Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user using more than one user name are not allowed

Question

Using Windows 2008 R2  On our server we get this error   Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user  using more than one user name  are not allowed  Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again   when trying to map a drive on the command line  However  there are no open Explorer windows to the remote computer  and nothing shows on the remote computer when I do a  net use     Why does windows think something is connected when  net use  reports that there are no drives or folders open to it    How can I force Win to stop thinking something is connected without restarting   It appears that I get the error if I specify a username and password  If I just put in    net use n    192 168 10 120 test    it works  but if I put in    net use n    192 168 10 120 test   lt password gt    user   lt domain username gt      it gives the error  Why would that be

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Here is a Powershell alternative to  UuDdLrLrSs answer  Get-Service workstation   Restart-Service -Force

User · Answer

net use    lt host gt   delete should work  but many times it does not   net stop workstation as  DaveInCaz offered works in such cases   I have some why and hows I couldn t fit into a comment    It s not enough to restart the Workstation service  e g  from services msc console  The service probably needs to be disabled for some short period of time  If you do this restart from a script  might be better to add a 1 second delay  In cases when net use    lt host gt   delete does not work because another program is still using that share  you can identify such program and remove the blocking handle without closing it  Use Sysinternals Process Explorer  press Ctrl F for search and enter the name of host machine owning such share  Click on each result  program window behind search dialog jumps to found program s handle  Right click that handle and select Close Handle   or just close such program if you can  This works only in regular cases where there really is a program blocking the share disconnect  Not in those weird cases when it s blocked for no reason  elevated account has it s own environment  This brings some unexpected behavior  If you do net use command in an elevated cmd PS console  it will not affect which user will Windows Explorer use to access the share  And also other way around  if you run a program from the share and the program will ask and get elevated access  that program will loose connection to that share and any files it might need to run  You need to run net use from elevated cmd PS to create an elevated share connection to that share  Removing Recent folders from Quick Access in Windows Explorer  top of left panel  might help in certain cases  If the Host you are connecting to offers different access levels based on user  and or has a Guest user  anonymous  share access  this is a situation you might often run into  When you access a share using your username  folder inside such share might get assigned to Quick Access panel as a Recent item  When you open Windows Explorer after restart  Recent items inside Quick Access will be checked and a connection will be made to the Host machine and will stay open in form of a MUP  If your share accepts both authorized and anonymous connections  just opening Windows Explorer will create anonymous connection and when you click on a share which needs authorization  you will not get credential dialog but an error

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In Windows 10  I solved this problem with the Windows Credential Manager   I found multiple credentials for the NAS unit that I was having trouble with   After deleting both credentials  I was able to access the NAS mapped network drives without a problem

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Follow these steps    Select the Start button  then type cmd  Right-click the Command Prompt option  then choose Run as administrator  Type net use  then press Enter  Look for any drives listed that may be questionable  In many cases where this problem occurs  the drive may not be assigned a letter  You   ll want to remove that drive  From the Command Prompt  type net use  delete   servername foldername  where the servername foldername is the drive that you wish to delete

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Even if you remove the shared folder  via net use    del  on the server side there is still a connection up there   In order to get around this problem which Microsoft created by design you should map the drive in a way to let windows think it s another share on another server  The simplest way to do that is to use DNS aliases or ip addresses  In your case  if your first mapping uses the ip address like   IP Share with your current credential  you should use something like   ServerName Share  password  user Domain Username this should create a new share with the new credentials   Microsoft call this behavior by design    i call it just stupid design

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In our network I have found that restarting the Workstation service on the client computer is able to resolve this problem  This has worked in cases where a reboot of the client would also fix the problem  But restarting the service is much quicker  amp  easier  and may work when a reboot does not    My impression is that the local Windows PC is caching some old information and this seems to clear it out   For information on restarting a service  see this question  It boils down to running the following commands on a command line   C   gt  net stop workstation  y C   gt  net start workstation   Note - the  y flag will force the service to stop even if this will interrupt existing connections  But otherwise it will prompt the user and wait  So this may be necessary for scripting     Be aware that on Windows Server 2016    possibly others  these commands may also stop the netlogon service  If so you will have to add  net start netlogon

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I had given an answer in Super User site for the thread  Open a network drive with different user   https   superuser com questions 577113 open-a-network-drive-with-different-user 1524707 1524707   I want to use a router s USB drive as a network storage for different users  as this thread I met the error message   Multiple Connections to a server or shared resource by the same user  using more than one user name  are not allowed  Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again    Beside the method using  NET USE  command  I found another way from the webpage  http   backupchain com i how-to-fix-error-1219-multiple-connections-to-a-server-or-shared-resource-by-the-same-user  It is better to solve the Windows connection limitation by editing the hosts file which is under the directory  C  Windows System32 Drivers etc    For example  my router IP address is 192 168 1 1 and its USB drive has three share folders as  user1   user2 and  user3 which separated for three users  then we can add the following three lines in hosts file   192 168 1 1 server1  192 168 1 1 server2  192 168 1 1 server3  in this example we map the server1 to user  1  server2 to user  2 and server3 to user  3   After reboot the PC  we can connect the folder  user1 for user  1   user2 for user  2 and  user3 for user  3 simultaneously in Windows File Explorer  that is  if we type the router name as   server1 in folder indication field of Explorer  it will show all shared folders of router s USB drive in Explorer right pane and sever1 under  Network  item in left pane of Explorer  then the user  1 may access the share folder  user1   At this time if we type   server2 or   server3 in the directory indication field of Explorer  then we may connect the router s USB drive as server2 or server3 and access the share folder  user2 or  user3 for user  2 or user  3 and keep the  server1  connection simultaneously   Using this method we may also use the  NET USE  command to do these actions

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It may be that the Windows Credential Manager is holding onto credentials for the network share   Load up Credential Manager  the easiest way is perhaps just to Search for that in the Start Menu   see if there are any Windows Credentials for your network share  and try deleting updating them

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It seems it is enough to restart the windows explorer service    Open task manager Find the Windows Explorer proces Select it  After selection  the  Restart  button will appear in the bottom right corner  Click the  restart  button  Windows explorer will be reloaded    It helped in my case

[drive] Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed

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