Windows 10 January 2015 Technical Preview: Connecting to a NAS (Update: Windows 10 Post 7/29 As Well)

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WD MyCloud Mirror

Update 8/1/2015: From the comments, this problem seems to exist in the released, post 7/29/2015 Windows 10 as well (we don’t call it the release-to-manufacturer, or RTM, version any longer).

Update 8/3/2015: I conducted additional testing after some comments brought up other issues, such as some NAS devices not having an SMB setting (see below), and I ran into all sorts of problems. I deleted my credentials for the NAS device in Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials, and then reset the SMB settings as indicated in this post. I couldn’t connect, which surprised me. I tried all sorts of combinations, including manually creating a credential as one commenter suggested, and still couldn’t connect.

Even more strangely, I had multiple shares mapped to folders on the same NAS device, and one could connect (with no credential listed in Credential Manager) while the others couldn’t. Bizarre.

Finally, I rebooted my machine, changed the SMB settings in the NAS device again, and then finally reconnected successfully. And so, while I recognize that this fix doesn’t work for everyone, it still seems like the best fix for now. Microsoft has some work to do in cleaning up how Windows 10 connects to such devices, because I can confirm it’s something of a mess right now.

—–

I’ll be reporting on Windows 10 as I have a chance to work with it on my various machines, but I wanted to report quickly on a very specific problem that I’ve experienced. Specifically, I was unable to connect to my Western Digital MyCloud Mirror network-attached storage (NAS) device. On any of my Windows 10 installs, attempting to connect to the NAS returned a permissions error before I was given a chance to authenticate (and I’d provide a screenshot of that error, but I can’t duplicate it after applying this fix).

A bit of research unearthed the culprit, and I’m not sure if this is a general NAS problem or something specific to Western Digital devices. And, strangely, once I applied the fix and then reverted back to the original setting, the problem never came back. So, I’m not sure if it’s a Windows 10 problem, a WD NAS problem, or just how the two work together in establishing connections.

In any event, the fix was quite simple: just go into the NAS network settings on the NAS device and turn the SMB protocol to SMB1 (as opposed to SMB2 or SMB3). Once I made this change, I could connect. And, setting SMB back to SMB2 or SMB3 doesn’t cause any of my Windows 10 machines to stop working. I applied the fix on my desktop machine and reverted it, and my Surface Pro 3 was able to connect no matter the setting.

So, there you have it. I’m not sure how helpful that is or what about Windows 10 caused the issue, but this fix seems to be permanent. Let me know if it helped you out.

Update: I had a request for more specific instructions on how to access the correct settings, and here’s where to go on my MyCloud Mirror device. Other MyCloud devices might have different interfaces, and of course other NAS devices are certain to be different, but in general the SMB settings should be wherever Windows networking is configured.

On the MyCloud Mirror, you first go to the Settings option in the toolbar running across the screen, then to Network settings:

MyCloud Mirror 1

Then, scroll down the page to the Windows Services settings, and change Max SMB Protocol to SMB1 (mine is set at SMB3, because as I noted above my machines will now connect at this setting):

MyCloud Mirror 2

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Comments

  1. Hi,

    I have this issue with my Windows 10 Technical Preview. It’s unable to connect to my WD My Cloud drive.

    Could you provide instructions on how to change the SMB protocol? I could not find the “NAS network settings”.

    Thanks!

    • Mark Coppock says

      Sure, no problem. I’ve updated the post on where to find the settings. I wasn’t clear in my post, and I edited it for clarity, but the settings are on the NAS device, not within Windows 10. Any other questions, let me know.

  2. Dave Polister says

    Since I dual boot, I figured I wait a week and try again. Still couldn’t access the drive, did a quick web search and found your article. It works! Thank you. Not sure what the differences are between SMB1, 2, and 3. Guess I’ll look that up next.

    Thanks!

    • Mark Coppock says

      Glad it worked for you! I looked into the differences between the various SMB levels, looked like a bunch of larger-system stuff that didn’t really apply. As I noted in my update to the post, once I connected I could turn SMB3 back on (where I had mine) and my Windows 10 machines can still connect. So it seems to be some initial handshaking issue.

  3. thank you very much for this fix!! I was having a similar problem with my Buffalo NAS drive. This article help fix the problem immediately.

  4. Arturo Senosain says

    Same Problem with WD Mycoud 2, I just install a clean W10 and face the problem. Your post solve my issue.

    PS.
    2 weeks ago i did a w7>W10 update (via windows update), without problems.

    Thanks!

  5. I’m using the white WDMYCLOUD 4TB, not the EX model. It doesn’t have any setting you described. I cannot proceed my works since everything is on my NAS backed up. I’m stuck with a clean Windows 10 Pro unable to access my NAS drive.

  6. I can confirm both the existence of the problem and that this works as a fix for it on a MyCloud Mirror 8TB under the generally released version of Windows 10.

    @Kev: I would be surprised if the (I assume) older MDMYCLOUD device doesn’t have the same setting available, though they may have put it in a different place. Make sure that you have scrolled down to the bottom of every even vaguely apparently relevant Settings screen.

  7. You have to use Credentials in Win10. Set up a credential ( found in the control panel). You set the IP address of your Nas and add your win10 logon name and password. This enables win10 to see your Nas.

    • Mark Coppock says

      Dave – Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help, as far as I can tell from testing it just now. What you describe is simply the manual process of creating a credential, which is the same thing as happens when you click “Remember my credentials” in the authentication dialog. If you can’t connect via the dialog, then you won’t be able to connect via a manually created credential.

      I do think you’ve hit on something else, though. It might be possible that connecting via IP address rather than network name, as many people are probably attempting, might be more effective. Although my own testing has been hard to track since my system is so inconsistent in this regard, I think I’ve had more luck connecting via IP address. However, resetting SMB has been the only fix that’s worked consistently.

  8. Is there any alternative name for SMB? I can’t connect to my Zyxel NAS but there seems to be no SMB option. I regret updating to Windows 10 now…

    • Mark Coppock says

      I don’t know of any other terminology that might be used. It’s related primarily to Windows file sharing, so if there’s a section about that in general there might be something there. Unfortunately, it might also be that the latest version of SMB is hard-coded into the NAS, and so there might be no option to change it. I’m still looking for a solution to this problem in general, and if I find one I’ll post it.

      • Thank you for your answer! The problem is solved now after the latest Win10 update. At least on my system. Maybe it generally solved now.

  9. I have two WD EX4’s on my system and when I installed Windows 10 I couldn’t access anything including the devices. I pinged each device and was able to finally access the control panel of each NAS unit. Then I ran services.msc and set Network Connectivity Assoc and Network Setup Services to Automatic instead of the Manual they were set to.
    I can now access all of the drives directly.

    • Mark Coppock says

      Hmmm, that’s interesting. Mine are set at the defaults of “Manual,” but the next time I install Windows 10 and have the problem I’ll give this a try.

  10. My WDMyCloud was working fine under windows 8. Like others have stated, I cannot get access to it after installing windows 10. I don’t have the option of changing the SMB setting in the NAS settings. I have tried all other fixes I’ve found mentioned but without success.
    I’ve spent ages trying to solve the problem and I am pretty frustrated. Anymore suggestions?

  11. SOLVED!
    I had a similar problem connecting Windows 10 to an older NAS. Here is the solution:

    There is a setting in windows Local Security Policy which is incorrectly set by default for viewing an older communication protocol NAS.
    To access said setting go to the control panel in Windows 10 (or 7), in Category view click on the text “System and Security”, then click on the text “Administrative Tools”.
    Now double click and open “Local Security Policy”.
    In the Local Security Policy screen on the left navigation tree, expand the “Local Policies –> Security Options” then about 2/3rd’s the way down the list you’ll see a Policy called “Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level”. Double click and change the setting to be “Send LM & NTLM – use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated.”
    Then just press OK and close all of the open windows and then try again

    In the case of Windows 10 Home, Local Security Policy does not exist; therefore make the change in the registry (use regedit).

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\LSA
    Add:
    LMCompatibilityLevel
    Value Type: REG_DWORD – Number (32 bit, hexadecimal)
    Valid Range 0-5
    Default: 0, Set to 1 (Use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated)
    Description: This parameter specifies the type of authentication to be used.

    • Mark Coppock says

      That’s awesome, thanks!

      • One of our new Notebooks use Windows 10. It can access the Network data on the NAS, but there is no chance to save changes in a file or copy a new file onto the NAS. Using the same username/Password on a Windows 7 machine, ist all without any Problem. Is there any answer for me? It quite important for our work, thank you!

    • I have Windows 10 Home and tried the RegEdit version of Setting Local Security Policy, also tried the credentials, and a few others, Rebooted after changes, still no luck.

      Other ideas?

  12. I have the same problem with my rpi (look it up). I’ll change it to smb1 and let you konw

  13. Thank you changing SMB3 to SMB1 worked.

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