File sharing meltdown

[stumblebum]

TL;DR version: creators update has played havoc on my network resulting in several inaccessible network shares.

I have 4 machines on my home-office LAN. I use one W 10 x64 machine as backup and file server (of sorts). This machine (I'll call it "BackUp") was updated to creators (v1703) a few weeks ago which resulted in the loss of all Homegroup function on the LAN. No real biggie as I disabled password sharing and mapped network drives, etc.

Two days ago, my main production computer updated to 1703 and just about everything related to file sharing went to pieces. From this 'main' computer I can only connect to one of 8 drives on 'BackUp'. I can see 'Backup' listed as a location on the network. I can ping it just fine. I can see all the drives when I click on the 'Backup' folder. But if I try to connect to any of those drives (except drive F), I get a permissions error.

Here's what I've tried after working on this for several hours (and reading dozens of forums posts).

- toggled on/off file sharing for all those drives (accompanied by the occasional reboot).
- cleared credentials on both machines
- I created a local account on my main computer (read that there is sometimes a problem when attempting to connect a Microsoft account to a local account.)
- Edited policies which should have allowed anonymous and password-free login.
- Enabled password protected sharing and created a user account on 'BackUp' that mimics the primary user account on 'Main'.
- Firewalls aren't causing any problem I can see (which stands to reason as one HDD is cooperating).
- threatened mayhem on the computer
- used harsh words to describe the sorry state of affairs of Windows networking after so many years of problems.

Ok, ,I digressed... Any insight as to what solution(s) I've overlooked?

 

[Wolfie]

Hi stumblebum,

does this help?:

http://windowsreport.com/creators-update-homegroup-problems/

 

[stumblebum]

Hi stumblebum,

does this help?:

http://windowsreport.com/creators-update-homegroup-problems/

Hey Wolfie. Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I had tried those steps a few weeks ago when I lost Homegroup function. I checked and those folders still have the ownership changes I made then.

I don't know exactly what happened to break Homegroup, but the result was this: All the computers on the network showed there was a Homegroup that could be joined, but it showed a fictitious/nonexistent user as the creator (as in I have no clue where/how the network got its information). Any attempt to create a new Homegroup would ultimately fail. If all the computers were off save one, I could create a new Homegroup. But once a second computer came online there would be conflict between the new group I just created and the 'existing' group (that I never created) which resulted in no Homegroup capability. It was then that I gave up on the Homegroup option and went to the older file sharing method that worked until 48 hours ago (when another machine updated to 1703).

I realize I could do a clean OS install and probably get everything working again (maybe), but these computers are used in video production and editing and I'm in no mood to take them offline and risk data loss (among other reasons).

Thanks again.

 

[stumblebum]

Update...

Despite following instructions such as described here (http://www.trustedreviews.com/how-tos/how-to-share-a-folder-or-hard-drive-on-your-home-network), connecting to another drive remains broken. To work around this for now I created a subfolder on the drives and moved all existing folders into that one subfolder, gave r/w permissions on that share to Everyone, then mapped that subfolder on my other computers. An ugly solution for now but it works.

 

[Wolfie]

HI stumblebum,

good for you, please mark as solved so it helps others!.

 

[stumblebum]

I don't know if I would term it solved, more like it has a bandaid on it. By creating this subfolder I've allowed other computers to access the information, but at the same time I am having to remap DB software, sync routes, etc. It will likely take a few hours to do all that as there is 25+ TB of info there.

Regardless, I'd like to understand the problem better and learn the what/why, so I'll keep it unsolved for a day or two.