Why Can’t Windows 10 Find My Network Shares?

Sharing folders between two computers on a network always causes more problems than benefits. At the very least, there is no guarantee that the process will go smoothly, and by the time you troubleshoot what’s going on, set up your share and transfer the files, well, you could copy them over to an external hard drive. (or USB flash drive).

If what you’re carrying is too large to fit on a flash drive and you don’t have an external hard drive, it’s time to bite the bullet and deal with network shares. Just in time, here comes Lifehacker reader Roger with this week’s Tech 911 question:

MS refused to support the “Home Group”. I have dropped ethernet support. Two cars; Win64 and Win32. Wireless internet service provider using an access point. Both machines are recognized as an access point. Win64 does not see Win32 shares. Win32 sees all shares on Win64. Both machines use USB wireless adapters.

What do I need for Win64 to see Win32 ??? “

I’ll admit, I’ve never used a Wi-Fi hotspot at home, so the first thing I’d like to do is review its settings and make sure there is nothing that would otherwise prevent your systems from seeing each other. However, if one (x86) can see all of the other’s (x64) shares, then it looks more like a Windows configuration problem than a problem with your network.

You didn’t mention which version of Windows you’re using, so I’m assuming it’s Windows 10. (After all, Windows 10 doesn’t have homegroups, so that seems like a fair guess.)

To get started troubleshooting, I’ll first examine your sharing settings on your 32-bit Windows (x86) system. Bring up the Control Panel , change the view from “Category” to large or small icons, and click “Network and Sharing Center”. Then click on “Change advanced sharing settings” in the left sidebar.

On this screen, make sure you’ve turned on network discovery (and automatic configuration of network-connected devices) and file and printer sharing.

Click the All Networks menu and consider enabling shared folders – as the name suggests, they will be visible to everyone on your network. It’s a security issue if you allow others to log on to your network, as they will be able to view everything in those folders too, but that shouldn’t be a problem if it’s just you (or if you’re just setting up temporary file transfers between systems).

Also look out for the “password protected sharing” option. I am assuming you are logged in with a 32-bit system account and password when you try to access it from a 64-bit system. If you are trying to log in as a separate, specific user, you need to disable this option first.

Save all the changes you made, go back to the control panel and open the system properties. Both computers should be using the same workgroup, probably called “WORKGROUP”. If not, click on Advanced System Settings and then on the Computer Name tab and fix it.

Then open explorer on your x86 system. Navigate to the folder you want to share, right-click it and select Properties. From there go to the Sharing tab.

Then click the Share button. On the screen that appears, you will see a list of people (users) who will be allowed access to the share. One should be the current user you are logged in as and the other should say “SYSTEM”.

Again, you will need to be logged in as a user on your x86 system when prompted, otherwise you will not be able to access any shared folders.

If you’re okay, try sharing a bit, consider clicking the dropdown menu and selecting ALL, clicking Add, and then giving EVERYONE read / write access to the folder. I find that this generally solves most of my Windows folder sharing problems, although it does mean that anyone on your network can access that folder without having to log in as someone else.

Click the Share button to finish, and then make sure you copy and paste the network address provided to you:

Now turn on your 64 bit computer and launch File Explorer. Click “Network” at the bottom and see if anything appears. Otherwise, you might have to enter that previous address manually in the address bar, which (hopefully) should bring up your network share.

If you still can’t see anything and are tired oftroubleshooting , you have a few other options. You can use a service like Sharedrop.io to transfer files from one system or another. Or, for that matter, you can simply install a cloud sync service like Dropbox and sign in from both computers. (Make sure you turn on LAN sync in your Dropbox settings for faster transfers.) OneDrive is also an option, and it’s built right into Windows 10.

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