Network Drive Creation from SharePoint Mapping

Network drives are gaining immense popularity due to the benefits offered by cloud technology and people’s increasing storage needs. If you’re using SharePoint for your business, you can map it as a network drive to easily access your files from the File Explorer.

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What is Microsoft SharePoint?

SharePoint is a cost-effective solution for enterprises. It is a document management platform with excellent team collaboration, co-authoring, file versioning, guest access, tagging, list creation, and other features.

Here are some of its prominent features:

• • User-friendly interface

• • Configuring and deploying SharePoint is easy

• • Organizations can manage roles to specify who can access and modify their data

• • Quick search

• • Comes with huge storage quota for businesses

• • Sharing and collaboration features are included

• • Compatible with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneDrive, and other Microsoft family products

• • Vendor support included

• • Version history allows you to review the changes that have been made to your files and restore a previous version of the file should anything go wrong

• • Instant file transfer across the team

• • Microsoft SharePoint uses the cloud. As a result, your files are accessible from any device irrespective of the operating system you use

• • Protected with Advanced Threat Protection that comes with your regular Microsoft Office 365 license

• Mapping the SharePoint to your host machine is also possible

What is a Network Drive?

A network drive allows you to access files stored on a remote server via Local Area Network (LAN) and other technologies. It appears much like an ordinary partition on your hard disk. You can access its contents without any special software. Since the network drive involves establishing a connection between the server and client computer, an Internet connection is necessary to map a network drive. When you map a network drive, you’re prompted to assign an unused drive letter to your network drive (for example, G:, H:, etc).

Benefits of a Network Drive:

• • More Storage: Laptops and computers have limited storage space. Although the storage can be expanded further, it is not an economical solution. A network drive adds more space to store the additional files.

• • Flawless Collaboration: Sharing files on a network drive enables smooth collaboration between different individuals in a team. Employees don’t have to email file attachments every time they want to share their data. A network drive displays real-time changes made to the file.

• • Easy Backups: Backing up data becomes easy and safe- both local to the server, and vice versa.

• Remote Access: Network drives enable remote access to your files regardless of the time and place factors. You can log in to your office computer 24*7 straight from the comfort of your home.

Why Map SharePoint as a Network Drive in File Explorer?

There are multiple reasons why you would want to map your SharePoint library as a network drive. Here are some of the prominent ones:

• • You don’t have to open a browser to access your SharePoint library

• • View and edit your SharePoint library straight from the File Explorer

• • Copy SharePoint files to other cloud platforms or your hard disk with ease

• • Your SharePoint library appears as a partition in File Explorer, but it doesn’t consume your local storage

• Your files remain secure even in the event of a pandemic

Steps to Map SharePoint Library as a Network Drive

Step 1: Copy your SharePoint Library Network Path

First, you’ll need to get your SharePoint library network path. Your network path is the location where your SharePoint resources are stored on the server. You’ll need it to map SharePoint as a network drive and access your resources.

1. 1. Open Internet Explorer.

1. 1. Log in to your Office Portal.

1. 1. Switch to the Classic View. Click on Return to SharePoint Classic link on the sidebar on the left.

1. 1. Open your SharePoint site and go to your SharePoint library.

1. 1. Click on the Library, followed by Open with Explorer.

1. In the Address Bar, you’ll be able to see the network path of your library. Copy it to your Clipboard.

Step 2: Mark your SharePoint Library as Trusted

The next step is to add SharePoint as a Trusted Site in the Internet Explorer. Adding a website to the Trusted Site section allows the website to run active content and download codes to your computer. It is a security provision that you’ll need to configure to set up SharePoint.

1. 1. Open Internet Explorer and press the Alt key to show the menu bar.

1. 1. Click on the Tools menu, select Internet Options.

1. 1. Click on the Security tab.

1. 1. Click on Trusted Sites > Sites.

1. 1. Enter the network path of your SharePoint library that you copied earlier.

1. Click on the Add button.

Step 3: Set Up your New Network Drive

Now, you can map SharePoint as a network drive. The process is pretty easy and straightforward.

1. 1. Click the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar.

1. 1. Locate the Network folder on the left-hand side.

1. 1. Choose Map Network Drive and then click Connect to a web site.

1. 1. Click on the Next button, followed by your SharePoint library.

1. 1. Enter your SharePoint network entertainment.

1. Click on Share, point to Finish.

Bonus Tip: SharePoint Best Practices

We’ll discuss with you some of the best practices to make your SharePoint files accessible with a click.

Get Relevant Search Results

One of the common problems faced by SharePoint users is inappropriate search results. Sometimes you want to search for a document, but the result results are cluttered with too many irrelevant files that you don’t need.

To get more accurate results, you should search with multiple descriptive keywords. For example, if you’re searching for stock prices, you can search with a combination of keywords like “stock”, “dow jones”, “stock price”, etc.

Set Descriptive File Names

It’s crucial to set descriptive names to your files to make them accessible with just a few clicks.

As a SharePoint enterprise user, multiple employees are working on it. When someone uploads a file with generic names given by the software without changing it, it can cause confusion for other employees in the same team. Perhaps, they may have to open every file to find it which could take a lot of time.

The key to search ability is to set logical, descriptive names to your files. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do it manually for all the hundreds of files in your account. Specialized software like Easy File Renamer can do this job automatically in just a few minutes.

To batch rename your files, follow the steps given below:

Prerequisite:

You must first map SharePoint as a network drive before following the below procedure. There is no direct way to batch rename files with EFR straight from the SharePoint website.

Steps:

1. 1. Download and install Easy File Renamer.

1. 1. Click on the System Renamer > Files.

1. 1. Double-click your network drive letter, and select all the files you want to rename.

1. 1. Click on Open.

1. 1. EFR will add your files in the list box.

1. 1. Select your renaming rule from the sidebar on the left. For example, new name, remove text, replace text, trim text, etc.

1. 1. Click the Add Rule button to add the rule(s) to the renaming queue.

1. Click on Rename and then confirm the procedure.