An error occurred while connecting [drive] to [share]. The local device name is already in use

Question

I map a network drive from a PC (workstation) to another PC (server), that is always on.

When my workstation sleeps and comes out of sleep, I get this error message:

An error occurred while connecting [drive] to [share]. The local device name is already in use. This connection has not been restored.

I get one of those for each explorer window I had open pointing to the network drive.

If I go click the network drive in My Computer, type G: in explorer or really do anything to access the network drive, everything works great again.

How can I avoid this happening?

Both PC's are Windows 8.

Answer 1

I found that by starting the Computer Browser service, the drives came back:

net start "Computer Browser"

Another way to fix it is to go browse to \\server (to re-establish the connection), then the drives should work again.

Windows also disconnects server connections after a timeout. If you run this command, it should never drop idle server connections:

NET CONFIG SERVER /AUTODISCONNECT:-1

Another solution could be

Start > Run > type "gpedit.msc" (without quotes) click ok.

Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon > Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon

set this to Enable then reboot.

Answer 2

To me it seems it's most likely because the NICs are being shut off while it's asleep and the connections won't be restored until you refresh the connection (by trying to access it again with a fresh process).

Try going into Device Manager, and in the properties of your network adapter, go to the Power Management tab, and de-select "Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power".