Server identities

🔑 Server identities

This page explains the one hard limit you will meet when you set up more than two mounts against the same Nextcloud, and why it is not something NcDavTray can simply fix.

Tip

TL;DR — Windows keeps one login per server identity, and a host offers exactly two: host@ssl and host@ssl@443. So per Nextcloud server you get two different logins at a time. Mounts that use the same login can share one identity and there is no limit on those. A mount that needs a third different login reports Waiting for a free connection slot (Windows error 1219) and connects by itself as soon as a slot frees up.

• What Windows actually counts
• The two identities per host
• When mounts can share one
• Error 1219 and what NcDavTray does with it
• Working within the limit

🧮 What Windows actually counts

The Windows WebDAV redirector treats a WebDAV server like an SMB server, and there it enforces a rule that predates all of this: one set of credentials per server, at a time. Connecting to the same server under a second, different account is refused with

System error 1219 has occurred.
Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user,
using more than one user name, are not allowed.

The limit is on logins, not on drives. Ten drive letters pointing at one server under one login are fine. Two letters under two different logins already need two identities.

🎭 The two identities per host

A WebDAV UNC path can name the same host in two ways, and Windows counts them as two separate servers:

UNC form	NcDavTray calls it
\\cloud.example.com@ssl\...	the plain identity
\\cloud.example.com@ssl@443\...	the explicit-port identity

Both reach the same machine over the same port — 443 is what @ssl means anyway. But because the strings differ, the redirector keeps a separate login for each. That gives you two concurrent logins per host instead of one.

Every mount carries a switch for which form it uses. Share-link mounts default to the explicit-port form, because a public link is usually added next to an existing account mapping of the same server and needs the second identity to exist alongside it.

Note

This is a workaround, not a feature Microsoft documents as one. It works reliably, but it is what caps the count at two: there is no third spelling of the same host that the redirector would accept as another server.

🤝 When mounts can share one

Two mounts ride on the same identity when all four of these match:

1. the same host,
2. the same identity form (plain or explicit-port),
3. the same kind (account or share),
4. the same identity — the user name for an account, the token for a share.

Those four together decide the login and the password. Anything less than all four is a different connection.

flowchart TD
    A[New mount wants to connect] --> B{"Is a connection up<br>with the same host, form,<br>kind and identity?"}
    B -- yes --> C["Join it<br>no new identity needed"]
    B -- no --> D{"Is one of the two<br>identities still free?"}
    D -- yes --> E[Take it and connect]
    D -- no --> F["Status: Waiting for<br>a free connection slot"]
    F -.-> |"a slot frees up"| E

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So the same account under three drive letters is no problem at all — one login, three drives. Three different accounts on one server is a problem, and no arrangement of settings solves it.

Important

What counts is what Windows has on record, not what NcDavTray has configured. A drive mapped by another program, by net use, or by a portable copy of NcDavTray running beside the installed one takes an identity just the same. So does a connection made without a drive letter — it holds the login and simply has no letter to show for it.

🚧 Error 1219 and what NcDavTray does with it

A mapping refused with 1219 is deliberately not reported as a failure. The mount is sound, its settings are correct, and nothing needs fixing — both slots are simply taken at this moment. It therefore gets its own status:

Waiting for a free connection slot

NcDavTray keeps it in the list, keeps polling, and connects it the moment one of the two identities is given up — by a disconnect, an exit, or another mount going offline. You do not have to come back and press anything.

Warning

The check happens when the mapping is attempted, which is after you saved the mount. So you can configure a third login against one server and only find out at connect time. That is a rough edge that is known and not yet solved — a warning while you are still editing would be the right place for it.

🧰 Working within the limit

Situation	What works
One account, many folders	one identity, any number of drive letters — use Duplicate… and change the subfolder
One account plus one public share link on the same server	fits exactly: the account takes one identity, the share the other
Two different accounts on one server	fits exactly — but nothing else on that host will connect
Three or more different logins on one server	does not fit. Disable the ones you do not need right now, or reach the extra folders as subfolders of an account you already have

The most common way out is the last one: much of what looks like it needs a second account is reachable as a subfolder — including anything shared with you, which appears inside your own account rather than needing its own login.