VPN - Experiencing issues lately (Dec 2024/Jan 2025) when attempting to connect to shared folders via VPN?

Question

For roughly 2 weeks, my offsite users have been reporting challenges with connecting to our network servers using VPN. They successfully connect to WIFI, then connect using VPN. Most of the users have no issues accessing the shared folders. Some are receiving error messages.

1. An error occurred while reconnecting to <shared_drive> to <server_name>\folder. Microsoft Windows Network: The local device name is already in use. This connection has not been restored.
2. <Drive> is not accessible. The target account name is incorrect.

Every time a user has an issue, the server is online and the folder exists. There are also other users connected using VPN and successfully connect to the folders. They are able to ping our server but for some reason cannot access the folders. This is not an all the time, every user issue which has made it hard to troubleshoot. It is however starting to be a more popular problem. Using the steps below, we can usually resolve the problem:

1. Disconnect from the VPN, reconnect to VPN and try again.
2. Disconnect from the VPN, disconnect from WiFi, reconnect WiFi, reconnect VPN and try again.
3. Disconnect from VPN/WiFi, restart/power down the computer and try again.
4. Just keep trying to access the drives and eventually, you can.

At first, we thought their connection to VPN was not completed correctly, which was why disconnecting/reconnecting seemed to work. We've even removed/readded the VPN connection but that does not always resolve the issue either. Tuesday, was the first time, I had a user that was in the office and wired to the network that had an issue. They were not on WiFi. We even turned off their WiFi to make sure they were hard connected. To connect, they just kept trying and eventually it worked. We have not added any users so I don't think it is a volume issue.

Has anyone had the same issue? Thoughts on further troubleshooting steps or resolutions?

Once I had a user have issues when they were directly connect, I found that KB5048661 was applied to the server about the same time the issues started. Could that be contributing? Our servers are running: Windows Server 2019 Standard, Version 1809

Answer 1

Hello,

According to your description, only a small number of clients have this problem, so I think it is most likely not a server problem but a client problem. Based on the error information you provided, I suggest that when the client problem recurs, search for services in the search bar and then find the workstation service and restart it to see if it can solve the problem.

If the above method still cannot solve the problem, you suspect that it is caused by the patch. You can try uninstalling the update to see if it can solve the problem. To do this, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall updates.

Best Regards

Zunhui

Answer 2

I had two users with this issue and in both cases the Workstation Service was running and set up as automatic on startup. They did a refresh of the service and still could not access the shared drives on the server. Again, they were able to ping the server with no issues.

I really have no idea if the patch is the problem but it's the only thing we could find. Is there anything else we should look for? Any other ideas for what is causing this issue? Before removing the patch, I'd like to find the exact cause of our issue. I would hate to remove the patch and still have an issue. Which is why we were wondering if anyone has the same issue and that patch applied or if there are known issues with this patch that I was not able to discover. Thanks!

Answer 3

Last night we attempted to uninstall KB5048661 and it returned a message stating it "could not be uninstalled. No updates to uninstall." Seems like that patch is not causing our issue. Also, it is affecting more users each day. Any other suggestions of things to try, please?

Answer 4

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Another way is to remap the network drive to see if it can solve the problem:

Map a network drive in Windows - Microsoft Support

Best Regards

Zunhui