Shared folders not appearing on guest VM

[Max84]

I just created a new VM, configured two shared folders, but I cannot find them on the guest.

I'm not really expert on VMs so it may be an error of configuration or something missing...

I'm using VMware Workstation 15 Player and on both host and guest is running Win 10 PRO.

Sharing folder is configured as "always enabled" and "Map as network drive in Windows guest" is flagged.

Any suggestion?

[RDPetruska · Accepted solution]

Have you installed the VMware Tools in the guest yet?  If not, then Shared Folders will not be available yet, as the driver is not installed.

[diegodco31]

Hi

Check if the following article helps: Enable a Shared Folder for a Virtual Machine

[JimDeadlock]

I suspect you may be having the same problem as I did, being a new VMWare user. On the Shared Folders screen (guest settings) you have to click the Add button below to actually add the shared folder. Once you've done that and rebooted the guest, then it should show up in the file manager.

[BigDtheITGuy]

I did that and It is still no showing up.

Also I do have the vmware tools installed.

No idea what is wrong here.  Base machine is Win10, he VM is Win7, for some legacy software needs.

Sorry to Necrothread, but this is exactly my issue and I have done the steps here..... soooo thought this is a good place to post.

[rzanderz]

i had a similar solution.  My solution was to check the box:
"Map as a network drive in Windows Guests"

and the shared drive appeared.

[Oystorio]

Hello, same problem here. I'm using VMware workstation 17 Pro on a Windows 10 enterprise machine, while the guest is using Windows 10 Pro. I tried everything that was suggested on the forum (reinstalling VMware tools, modifying the registry...) and I still can't make the shared folder appear on the guest machine.
Trying to access "\\vmware-host\" from the file explorer doesnt work.

The folder is enabled.

VMware tools is updated and running.

The only thing that I haven't tried is to "Map as a network drive in Windows Guests". The option is not available in VMware Workstation 17

What can I do?

[rsander5]

That is interesting because I have a similar setup with 17 pro as well.  This seems obvious, but when you created the vm did you select windows as the guest OS?

[sonnyher90]

dont know if anyone still needs a fix, but if you go to services, and enable "function discovery provider host" and "function discovery resource publication" . That may fix the problem. it did for me anyways.

[xcent]

In this blog post, you will earn the various ways to copy files from your host and VMware Workstation: https://techdirectarchive.com/2024/01/16/various-ways-to-copy-files-from-host-to-vmware-workstation-... 

The blog post covered "Drag and Drop, copy and paste, and shared folders". It also shows the steps to mount the shared photos graphically.