Unable to authenticate while mapping a WebDAV client network drive in Confluence

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Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Problem

You are repeatedly prompted for your Confluence login credentials while mapping a network drive in Microsoft Windows, despite having correctly submitted these credentials at least once.

Cause

Authentication for Microsoft Windows Mini-Redirector is not specified/enabled. Alternatively, you may have exceeded the maximum number of incorrect logins, causing a Captcha check. This check can be masked if you're delegating user control to either a 3rd party single sign on solution or crowd.

Resolution

  1. Disable the captcha check from Admin > Security Configuration.

  2. Enable basic authentication for the Microsoft Windows Mini-Redirector component by modifying a key in the Windows registry:

    Windows XP

    1. Open the Windows registry editor. This can be done in the following Windows operating systems as described:
      • Windows XP — go to Start -> Run and then enter regedit into the 'Run' dialog box.
      • Versions of Windows prior to Windows XP — use the same process for Windows XP, but enter regedt32 into the 'Run' dialog box instead of regedit.
    2. Browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters key.
    3. Find a DWORD/REG_DWORD entry named UseBasicAuth. (If it does not exist, create this DWORD entry.)
    4. Set the value for this entry to 1.
    5. Restart your computer.

    Windows Vista or 7

    1. Click Start; type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit.exe in the Programs list.
    2. Browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters key.
    3. Find a DWORD/REG_DWORD entry named BasicAuthLevel.

    4. In the Value data box, type 2, and then click OK.

      tip/resting Created with Sketch.

      The mapping for BasicAuthLevel is as follow:

      • 0 - Basic authentication disabled
      • 1 - Basic authentication enabled for SSL shares only
      • 2 or greater - Basic authentication enabled for SSL shares and for non-SSL shares

    3. Once the steps above have been completed, remap the WebDAV plugin as a network drive by repeating the mapping steps.

Different version of webdav clients may have some issues with authentication. Check a list of known issues with the client you are using from this page by GreenBytes. Sometimes, even after applying the registry setting from GreenBytes, Microsoft Web Folder still cannot work. As an alternative, try Datafreeway. See WBDV-208 for relevant feature request.
Not sure which Webdav Client you are using?
Luckily, the Webdav plugin has a built in logging that can be enabled.
Add the following line in the Logging and Profiling console and set the level to DEBUG:

com.atlassian.confluence.extra.webdav

For the next step, access Confluence using your Webdav client again, replicate the authentication problem and check the log file. You will see something like below, which informs you that that you are using Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir webdav client version 6.1.7600:

2010-03-16 11:57:50,274 DEBUG [http-8000-10] [extra.webdav.servlet.ConfluenceWebdavServlet] service Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/6.1.7600, OPTIONS /plugins/servlet/confluence/default

RELEVANT TOPICS

Microsoft Support KB Article
WebDAV Troubleshooting

Last modified on Feb 26, 2016

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