How I Fixed My Missing Network & Homegroup Computers

KRL said:

After the Win 10 Threshold 2 Upgrade, many users are having Networking issues, especially not being able to see other PC's on the network in File Explorer's Network panel and Homegroup panel.

I have 3 Laptops on my network and encountered this issue and have spent several days tweaking all sorts of settings and trying many solutions I saw online. Finally one worked and now I can see all 3 Laptops in each panel in the Network section and all 3 Laptops in each panel in the Homegroup section. So everything is back to functioning properly.

This is what worked for me:

Open the services menu by clicking start and then typing 'services.msc' and pressing enter.

Look for the following services in the list:

· DNS Client
· Function Discovery Provider Host
· Function Discovery Resource Publication
· Peer Networking Grouping
· HomeGroup Provider
· HomeGroup Listener
· SSDP Discovery
· UPnP Device Host

1. I reset each of these settings FROM "Manual" TO "Automatic" one by one.

2. Right after doing each of those changes, I RESTARTED each service.

3. On two of the Laptops I had to LEAVE the Homegroup and REJOIN it.

4. I shut down all the Laptops and restarted each back up one at a time, starting with my primary Laptop which was the creator of the Homegroup.

Everything is displaying perfectly now!

The only other change today was I got this Cumulative Update which updated Win 10 on all 3 Laptops.

Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3118754)

I'm not sure if that KB3118754 update had a part in helping fix things or not, but the update did install before things started working again and I did these changes above after the update.

Win 10 is definitely quite a bit of work to maintain compared to prior versions of Windows, and you have to be really tech savvy to know what to do when things stop functioning. I can't imagine how users who don't have tech mind skills are handling it.

Good Luck to those having this networking issue. There are a ton of users experiencing problems, so Threshold 2 definitely has serious networking bugs.

___________________________________________________

** BE SURE TO ALWAYS SET A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT BEFORE DOING ANY CHANGES! AND ANOTHER RESTORE POINT WHEN YOUR PC IS WORKING AGAIN! AND ALSO EXPORT YOUR REGISTRY SO YOU ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF THAT TOO! **

This method worked for me. Was able to see all my computers under "network" in windows explorer. I followed the steps to the letter.

Many Thanks

I too had this and since I had hard drive backups, I was able to confirm that the Microsoft culumative update for Windows 10 was the key issue for some computers disappearing in a local home network. (Observed that the computers missing in one computer were seen by other computers and I could get to various drives, etc... So it is more a display item for a local computer not seeing itself.

A general observation for Microsoft Techs who might be viewing this thread. 1) Each time I would add/modify various users and their permission, the local computer would be added to the network list. When I closed the file explorer and reopened it, the local computer would disappear. Hope it helps to fix this rather frustrating addition to Windows 10 update.

In any event, I went through the above repair and it now works.

We have a Laptop and a Desktop PC. Desktop PC has a shared folder which I need to access frequently from Laptop. Have always shared that folder on the Desktop using File Explorer, no password settings.

Upgraded my old Laptop and the Desktop PC from 7 to 10 last summer, no problems networking via File Explorer after we got the settings correct and got used to it.

Replaced old laptop this winter with a new laptop, came with Windows 10 Home 64-bit installed, and network sharing has been difficult at best ever since and more often impossible.

Laptop is currently running Windows 10 Home 64-bit v1607, OS build 14393.1198. Avira Connect free antivirus.
Desktop is currently running Windows 10 Pro v1703, OS build 15063.296. Avast free antivirus.

Have checked sharing settings on both computers, tried disabling firewalls and antivirus. No luck. Have tried numerous solutions posted online, no real luck despite occasional bouts of connectivity.

For a while (after much tweaking) laptop could access the office desktop with password, which worked okay for a week or two. Then after another update Desktop disappeared entirely again from Laptop's File Explorer.

Now after following the solution posted in this post and others, I can occasionally have access the way I intended (via File Explorer, no password) but as near as can figure:
-Desktop can always see Laptop in File Explorer (access is by password - no shared folders on Laptop)
-Laptop can only see Desktop in File Explorer if Desktop is re/started after Laptop is already on.
-If either computer goes to sleep, when either or both is woken up, Laptop will no longer be able to see Desktop in File Explorer

Any suggestions for why this might be and how I might fix it?

I am not particularly technically minded so maybe I've missed something easy. Any help would be appreciated.

Sevices control panel is under Computer Management.
To get there.....
rt.clk ... START
click.....Compute Management
bottom of the box...
Services and Applications

Thanks for this....worked for me. Had one laptop on the network that homegroup worked fine on but it couldn't see the other computers in network inside file explorer...all is good now.

Thanks for the tip, was quite annoyed with not having the server available via the Network tab.

KRL said:

After the Win 10 Threshold 2 Upgrade, many users are having Networking issues, especially not being able to see other PC's on the network in File Explorer's Network panel and Homegroup panel.

I have 3 Laptops on my network and encountered this issue and have spent several days tweaking all sorts of settings and trying many solutions I saw online. Finally one worked and now I can see all 3 Laptops in each panel in the Network section and all 3 Laptops in each panel in the Homegroup section. So everything is back to functioning properly.

This is what worked for me:

Open the services menu by clicking start and then typing 'services.msc' and pressing enter.

Look for the following services in the list:

· DNS Client
· Function Discovery Provider Host
· Function Discovery Resource Publication
· Peer Networking Grouping
· HomeGroup Provider
· HomeGroup Listener
· SSDP Discovery
· UPnP Device Host

1. I reset each of these settings FROM "Manual" TO "Automatic" one by one.

2. Right after doing each of those changes, I RESTARTED each service.

3. On two of the Laptops I had to LEAVE the Homegroup and REJOIN it.

4. I shut down all the Laptops and restarted each back up one at a time, starting with my primary Laptop which was the creator of the Homegroup.

Everything is displaying perfectly now!

The only other change today was I got this Cumulative Update which updated Win 10 on all 3 Laptops.

Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3118754)

I'm not sure if that KB3118754 update had a part in helping fix things or not, but the update did install before things started working again and I did these changes above after the update.

Win 10 is definitely quite a bit of work to maintain compared to prior versions of Windows, and you have to be really tech savvy to know what to do when things stop functioning. I can't imagine how users who don't have tech mind skills are handling it.

Good Luck to those having this networking issue. There are a ton of users experiencing problems, so Threshold 2 definitely has serious networking bugs.

___________________________________________________

** BE SURE TO ALWAYS SET A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT BEFORE DOING ANY CHANGES! AND ANOTHER RESTORE POINT WHEN YOUR PC IS WORKING AGAIN! AND ALSO EXPORT YOUR REGISTRY SO YOU ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF THAT TOO! **

this totally worked, fixed it for me! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY w/ feature update 1709

So, I tried this (and the bit about disabling HomeGroup Provider, etc.), but nothing worked. First, let me say that this started out a year and a half ago, but with just my NAS. I don't have a "HomeGroup", and really would rather not set one up. Up until a year and a half ago, my NAS was working fine, but then I updated firmware, and I couldn't access it through Network Map.

I searched forever and did the bit with cmd prompt that disables SMBv2 and reestablishes SMBv1. That worked. Yesterday, I woke to find that my NAS was visible on my Network Map...only in "Other Devices". It is typically in Other Devices AND in Network (along with my computer and any other computer that is on the network). I figured I'd just try what worked last time, but it didn't. It made it worse. Now, the Network Map doesn't show up at all. I can go into my router admin page, find IP addresses and ping them, but I can't do a "run \\MYCOMPUTER" and have that show up...or the NAS. It asks me to check spelling, and I am sure I have them spelled correctly.

I've also tried changing sharing options on all network profiles, but the weird deal is that the "Turn on File and Printer Sharing" ALWAYS (in either profile) reverts to "Turn OFF FIle and Printer Sharing". I change it as Admin, and it still does it. At one point I tried a bunch of stuff, and it got my Network Map up and running, and I was able to use the "run \\NASname" command and access my files. Instead of leaving well enough alone, I decided to try the original method again to get the NAS to show up, and then I lost the entire Network Map again and spent 12 hours straight yesterday trying to get this working.

I've tried changing adapters to disable IPv6 and make IPv4 to do NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Didn't work. Not sure, but my sharing options might be corrupted since I can't turn ON "File and Printer Sharing".

Any suggestions at this point would be awesome.

None of the "cures" mentioned have worked for me.

I have no homegroups.

Purely a network problem for me, where computers are not visible in the network pane, but network pc shortcuts i have on the desktop function easily.

Seems to happen after every Win10 update so far. Sometimes clears up, but recurrs with the next update.

Resetting Winsock just made the host pc disappear from the network pane tonight.