File sharing in Windows 11
I bought a new Windows laptop recently, a Lenovo X9-15 G1. I love it so far.
Recently, I had trouble copying files from my old PC – a Razer Blade 15 also running Windows 11 – despite following all the instructions I could find. The main instructions were roughly:
- In Advanced sharing settings in Settings and, for private networks
- Turn on Network discovery
- Check Set up network connected devices automatically
- Turn on File and printer sharing
- In the WiFi settings of my home, mark it as a Private network
I did this for both PCs. Plus, on the old PC that I wanted to copy something from, I shared the folder I wanted to copy in several different ways, for eg by right-clicking -> Properties -> Sharing -> Share... -> Selecting a user or everyone -> clicking Share.
After doing all that, when I opened File Explorer in the new PC and clicked Network in the left bar, I could see the old PC, but when I tried to open it I was asked for credentials. And this is where I got stuck. I was signed in as the same user on both computers – i.e. the same username and using the same Microsoft account – but that didn't just work as I'd expect it to. And no set of credentials I tried seemed to work for that user: neither my Microsoft account password nor the PIN that I use to sign into it instead of the password.
After trying lots of different things I found on the Internet – turning off Password-protected sharing, sharing the folder in different ways, editing the sharing permissions on the folder, etc – I remembered that I had another account on my old PC. So, on the old PC, I signed into that account to make sure I had the right password, and then I tried to use those credentials to access the old PC from the new PC and – voila! – they worked! The only differences I can see about that account is that it's a local account – i.e. it's not linked to a Microsoft account – so I suspect there's a bug with accessing a shared folder using a Microsoft account.
