How to map cloud storage as a network drive on Windows

Quick steps: open File Explorer, right-click This PC, choose Map network drive, enter your storage’s WebDAV address, and sign in. Then fix two defaults most guides skip: raise the 50 MB file size limit and set the WebClient service to start automatically. Both are explained below, with the commands.

Windows can map remote storage to a drive letter so it appears in File Explorer alongside your local disks. The feature works well once two defaults are changed, and it fails confusingly until they are.

Map the drive

Open File Explorer, right-click This PC, and choose Map network drive.

Pick a letter. Enter the WebDAV URL for your storage. Tick Reconnect at sign-in and Connect using different credentials.

Sign in with your username and an app password rather than your account password.

With dosya.dev, the address is https://api.dosya.dev/webdav/mount/ followed by your workspace ID and name; your username is your account email and the password is an API key. The WebDAV setup page has the exact address to copy, and WebDAV is included on every plan, including Free. A scoped credential can be revoked without disturbing anything else, and Windows will store it in Credential Manager where it is easy to update later.

Fix the 50 MB file size limit

This is the setting responsible for most “Windows can’t copy this file” reports, and the error message never mentions a size limit - which is why it wastes entire afternoons.

By default the Windows WebDAV client refuses files larger than 50 MB.

Open regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

Find FileSizeLimitInBytes. Double-click it, select Decimal, and enter 4294967295.

Two things go wrong here. People leave the base set to Hexadecimal, which silently produces a different and much smaller number. And 4294967295 (4 GB) is the protocol ceiling for this client - you cannot raise it further, so files above 4 GB need a different approach entirely.

Restart the service:

net stop webclient
net start webclient

Make the service start automatically

The WebClient service is set to Manual on many Windows installations, which means a mapped drive silently fails to reconnect after a restart. The drive letter appears with a red X and no explanation.

Open services.msc, find WebClient, set Startup type to Automatic, and start it if it is stopped.

Two more settings worth knowing

The 60-second timeout. Windows gives up on a WebDAV request after 60 seconds by default, which a large file on a slow link can exceed. In the same registry key, FsCtlRequestTimeoutInSec can be raised - 600 is a reasonable value for patient transfers.

Basic authentication over HTTPS. Some setups need BasicAuthLevel set to 2 for authentication to work at all. Only do this if your URL is https:// - basic auth over plain HTTP sends the credential in clear text.

Mapping from the command line

The GUI is fine once. For scripting a fleet of machines, or for documenting the setup so a colleague can repeat it, net use is easier:

net use Z: https://storage.example.com/dav /persistent:yes

It will prompt for credentials, or you can pass them - though putting a password on a command line means putting it in the command history, so prefer the prompt for anything interactive.

To check what is currently mapped:

net use

To remove a mapping cleanly:

net use Z: /delete

PowerShell’s New-PSDrive looks like an alternative and mostly is not: drives it creates are not visible to other processes or to File Explorer unless you add -Persist, which catches people out. net use is the more predictable tool here.

Expect it to be slower than a local disk

Mapped network drives feel different, and knowing where helps you avoid blaming the wrong thing.

Thumbnails are expensive. Explorer generates previews by reading files, so a folder of large images or video is slow to browse. Turn off preview generation for that folder: View → Options → Change folder and search options → View, tick Always show icons, never thumbnails.

Directory listings take a moment. Each is a network request, so folders with thousands of entries are noticeably slower than local ones.

Search will not work as expected. Windows Search does not index network drives by default.

For opening and saving documents, design files and media, it is perfectly usable. For a folder that a build tool writes to constantly, use local storage.

A note on Windows 11 and the future of WebDAV

Microsoft listed the WebClient service, which powers WebDAV drive mapping, as deprecated in late 2023. It still ships with Windows 10 and Windows 11 and still works with the steps above, but deprecated features can be removed in a future release. For a setup you want to rely on for years, consider one of the alternatives below as well.

When to use something else

The 4 GB ceiling is the honest limit of this approach. If you routinely move files larger than that, the Windows WebDAV client cannot help you regardless of configuration.

Two alternatives. The S3 API avoids the WebDAV client entirely - rclone can sync to it or mount it via WinFsp, and handles multi-gigabyte files through multipart upload. Or use a native desktop client, which does not go through the WebDAV stack at all; the dosya.dev desktop app syncs chosen folders in both directions with no file size limit.

Our protocol comparison covers which suits which job. The short version: WebDAV when a person is browsing, S3 when a program is moving.

For a Mac, the equivalent setup is here - fewer traps, and no registry editing.

Troubleshooting

“The network path was not found.” WebClient service is not running. See above.

Copy fails partway on a large file. Either the 50 MB limit is still in place, or you hit the 60-second timeout. Check both registry values.

The drive vanishes after restart despite “Reconnect at sign-in.” WebClient is set to Manual. Set it to Automatic.

Credentials rejected repeatedly. Clear the stored entry in Credential Manager and re-add it - Windows caches a failed credential and keeps presenting it.