At first, it would be a good choice to restart your computer if the file sharing not working problem occurs because of associated service not starting. If it doesn't work, try the follow-up methods.
1. Enable and Use File Sharing Properly
File sharing can only work when you enable sharing settings correctly. Besides, you also have to share data in the right way. For that, follow these steps:
Step 1. Click "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Network and Sharing Center" > "Advanced sharing settings".
Step 2. Under Private (current profile), check "Turn on network discovery" and "Turn on file and printer sharing". Click "Save changes" to confirm.
To make sure the problem can be solved, allow File and Printer Sharing in Windows firewall settings.
Step 1. Click "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Windows Firewall" > "Allow a program through Windows Firewall".
Step 2. In the pop-up window, check "File and Printer Sharing" in the list. Then, click "OK".
If this doesn't work, you can also try disabling the Windows Defender temporarily to check if that helps in solving the issue.
How to share files exactly
Step 1. Right-click on the file you want to share. Click "Properties" > "Sharing" > "Advanced Sharing".
Step 2. Check "Share this folder", then click "Apply" and "OK". You can click the "Permissions" option to set the permissions for files as per your need.
The above steps make your folder accessible to all the users in your local network. If you want to share with specific users, you can click the "Share" button in Step 1 to select.
2. Turn Password Protection off
When Password protected sharing is turned on, the file sharing might fail because other users either need to have a user account on your PC, or they should know your username and password. Hence, to fix file sharing not working, you can try to disable this feature.
Step 1. Go to "Control Panel" > "Network and Sharing Center" > "Change advanced sharing settings".
Step 2. Then, under All Networks, check "Turn off password protected sharing", and click on 'Save changes".
3. Add a Windows Credential
If you fail to access a specific folder when connecting to a remote server computer for file sharing, you might want to add a credential to fix the problem. In order to proceed, you will need to know the network address, username, and password of the remote computer or server.
Step 1. Open "Control Panel", and click on "Credentials Manager".
Step 2. Select "Windows Credentials" and click the "Add a Windows credential" button.
Enter the target computer's IP address in the Internet or network address and enter User name and Password respectively. This will hopefully resolve the problem with File sharing.
4. Disable IPv6
Many users have reported that disabling IPv6 on their computers can resolve the file sharing problem, so try it out.
Step 1. Open "Control Panel" and click on "Network and Sharing Center".
Step 2. Click "Change adapter settings". Double-click on your active Network Adapter on the Internet Connection window.
Step 3. Click "Properties" and find the "Internet Protocol Version 6" entry on the list. Uncheck it and click "OK". Then, restart your computer and see if the problem still exists.
5. Enable the SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support
The recent Windows 10 update might have disabled the SMB feature that is necessary for fire sharing. Fix this issue and turn on SMB 1.0 in the Windows Features window.
Step 1. Open the "Control Panel". Click on "Programs and Features".
Step 2. Click "Turn Windows features on or off" at the left pane. On the pop-up windows, scroll down to find and check the "SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support" feature. Then, click "OK" and reboot the computer.
6. Change File Sharing Connections
Windows uses 128-bit encryption to help protect file sharing connections. Some devices don't support 128-bit encryption and must use 40- or 56-bit encryption. So, you need to switch between these two sharing connections based on the actual situation.
Step 1. Open "Control Panel" > click "Network and Sharing Center" > choose "Change advanced sharing settings".
Step 2. Under "All Networks", find "File sharing connections". You can try both 120-bit encryption and 40- or 56- bit encryption alternatively.
7. Disable Antivirus on your PC
Sometimes, the antivirus may prevent Windows file sharing. So, try disabling it temporarily and see if it solves the issue. And you can upgrade your antivirus to its latest version
8. Update Windows to the Latest Version
Windows 10 files sharing not working may be due to bugs in the update. The latest versions of Windows 10 seem to have resolved this problem. Thus, upgrade to the latest windows version if you haven't done it yet.
Step 1. Open "Settings" on your Windows PC. Go to "Update & security" and click on the "Check for updates" button under the Update status to check whether there is a new version of Windows available.
Step 2. If there is one, install the update immediately and restart your computer afterward.
We've given you all the possible solutions in the above content, which can be done directly on the Windows computer. We hope they would have helped you fix the Windows 10 file sharing not working issue and you can share files between two computers again. If you've tried them all, but nothing worked, don't be discouraged. You still have a good choice, which is using a reliable Windows 10 file sharing alternative to finish PC data transfer.
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