Windows 10 - cannot see users on network

Question

I have an HP desktop and laptop. Neither have the homegroup application. I am the admin and only user for both.

Desktop (Wifi, not ethernet)- Windows 10 Home version 10.0.19041
Laptop- Windows 10 Home version 10.0.19042

Both desktop and laptop are connected to my home WiFi network. I have network sharing enabled and all settings I believe are open.

From the desktop, I can see the laptop on my network, can see the only user and its files.
From the laptop, I can see the desktop on my network, but when I click users, it's blank. My user and files do not show up.

One issue I had on the way to sharing which might be relevant is related to the network credentials.
When accessing the laptop from the desktop, I was prompted for network credentials, so I entered my microsoft account username and password, no issues.

When accessing the desktop from the laptop, I was prompted for network credentials and the same credentials don't work. I changed the setting to turn off password protection, but accessing both computers still require a password. The microsoft username and password still work for accessing the laptop, but not the desktop.

I followed some internet troubleshooting which advised to use the IP address as the computer name and username and then create a password. This has allowed me access to the computer on the network, but as above, I can't see any users. I don't know if the credentials are causing this issue.

I've read many troubleshooting articles and none of them have worked or are relevant. Many reference the homegroup which these version of the OS don't have.

Answer 1

Hi,

When accessing the desktop from the laptop, I was prompted for network credentials and the same credentials don't work.

What's the exact error message when you cannot access the desktop from laptop? Please also check laptop's SMB client log and desktop's SMB server log to see if there are something related for us to troubleshooting.

Then refer to the following steps:

1.Enable the SMB 1.0 support on laptop by enabling the following Windows features from the Control Panel:

2.Manually add username/password for UNC path in windows credential manager, see if it can work.

Best Regards,
Candy

---

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

@Anonymous

To clarify what was stated in the original question; I can sign in using network credentials, I don't have an issue signing in. Using the network credentials was different between laptop and desktop where I expected them to be the same. Reiterating-

1. I signed into the laptop using my microsoft log in and passowrd, with no issues.
2. When I attempted to sign into the desktop to access via the network using the same credentials (microsoft account), the error stated incorrect username and password.

To get past this, I followed instructions on the internet to assign credentials using my IP address. i am wondering why I had to do this in the first place and why my microsoft account login/password were my network credentials for the laptop and not the desktop. Nonetheless, I have bypassed the sign in error by renaming the network credentials as my IP address - see below (and this is logged in the laptop's network credentials referencing the desktop).

1. Regarding your other instructions, I opened the client and server SMB logs, but there were no directions on what to look for. Please let me know if there is any information I should be finding in here to revert back to you.
2. Re windows features - client and automatic removal were already turned on for the laptop, but none were turned on for the desktop. I checked on client and automatic removal and restarted the desktop. After restart, I connected using previously mentioned network credentials, but still does not show the user and connected files to the user account.

Answer 3

@Anonymous
Would like to add that I can see the desktop's public user folders, but not the primary (only user-myself)

Answer 4

Based on my understanding, you issue is that you cannot use Microsoft account to access the desktop.

See if this can help with you:

Getting into an SMB share on Windows 10 using a Microsoft Account

Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

In addition, you might try to create a shared folder on the desktop machine and give the Microsoft account Share Permissions and Security Permissions on the shared folder. See if you can use Microsoft account to access the share.