Unable to see 2nd laptop on home network

hi there so I have 2 laptops on my home network.
previously I used homegroup to share files between computers and this was obviously stopped.
I then just created a workgroup and shared files that way.

however i noticed a couple of weeks ago that from Laptop 1 I physically cant see Laptop 2 on the network if I browse for it.

I use Free File Sync to keep the music folder between the 2 in sync , if I use the whole network command \\computername\folder etc then FFS will find Laptop 2 and the sync will work

However If I want to just copy some files to Laptop 2 from 1 I cant as I cant see it.
Laptop 2 cant see Laptop 1 on the network.

Ive done some googling and seen all sorts about SMB , file sharing etc which is just putting me in a spin.

I dont recall having done anything recently to the laptops to make this change take place.

Also Laptop 1 has PIN credentials Laptop 2 has a password (when I set it to PIN file sharing stopped) & up to a couple of weeks ago this worked perfectly.

TIA Bart

Thanks a bunch Ken

So both running 1803
Both have had updates recently
Cumulative updates
Update for win 10 KB4100347
Etc

Both were also on PUBLIC networks and not private.

Laptop 1 I managed to change to private when I clicked change connection properties

Laptop 2 when I click change connection properties it goes into the properties of my wifi network BUT no option to switch between public and private?..?

Tried a couple of times to forget the network, restart the pc and try again but it when I reconnect to the wifi it doenst give me options to choose public or private.

Still no option to change connection settings

I tried a couple of the windows 10 suggestions but to no avail.

How else can I get the pc to establish a new connection altogether?

If I did that would that then ask each device to create a new connection to it and then for the laptops it would allow me to. Make them both private?
I have quite a few devices but I could do this if it's going to fix the issue
Any idea why this has stopped working?

Hi Ken

I tried renaming the network and it didn't give me the option to set up public or private network.

I then reset the router and on laptop 1 it did ask me if I wanted to make thw pc discoverable. But for laptop 2 it didn't ask me this and made it public.

However within the network folder I was now able to see both computers.

I shared the folders I wanted on laptop 1 and then on laptop 2 I was able to see these folders once I logged into laptop 1 with my username and password via the network

As laptop 2 is win home I wasn't able to to use the secpol. MSc option to change it via local policy

I do have an image for laptop 2 and it is my back up laptop. I could try to re image it.

I didn't try making any group policy changes partly cos I couldn't and also cos I don't know enough about them

As a rule of thumb before you take an image of a machine do you do anything particular?
The only thing I do is clear all the event logs?