How to Map a Drive Letter to a Shared Folder
The system administrator maps a drive letter on the Mapped drives screen: open the menu and, under Administration, select Mapped drives, then add a line with Add a drive, type the letter and the shared folder it stands for, and select Save. From then on, files linked through that letter can be opened by everybody using ABM Service.
How do I add a mapped drive?
On the Mapped drives screen, under Administration in the ABM Service menu, select Add a drive, type the letter in the new line's Drive letter box and the shared folder in its Shared folder box, then select Save.
- Open the menu and, under Administration, select Mapped drives.
- Select Add a drive, under the lines in Drive letters. An empty line is added, with the cursor in its Drive letter box.
- Type the letter, such as S:. ABM Service puts it in capitals, and s: and s:\ both mean S:. Type the colon: a letter on its own, such as S, is refused when you save.
- Type the shared folder the letter stands for in the line's Shared folder box, written with two backslashes, the computer's name, a backslash and the shared folder's name, such as
\\fileserver\scans. - Select Test on the line to check that the folder can be read. This is optional, and saves nothing.
- Select Save.
The message at the top of the Mapped drives screen then says Saved:, then every line on the list as its letter, an arrow and its folder, then Files on this drive can be opened from now on. (or these drives when there are several).
The shared folder is the one the letter stands for on the computers that attached the files. On a computer where the letter is mapped, File Explorer shows the drive under This PC with the shared folder's name, and the Windows command net use lists every mapped letter beside its folder.
There is a quicker way for a letter your files already use. Under Linked files, by where they are kept, a letter nobody has mapped has Map U:, with its own letter; and a file kept on that letter has Map U: in Administration › Mapped drives in its details panel. Either adds the line for you, with the cursor in its Shared folder box, so you only type the folder and save.
How do I change or remove a mapped drive?
To change a mapped drive on the Mapped drives screen, edit its letter or its shared folder in place and select Save. To remove one, select Remove on its line and then Save. Nothing changes for anybody until you select Save.
- Discard changes, beside Save, puts the lines back as they were last saved. It appears only once something has changed.
- Save is greyed out while nothing has changed, and its tip says Nothing has changed yet. Typing a letter as s: rather than S:, or adding a backslash at the end of a folder, does not count as a change.
- A line left completely empty is ignored when you save.
- Removing every line and saving says Saved. No drive is mapped.
Warning: The list is shared across ABM. Removing or changing a line changes it for ABM Service, for ABM's own Mapped Drive Rules and for the engineers' phones at once, and files linked through a removed letter can no longer be opened by people using a browser.
The whole list is saved together: either every line is saved, or, when one line breaks a rule, none is. The lines are saved in the order they appear on the screen. While a save is on its way, Save reads Saving…; a line you add in the meantime is kept on the screen for your next save.
What does a line need before the Mapped drives screen will save it?
Each line on the Mapped drives screen needs one drive letter with its colon, and a folder: normally a shared folder, written \\server\share. The same letter may appear only once. When a line breaks a rule, Save saves nothing and the message at the top of the screen says which line and why:
- is not a drive letter. Write one letter and a colon, like S:. — after what you typed in Drive letter.
- has no drive letter. Type the letter it stands for, or remove the line. — after the folder of a line with no letter.
- Give S: a shared folder, or remove the line. — with your letter: the line has a letter and no folder.
- S: must stand for a shared folder, written
\\server\share— the folder is not written as one, for examplefileserver\scanswithout the two backslashes in front, or a computer's name with no shared folder after it. - is not a valid folder for S:. — after the folder: it contains a character Windows does not allow in a path, such as a question mark, or climbs out of a folder with two dots.
- S: is mapped twice. Keep one line for it. — two lines for one letter.
Correct the line, or remove it, and select Save again. A backslash at the end of a folder is dropped, and forward slashes are turned into backslashes.
A line whose folder is on one computer, such as D:\Exports, is accepted and kept, because ABM and the engineers' phones may use it. But the ABM server never reads a folder on one computer, so people using a browser cannot open files through that letter, and Linked files, by where they are kept says through T:, which is a folder on one computer — they cannot be opened from anywhere else, with your letter in place of T:. In the ABM Service desktop app, such files open on a PC that has that folder.
What happens if somebody else saves the mapped drives while I am editing?
Your save does not overwrite theirs. If the list was saved anywhere else after you opened the Mapped drives screen, in ABM's own Mapped Drive Rules, another browser tab or the ABM Service desktop app, Save writes nothing and the screen says Somebody else changed the mapped drives while you were editing them. Their list is shown now — make your change again and save.
The lines you had typed are replaced by the list as it is now. Look at what the other person saved, make your change again over it, and select Save.
ABM's own Mapped Drive Rules screen works differently: it reads the list when it opens, and its Save writes back the whole list it is showing, without checking whether anybody changed it in the meantime. So after changing the list here, close Mapped Drive Rules in ABM and open it again before changing anything there, or it may put back what you changed here.
Do I lose what I typed if I leave the Mapped drives screen without saving?
No. Lines typed on the Mapped drives screen and not saved are kept like any other unsaved work in ABM Service: when you go to another screen, a reminder named Mapped drives appears in the bottom-left corner of every screen, marked unsaved. Select it to come back to the screen with your lines as you left them.
Unsaved lines change nothing for anybody: ABM Service, ABM and the engineers' phones only ever use the saved list. They are kept only in that browser tab or desktop app window, and only until it is closed or reloaded. To throw them away, select Discard changes on the screen, or the cross on the reminder and then Discard?.
The answers beside each line from Test are not kept: they are cleared when you save, and an answer goes as soon as you change that line's folder.
When does a saved mapped drive take effect for office staff?
At once. Every time somebody opens a customer or a call, ABM Service checks its linked files against the list as it is saved now, so the next person to open one sees the new list at work.
A customer or call that is open in the same browser tab or desktop app window as the Mapped drives screen, such as the call you came from, reads its files again as soon as you save, so going back to it shows the file without its note about the drive letter. Other people's open screens catch up the next time they open the customer or call.
A file only opens if the ABM server can also read the shared folder. Select Test on the line before or after saving to check: see How to Test a Shared Folder on the Mapped Drives Screen.