10/8/7 devices. Whether is the cause of the issue ranging from network glitch to configuration issue, the aforementioned solutions should help you get your network drive back up and running smoothly. If the manual methods fail or do not work, you can use the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool which can recover your data, even if it has been permanently deleted from your device.
