Map a network drive, to any cloud.
Windows and macOS map a network drive in a few clicks, as long as the drive is an SMB share on your network. Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox, S3, and SFTP are not shares, and the built-in dialog cannot map them. ExpanDrive can, as a real drive letter or Finder location, on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The steps for both are below.
How to map a network drive in Windows 11 and 10.
The built-in way, for a file server or NAS share on your network. Four steps in File Explorer, or one line at a prompt.
Open This PC.
In File Explorer, select This PC in the left column. On Windows 11, open the three-dot menu in the toolbar and choose Map network drive. On Windows 10, the same command sits on the Computer tab of the ribbon.
Pick a drive letter and a share path.
Choose the letter the drive will appear under, then enter the share path in UNC form: two backslashes, the server, a backslash, the share, for example \\fileserver\projects. Browse finds shares the server advertises on your network.
Decide whether it comes back after a reboot.
Check Reconnect at sign-in so the letter is there tomorrow. Check Connect using different credentials if your login on the server differs from your Windows account. Finish, and the drive appears under This PC.
Or do it from the command line.
The net use command does the same thing in one line and scripts cleanly for a fleet. Add /persistent:yes to survive sign-out; net use with /delete removes the mapping.
net use Z: \\fileserver\projects /persistent:yes net use Z: /delete
How to connect to a network drive on a Mac.
Finder calls it connecting to a server. Command-K, an smb:// address, and a Login Item to bring it back tomorrow.
Connect to Server.
In Finder, press Command-K, or choose Go, then Connect to Server. Enter the share address: smb://fileserver/projects for a Windows or NAS share, afp:// for an older Apple share, nfs:// for a Unix export. Press Connect and authenticate.
Make it stick.
A connected share appears under Locations in the Finder sidebar and on the desktop if you have enabled connected servers there. To reconnect it at every login, add the mounted volume to your Login Items in System Settings, or drag it to the Dock.
Why cloud storage won’t map.
The Map network drive dialog speaks SMB, the protocol of Windows file servers and NAS boxes. Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Box, and S3 do not. Their own desktop clients sync a copy into a special folder, which is not a drive, and the WebDAV workaround Windows offers comes with a 50 MB file limit and authentication prompts that never quite stop. ExpanDrive mounts each of them as a real drive: a letter on Windows, a location in Finder on Mac, a mount path on Linux, streaming files on demand and caching what you open, so every application reads and writes the cloud as if it were local.
Google Drive
Workspace, Education, or a personal account, as a drive letter or Finder location. Streams on demand instead of syncing.
OneDrive for Business
OneDrive for Business and personal OneDrive, with tenant SSO and Conditional Access, without the sync client’s local copy.
SharePoint
Site collections and document libraries as a drive, on Mac and Linux as well as Windows.
Dropbox
Personal, Plus, or Business. The whole account as a drive without a multi-terabyte local mirror.
Amazon S3
Any bucket, and any S3-compatible store, as a drive with IAM credentials. No browser console, no sync tool.
SFTP
Any SFTP or SSH server as a drive letter or Finder location, with key or password authentication.
One drive on every operating system.
ExpanDrive runs natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and one license covers all three. The same cloud mounts as a drive letter on your Windows laptop, a Finder location on your Mac, and a mount point on the Linux box.
Questions about mapping network drives.
The built-in dialog, the drives that vanish after a reboot, and why cloud storage needs a different tool.
ExpanDrive is built by Files.com.
The cloud connectors mounting your drive on macOS, Windows, and Linux are the same ones that run on Files.com's high-performance cloud File Orchestration Platform — used by 4,000+ businesses including Equifax, Rag & Bone, Cognizant, and Michelin, where petabytes of data move every month.
Mount any cloud as a drive. It’s free.
Windows, macOS, and Linux. Free for personal use. Signed installers, no kernel extension on Mac.