Offline Files - Files not showing when copied from server directly

[Paul Worsnop]

Hi,

We have a number of users here who work remotely on their laptops. As a
result each has offline files enabled and on the whole this works well.
However recently we have hit a problem with one particular users laptop not
showing all offline files.

Each user has their own personal "H" drive which is setup to synchronise so
it is available offline. One particular user also has a lot of data in a
shared network folder that they change regularly, along with other static
network users. As he needs access to a lot of this information offline too,
he calls us the day before he is going away so we can copy specific folders
from this network share into a folder within his syncronised "H" drive. We do
this on our server and not on his laptop as it is much quicker this way.

However, when this is completed and the user logs off, the synchronisation
process completes but these files are not available when the user logs back
onto his laptop offline?!

Is there any explanation for this? Is it because we are copying these files
from a network share into the users "H" drive directly from the server? Is it
because they are copied from a network share into his "H" drive and therefore
there are issues with permissions?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[John John - MVP]

Hi,

We have a number of users here who work remotely on their laptops. As a
result each has offline files enabled and on the whole this works well.
However recently we have hit a problem with one particular users laptop not
showing all offline files.

Each user has their own personal "H" drive which is setup to synchronise so
it is available offline. One particular user also has a lot of data in a
shared network folder that they change regularly, along with other static
network users. As he needs access to a lot of this information offline too,
he calls us the day before he is going away so we can copy specific folders
from this network share into a folder within his syncronised "H" drive. We do
this on our server and not on his laptop as it is much quicker this way.

However, when this is completed and the user logs off, the synchronisation
process completes but these files are not available when the user logs back
onto his laptop offline?!

Is there any explanation for this? Is it because we are copying these files
from a network share into the users "H" drive directly from the server? Is it
because they are copied from a network share into his "H" drive and therefore
there are issues with permissions?

Any help would be appreciated!

I would do a little test with one of the other users to see if the same
behaviour is present when files are copied from the the share to their H
drive. Also verify the permissions on the user's H drive and make sure
that the child objects inherit from the parent.

John

 

[Paul Worsnop]

Thanks for your reply John.

We did exactly as you said and the same problem occurred on another mobile
users laptop.

It must be that the offline files feature only synchronises changes to a
users drive if they themselves have copied/deleted files while logged onto
their laptop. Anyone else (Such as an administrator in this case)
copying/deleting files from within the users "H" drive will mean these
changes are not synchronised so they are reflected when the user is "offline".

Thanks again.

 

[John John - MVP]

Sounds like a permissions issue. If the files in the folder inherit
from the parent the user should be able to work with them. Another test
I would do, while *you* have his laptop make him a temporary member of
the Administrators group then copy the files over with a different Admin
account and then see if things change when you logon and work with his
now elevated account.

John