Credentials invalid Windows 11 -> Windows 10

Question

There are a lot of posts about similar issues, but none of the responses address my issue. So I am posting a new question.

We have a Windows 10 server in our basement. My wife's and my laptops have shares mapped on this server, shares like "pictures", "music", "documents", etc. My laptop runs Windows 10, hers runs Windows 11. Up until two weeks ago we were a happy network, with both of us able to share storage on this server using SMB. Then her mainboard failed. We sent it back to Dell for warranty service, and got it back yesterday. Of course, they wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows 11 on it. Now I can't map the shares anymore using the Microsoft account credentials that worked before. Whether I do "net use" at the command window, of use file explorer to enter the credentials, I get an invalid password error. But I know the password is correct. I can manually log into the server with these credentials, and my laptop can log into it as well. I can log into microsoft.com with these credentials as well.

Here's what I have tried:

(Her laptop is running the latest Windows 11 update.)

• I installed remote desktop on her laptop, and tried authenticating a remote session. Error: "The username and password used to connect to the remote PC didn't work. Enter a different account and try again." Remote Desktop on my laptop to this server works just fine with the same credentials entered.
• Both on her laptop and on the server I brought up keymgr (credential manager) via the command window, and typed the password in manually for the Microsoft account. Same error. I deleted the credentials and recreated them. Same error.
• NOW FOR THE REALLY WEIRD THING: when I try to map a drive on this server with valid credentials, I get an authentication error as described above. But when I enter gibberish ("xxxx/yyyy") for the username and password, the drive maps correctly and everything on it is fully accessible! When I reboot her laptop the mapped drive is still there but offline. Entering the same gibberish to bring it online fails this time though.

How's that for peculiar? Are there multiple bugs here? How do I diagnose and fix something like this (please don't tell me to install Windows 10 :)

***moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Internet and connectivity***

Answer 1

Hello,

I suggest you create a local account to log in to the computer and then remap the network drive to see if it works.

Manage user accounts in Windows - Microsoft Support

Best regards

Zunhui