WebDAV Not Working on Windows 11: What Changed

What actually changed

Nothing about your server. Microsoft's list of deprecated Windows client features carries this entry, announced in November 2023:

Webclient (WebDAV) Service
The Webclient (WebDAV) service is deprecated.
The Webclient service isn't started by default in Windows.

Those two sentences explain most of the "WebDAV doesn't work on Windows 11" reports on the internet. The feature is still present and still works. It is no longer being developed, and the service that implements it sits stopped on a fresh install, so the first mapping attempt fails and the message you get — "The network name cannot be found", 0x80070043, or "The folder you entered does not appear to be valid" — says nothing about a stopped service.

1. Start the service, then make it automatic

Get-Service WebClient | Format-List Name, Status, StartType
Set-Service -Name WebClient -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service -Name WebClient

From an elevated command prompt the equivalent needs a space after each =, because Microsoft's sc.exe config reference states that a space is required between an option and its value and that omitting it makes the operation fail — which is exactly what the widely copied start=auto does:

sc.exe config WebClient start= auto
sc.exe start WebClient

On Windows Server the redirector is not installed until you add the Desktop Experience feature. On Windows 11 it is installed; it is only asleep.

2. Allow Basic credentials on an http:// endpoint

Windows 10 and 11 will not send Basic credentials to a plaintext endpoint by default, and they fail without prompting, which is why this cause is so often misdiagnosed as a password problem. The control is a DWORD named BasicAuthLevel under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters. Microsoft documents 0 as disabled, 1 as "Basic authentication is enabled for SSL web sites only", 2 as "enabled for SSL and non-SSL web sites", with 1 as the default.

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters" /v BasicAuthLevel /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f
net stop WebClient
net start WebClient

The restart is mandatory: the documentation notes that after changing any value in that key the Web Client must be restarted or the computer rebooted. Microsoft also calls Basic authentication over a non-SSL connection "strongly discouraged", and it is right — the credentials travel in clear text. For a loopback address the traffic never leaves the machine; for anything routed, use HTTPS and leave the value at 1.

3. Know the limits before you hit them

Every value below is from Microsoft's WebDAV redirector documentation, in the same registry key, and every one of them is a real number rather than folklore.

Two of these deserve attention. FileSizeLimitInBytes is the famous 50 MB ceiling; it is a DWORD, so the highest value it can hold is 4,294,967,295 bytes, which is why WebDAV mappings on Windows can never move a 5 GB file however you configure them. See the Windows WebDAV 50 MB limit for the full treatment. And ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec is the reason your fix "didn't work": for 60 seconds the service returns a cached failure without contacting the server at all.

4. Map it from the command line while debugging

The wizard gives you a sentence; net use gives you a number, and numbers are searchable. Microsoft's walkthrough uses the plain URL form, and the UNC form is documented as \\server[@SSL][@port][\path], with @SSL for HTTPS and @port required for anything other than 80 and 443:

net use Z: https://dav.example.com/files /user:alice *
net use Y: \\dav.example.com@SSL@8443\DavWWWRoot\files /user:alice *

The trailing * makes Windows prompt for the password instead of putting it in your command history. If the answer is System error 67, read net use error 67; the File Explorer spelling of the same failure is 0x80070043; and the wizard's own refusal has its own page, the folder you entered does not appear to be valid.

5. Mappings that vanish at logoff

This is documented behaviour, not a Windows 11 regression: since Windows 7, Basic authentication credentials cannot be persisted by Credential Manager, so a Basic-auth WebDAV mapping has to be re-created rather than restored. Microsoft's own troubleshooting guidance for this is a logon script that re-issues the command.

if (-not (Test-Path Y:)) {
  net use Y: http://127.0.0.1:3211/ /user:anystorage
}

What "deprecated" means for you

Deprecated is not removed. Microsoft's own definition is that the feature is no longer being actively developed and might be removed in a future update; the WebClient entry has stood since November 2023 with no removal date. Practically, that means three things: no new features, no performance work, and no guarantee for the next major release.

It also means the sensible long-term answer is not to depend on the Windows redirector for bulk work. A client that talks to storage APIs directly has no service to start, no BasicAuthLevel, and no 4 GB ceiling. AnyStorage (v0.2.24; macOS 11+, Windows 10+, Ubuntu 20.04+) takes the middle path: it moves files over the storage protocol itself — S3-compatible endpoints with path-style and custom region, SFTP with key authentication, WebDAV — and when you do want a drive letter, it serves one from a built-in local WebDAV server on http://127.0.0.1:3211, with no FUSE, WinFsp or macFUSE driver to install. Every connection open in the app appears as a folder under that root, and the free tier allows two connections. The rules above still apply to that mapping, since Windows treats a loopback WebDAV server like any other: WebClient running, BasicAuthLevel at 2.

Next steps

• The full Windows checklist: Windows cannot connect to WebDAV
• The two error codes this produces: 0x80070043 and error 67
• Why big copies fail: the Windows WebDAV 50 MB limit