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Windows 10 Fall Creators Update – Cannot access network shares fix

Have you recently upgraded your machine to Windows 10 Fall Creators Edition (1709) and can now no longer access your network drives or home NAS drives? Well, we have just run into this issue where after installing the 1709 update, we could not access our (slightly old) WD MyBook Live network attached storage device. When […]

By Andrew Armstrong • 4 min read
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Cannot Access Network Shares Fix
Have you recently upgraded your machine to Windows 10 Fall Creators Edition (1709) and can now no longer access your network drives or home NAS drives? Well, we have just run into this issue where after installing the 1709 update, we could not access our (slightly old) WD MyBook Live network attached storage device. When we tried to access the shared folder it kept coming up with a login box and none of our passwords would work even though we knew that they were correct. So we tried accessing through a net use command and that did not work either we just kept getting this error below:
Windows 10 1709 Update Network Drive Error
Windows 10 1709 Update Network Drive Error
Considering how much archive data is on this drive, we had to find a solution to get to our data.

So how do you get to your data?

Well, after a lot of research and trial and error, we found that as the WD MyBook Live device is a few years old, it was using SMBv1 protocol which we should all know by now is bad after the recent ransomware attacks across the globe – you know, the one that hit the UK’s NHS? The Windows 10 1709 update has the SMBv1 Client feature as uninstalled by default. This means that if you are trying to access any SMBv1 shares anywhere – you will not be able to access them.

Stick with SMBv1 or change to SMBv3?

This led us to two methods of getting our data, change the device to use SMBv3 or reinstall the SMBv1 feature in Windows. The correct thing to do here is to change the device over to SMBv3, however having looked into changing our WD device from SMBv1 to SMBv3 but nothing obvious is within the web GUI. So we have logged an incident report with WD to look into this. When we hear back from them, we will update this post with any possible solutions. So, to get immediate access to our data, we have to go ahead and reinstall the SMBv1 client.

Reinstalling the SMBv1 client in Windows 10 (1709).

To reinstall the SMBv1 client you should go ahead and click the Start button at the bottom left corner of your screen and type Turn windows features on or off which should find this option in the list:
Turn Windows features on or off
Turn Windows features on or off
This will load the Windows Features dialog box and you should scroll down to the SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support and click the + sign to expand the folder. Then check the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client option and click the OK button:
Turn on SMBv1 Client
Turn on SMBv1 Client
This will then go through the installation process and reboot your machine after it has completed. After the reboot, try your network share again and it should now work. However, this should only be used as a temporary solution. SMBv1 is bad and you need to move away from it. So, where possible, change your network storage to SMBv3 and if you cannot do this with your device, replace it for something new.

Feedback & Questions

If you have any questions or feedback on this guide, please feel free to leave us a message below by scrolling to the bottom of the page and use our comments section.

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Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong is a UK-based IT professional with 26+ years of hands-on experience in Windows, Windows Server, SCCM/ConfigMgr, Active Directory, PowerShell, and enterprise infrastructure.

He founded TechyGeeksHome in 2010 and has published over 1,500 practical guides covering real-world IT problems and solutions. When not solving IT problems,

Andrew develops free Windows utilities including Ultimate Settings Panel, which has been downloaded over 850,000 times.

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36 thoughts on “Windows 10 Fall Creators Update – Cannot access network shares fix”

  1. Thanks so much for this! I got all my network storage back. It’s the only thing that worked after hours of experimenting with mapping, changing share settings, and a host of other things. Have you heard back from WD about changing protocols yet?

  2. Thanks so much for this! I got all my network storage back. It’s the only thing that worked after hours of experimenting with mapping, changing share settings, and a host of other things. Have you heard back from WD about changing protocols yet?

  6. I can’t think you enough for this quick fix! I had several TB of data I couldn’t access due to the last update. After hours of trying a variety of fixes, this is the one that worked! I’ll be tracking to see if you hear back from WD regarding updating the protocol on their devices.

  7. Thanks so much for this! I got all my network storage back. It’s the only thing that worked after hours of experimenting with mapping, changing share settings, and a host of other things. Have you heard back from WD about changing protocols yet?

  8. I can’t think you enough for this quick fix! I had several TB of data I couldn’t access due to the last update. After hours of trying a variety of fixes, this is the one that worked! I’ll be tracking to see if you hear back from WD regarding updating the protocol on their devices.

  9. I can’t think you enough for this quick fix! I had several TB of data I couldn’t access due to the last update. After hours of trying a variety of fixes, this is the one that worked! I’ll be tracking to see if you hear back from WD regarding updating the protocol on their devices.

  10. This mostly worked. For my version for some reason i had 3 boxes. One said to disable v1 when not needed. second was enable v1 and third was server. i unchecked the box for disable and checked server. also added linux support and telnet (grumbles……) and now my linuix devices can see windows 10 again!!!!

  11. This mostly worked. For my version for some reason i had 3 boxes. One said to disable v1 when not needed. second was enable v1 and third was server. i unchecked the box for disable and checked server. also added linux support and telnet (grumbles……) and now my linuix devices can see windows 10 again!!!!

  12. This mostly worked. For my version for some reason i had 3 boxes. One said to disable v1 when not needed. second was enable v1 and third was server. i unchecked the box for disable and checked server. also added linux support and telnet (grumbles……) and now my linuix devices can see windows 10 again!!!!

    1. Many thanks TomasF! Adding the user account with associated Windows login password in the WD software did the trick. Why does WD support have no clue?

  20. I’ve found a Powershell command that enables SMB1, see below. What I really want is to only enable the client feature only and not the server. Any ideas?

    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName “SMB1Protocol” -All -norestart

    1. Many thanks TomasF! Adding the user account with associated Windows login password in the WD software did the trick. Why does WD support have no clue?

  22. I’ve found a Powershell command that enables SMB1, see below. What I really want is to only enable the client feature only and not the server. Any ideas?

    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName “SMB1Protocol” -All -norestart

    1. Many thanks TomasF! Adding the user account with associated Windows login password in the WD software did the trick. Why does WD support have no clue?

  24. I’ve found a Powershell command that enables SMB1, see below. What I really want is to only enable the client feature only and not the server. Any ideas?

    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName “SMB1Protocol” -All -norestart

  31. i have the same problem and after following these instructions it fails to reach mybooklive.
    Please, for a fix
    Thanks

  32. i have the same problem and after following these instructions it fails to reach mybooklive.
    Please, for a fix
    Thanks

  33. i have the same problem and after following these instructions it fails to reach mybooklive.
    Please, for a fix
    Thanks

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