Password errors for Microsoft Accounts when sharing on local network

Question

* Added on 5/28/23: Possible solution at **** I have an answer for a locked thread ****

Now that HomeGroups are gone, I'm trying to share a folder between several PC's on my local network.

I've set sharing permissions in every way I know how.

Whenever I try and navigate to the folder from one of the other machines, I'm prompted for the user account, that's fine, I enter the MicrosoftAccount\___@___.___ and password credentials.

Every single time, I'm told the password is incorrect. It is 100% correct. All machines on the network are configured using the same Microsoft account, which I would have thought would have made this process quite painless.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I'm hoping there is something obvious I'm overlooking.

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for being part of Microsoft Community. We hope we can help you at our best when it comes to Network Sharing.

May we know if, do you really need to enter user credential when accessing a Network (HomeGroup) computer, or in sharing files to other computers? Was this set on purpose?

Cause if not,  we're thinking if we try to get rid of the "Enter your credential . . ." popup?

Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items >Network and Sharing Center> click on Advanced sharing settings. Expand the Private section, and ensure that these three are selected:

Turn on network discovery

Turn on file and printer sharing

Allow Windows to manage homegroup connections

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Are the computers sharing the same Microsoft Account as user profile while trying share files? Cause if yes, then the "incorrect password" error must have been generated by this. The system is getting confused with same user names.

The solution for this is to input the Computer name together with the user name. For example, you are trying to access Computer1 and the current user for both (or for all) PCs is Frank, put in the input field: Computer1Frank. Then enter the password for it.

We have more ideas, but please feel free to try those first, before we dig deeper.

Kind regards.

Answer 2

Hi,

The build of Windows 10 I am using does not have HomeGroup. You will see this from the screenshots below.

I do not require password security for sharing between these computers. I have tried both require password and do not require password options in the Advance sharing settings panel.

My understanding of Microsoft Accounts is that the username belongs to the Microsoft Account domain and therefore can exist across multiple machines. Happy to be proven wrong, but the "MicrosoftAccount" indicates to the host machine that the user is a domain user rather than a local account user.

Kind regards,

David

Answer 3

Thanks for the quick update, David. I missed the part were you mentioned that you the "HomeGroup is gone" and that resulted me to fail of thinking about the 1803 version. My bad. But have you tried the method to combine the computer name with its user name?

If no good, let's try another method:

If it is still an option for you to remove password when trying to share files to a network/another device: Under the Advanced sharing settings, go to All networks section. From there, look for Password protected sharing and select Turn off password protected sharing.

-Do it to every device in your Local Network and Restart (Important) and check if you can share now without issues.

___________________

Next:

Check for these services and set them all to Automatic Startup type:

• DNS Client
• Function Discovery Provider Host
• Function Discovery Resource Publication
• Peer Networking Grouping
• SSDP Discovery
• UPnP Device Host

You have to restart the PC at once so the changes will take effect. Next, run c md in admin (Elevated Command Prompt), and key this command:

sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi

-Do it to every device in your Local Network and Restart (Important) and check if you can share now without issues.

Keep us in the loop.

Answer 4

Hi Marc,

I followed these steps without success.

Now, if I browse the network, 1 of 3 machines is discoverable and I am advised of a permissions error despite having a folder shared to everyone without protection on that machine.

Additionally, remote desktop access is failing password authentication between all my machines running Pro.

This is occurring immediately after HomeGroups are removed from the builds. I don't think this is just a coincidence. Coincidentally, I find that HomeGroups are still noted under "Give access to" in the file/folder context menu.

For the time being I am forced to use OneDrive for sharing which is less than ideal given everything now has to go to the cloud and back.

I'm very keen to hear any other insights.

Regards,

David