Watch Folders - Mapped Network Drives

[andym]

I have successfully used the Find and have folders on the mapped network drives in use both in general and when using Get Photos.

Where I have a problem is that I want to set up a Watch on the folders on the network drive and that results in the following error:

The watch folder service returned an error: The system cannot find the path specified.

I notice that if I try and access the same location without mapping the drive is says "Access denied".

I am using XP professional on a PC and the photos are on other PCs using XP Home edition.

All PCs are fully "patched" as far as Microsoft goes.

Any ideas anyone?

[GaryK]

Andy

One quick thing to check is, make sure "reconnect at logon" is checked for the mapped drive. If you don't then you will always have to map the drive whenever you start windows.

Hope this helps.

[andym]

Thanks for trying - but the folders are always there and work fine in all other areas of the application - its just the watch folders that is a problem.

[Ward Grant]

Andy

Can you clarify something, please. When you say, "I notice that if I try and access the same location without mapping the drive is says "Access denied"."

How are you accessing this to test them?

I wonder if it is a folder permission problem?

I remember some previous posts on similar problems but I don't remember the solution. Have you tried a Search for network drives on this forum?

Edit: I also remember (but can't find) other posts about Elements not being truly networkable. If you could tell us more in detail what you want to do, perhaps the people here could come up with a workaround.

[andym]

OK - First question first...

When I browse to find the folder to watch I have two choices.

1) Go right back to square 1 and start from the network/workgroup/host/shares etc... I never expected it to work and it didn't - it said access denied.

2) I use this particular drive a a file server for many things and have z: permanently mapped to it. The second option is therefore to start from z:/ and browse to the folder.

Number (2) works find for a "Get Photo" and for import/export/save/move... in fact I have not found any other area that fails except the watch folder.

There are other posts that discuss how to get around other access control issues on mapped drives and I did try that solution but it did not work.

In truth it is no big deal - the rest of the application works fine on the mapped drive I just have to remember when I add photos to a new folder I must add the new folder to the catalogue as it were.

Hopefully that is clear. Thanks for taking an interest.

[Ward Grant]

One option would be to turn Watch Folders off, which many users have done, including me. When I want to put photos in Organizer, I simply use Get Photos and point to the folder I want to use.

Doesn't solve the technical problem, but kind of makes it out of sight, out of mind.

[mrackers]

The problem is that the watch folders feature is using a Windows Service called Adobe Active File Monitor (name varies with releases). The service is set by default to run as a system account.

A system account has full access to your local computer, but it does not have access to information across the network.

A resolution to this is to view the properties of the service; go to the log on tab, select "this account", and enter a user that exists on both your computer and the network computer (this user must have access to files on both, perferrably admin access on your local, and yes this can be the user account you use normally), enter that accounts password and hit apply. You may get a warning or two. After that, stop and restart the service. Go back to elements and try adding the network folder again.

[jlwilm]

I have found that mapped network drives do not connect up right away when I start my computer.

Have you tried using Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder, select and drill down thru it, double click a jpg or something to make sure it is awake, live and well?

Then launch Adobe Organizer and try to see what happens. If you get the same problem, it is some other issue, if ot goes away, it is the lag time to get the networked drive up and running.