Remember network drives and folders

[SteveThackery]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

When clicking on "Network" in the left pane, there is a long pause (several seconds) while it discovers all the drives and servers on the network. Even when discovered, they don't appear as a tree under the Network icon in the left pane. The next time I open Files, it has to re-discover all the network drives, which again takes several seconds. These long pauses are so frustrating and time-wasting.

On the same computer, Windows File Explorer remembers the network drives, plus it lists them as a tree under the Network icon, so access to drives, folders and files is effectively instant.

Please make Files work like File Explorer in this regard - it would be a great improvement. Screenshots show the difference.

Requirements

Two aspects to this request:

1/ Remember the network servers and drives, so there is no delay

2/ Display them as a tree under 'Network' in the left pane, for rapid access

Both of these are how File Explorer does it.

Files Version

3.0.8.0

Windows Version

10.0.22631.2715

Comments

If you are concerned that some of the network servers and drives may disappear (or appear) between sessions, thus rendering the remembered list out of date, I suggest a behaviour a bit like File Explorer, where it displays the remembered list immediately, and I believe scans the network in the background to update the list if necessary.

[yaira2]

Thank you for your feedback, we're tracking this request in #8304.