Quickly Access Network File Share Locations

This guide has 4 parts. The first 3 are for Windows only, but all 4 parts are for MED-issued laptops only. For personal devices, see our guide here.

1. Pin Items to Quick Access
2. Map Network Locations
3. Map Network Drive Letter
4. Map drives on Mac

General Information

For MED-issued Windows PCs, network drive locations are setup automatically once you sign into a computer. Just open the File Explorer and click on "This PC" on the left. Then look in the "Network locations" section.

Pin Items to Quick Access

Pinning an item to your Quick Access is the easiest way to be able to find that location again quickly. Use this for your most frequently accessed folders. This can be done regardless of if a folder is on a network drive, your OneDrive, or a local folder.

Note: If you pin an item and its location moves, your pinned shortcut may be broken. In that case, just remove it and go add it again.

1. Navigate to any folder that you'd like to pin
2. Right-click on the folder, and then select "Pin to Quick Access"
3. You'll now see the item pinned in your file browser in the Quick Access area.
4. Items with the pin icon next to them will stay there until you remove them (right-click on them and select "Unpin from Quick Access" to remove)
5. Items without the pin are dynamically-chosen items based on your frequent usage.
   

Map Network Locations

Although your computer automatically maps some network drives at a high level in the folder structure, you may want to map a more specific network location. Example:
"\\med.ad.fsu.edu\SharedFiles" is automatically mapped, but you'd like a more direct shortcut to "\\med.ad.fsu.edu\SharedFiles\Departments\IT" or a similar network location.

1. Start by navigating to the location that you'd like to map in the file browser. Then click in the Address Bar at the top, to the right of the current path name (indicated by the green X in the screenshot below:
   
2. This will reveal the full network path of the location you're in. An example would be "\\med.ad.fsu.edu\sharedfiles\Departments\IT"
   1. If your folder path contains a Drive letter (such as N:\ ) at the beginning, you're not interacting with the network folder directly and your drive mapping won't work. It should start with two backslashes if correct.
3. Select and "Copy" your folder path.
4. Right-Click on "This PC" and select "Add a network location"
   
5. Click the Next button and then make sure "Choose a custom network location" is selected, and click Next again
6. Paste your folder path into the "Internet or network address" field. Then click Next.
   
7. You can choose a different name for the network location on the next page, but it will default to whatever the name of the folder is that you're adding.
8. Click Next and then Finish.
9. The new network location will show under the "This PC" in the "Network locations" section
   

At any point, you can right-click on a network location and select "Delete" to remove the shortcut from your computer. NOTE: This does NOT delete the data from the network drive.

Map Network Drive Letter

This will allow you to add a network drive to your computer that shows up with its own drive letter. Most of the time this is not needed, but may occasionally be necessary for certain programs to interact with the files that are on the network file share.

1. Start by navigating to the location that you'd like to map in the file browser. Then click in the Address Bar at the top, to the right of the current path name (indicated by the green X in the screenshot below:
   
2. This will reveal the full network path of the location you're in. An example would be "\\med.ad.fsu.edu\sharedfiles\Departments\IT"
   1. If your folder path contains a Drive letter (such as N:\ ) at the beginning, you're not interacting with the network folder directly and your drive mapping won't work. It should start with two backslashes if correct.
3. Select and "Copy" your folder path.
4. Right-Click on "This PC" and select "Map network drive"
   
5. Select which Drive Letter you'd like the network drive to use. Most of the time this is personal preference.
6. Paste your network path into the "Folder" field
7. Select "Reconnect at sign-in" if you'd like this drive to automatically map every time you log into your computer. Otherwise it will go away when you log off.
8. Click "Finish"
   

Map Drives on Mac

Note: For Macs to access network locations, they must either be on campus and connected to the wifi using the username "med\MEDID", or be connected to the VPN with the "vpn.fsu.edu/med" server address.

1. Open Finder and do one of the following:
   1. Select "Go" and then "Connect to Server"
   2. Press Command + K
2. Enter the network path. It will look the same as the path on Windows, but uses forward slashes ( / ) instead of back slashes ( \ ), and starts with "smb://". Example:
   1. smb://med.ad.fsu.edu/SharedFiles/Departments/IT
3. Once you enter your network path, you can click the + button in the bottom left to save it to the Favorites list.
4. Click the Connect button
5. An authentication screen will come up. Select "Registered User" and then enter your MED username and password.
6. You can optionally select to save the password in your keychain.
7. You will see the network drive show up under "Locations" in the left bar of Finder, as well as a desktop icon for the location.

Disconnect the network drive by ejecting it just like you would a USB flash drive.