Issues with shared out folder in Windows Server 2012

Question

I am seeing a strange issue on a 2012 Server where I have 90 shared folders, but about 50 of them are showing up with question marks in the path and share name net share. i.e:

C:\Windows\System32>net share

Share name                          Resource                        Remark
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Folder1                             M:\Folder_01
Folder2                             M:\Folder_02
Folder3                             M:\Folder_03
?Folder4                            M:\?Folder_04
?Folder5                            M:\?Folder_05
?Folder6                            M:\?Folder_06

The shares are all identical and I can browse and write to them from other servers, but one application will not allow me to write to those shares.

Would you take a look at the event viewer and share relevant infos editing your post? — Marco, Sep 20 '17 at 17:58
Check for special (unix/hidden) characters. NET displays everything besides ASCII as "?". — bjoster, Apr 10 '18 at 11:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 20 '17 at 15:42

As it turned out, someone had created the folders that were being shared out in windows with a special, hidden character in the folder name.

i.e:

M:\Folder_01
   ^

There was a hidden charachter between the \ and the F that had to be deleted and the share re-created.

Saving this in-case anyone else has a similar issue, as Google originally did not have many results for the issue of question marks in the path.

Issues with shared out folder in Windows Server 2012

1 Answers1