Offline Files won't activate

[James L. Williams]

Hello,

I have three brand new computers with Vista Business installed on them. The
first problem that I have with these is that offlien files is enabled, but
won't activate. Each of these three computers connect to a Windows 2003
Domain Server. The domain server has the "My Documents" folder for each
client computer redirect to the network server directory. It also sets up
that this file is to be available offline as these computers are laptops.
However Vista won't activate the offline folders. It says to restart
computer, but this doesn't help.

What is the problem?

Regards

James

 

[Mike Benton]

I've been at a solution for this problem for almost a week. Sad to say...I'm
happy to hear that I'm not the only one. I can't even get someone to
acknowledge the issue.

Mike

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Guys, can you explain what you mean by "activate"? We're troubleshooting
some other reports of Offline Files/Folder Redirection issues and I can't
quite tell if this is the same issue. What's the symptom?

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[Mike Benton]

The text that I wrote before was exactly the text displayed. When you go to
the control panel and choose "Offline Files" there are three buttons on this
panel. The bottom two are grayed out (at least on my machine). Those two
buttons are "Open Sync Center" and "View your offline files". On the button
you read, "Disable Offline Files". Below the button there is some text that
says, "Offline Files is enabled but not yet active. Restart this computer to
active Offline Files."

I restarted my computer many times. They have yet to activate. Its says the
same thing each time. The closest I've been able to get any type of any
error message is if I try to start the offline files service myself. Then I
receive the message, "Error 0x80070003: The system cannot find the path
specified."

I have an HP DV9260 laptop running the 64-bit version of Vista. If it helps,
I have the LAN, Wi-Fi, and bluetooth adapters. I'm wondering if it's not
some registry values that are either missing or invalid.

Mike Benton

 

[James L. Williams]

Mike is correct. I have the same thing on my new computers, all three of
them. There is definately a problem here. What is really sad, is that we
are getting these kinds of errors with the Vista Business. How are
companies IT departments suppose to function when we get these very basic of
networking problems with a new product. In my opinion, I don't think Vista
was ready to be released to the public yet. There seems to be to many basic
problems with it still, ones that cripple a networking envirnoment.

Regards,



James

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Thanks for the clarification. I've sent both of your posts to the Offline
Files team for review. We may need you to generate some log files for us to
help us troubleshoot. I'll post an update when I have one.

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[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

We'd like you to try reinitializing the cache and then checking whether
Offline Files starts. Please review the following instructions carefully
before proceeding:

To reinitialize the Offline Files cache, create the following DWORD registry
value with a value of 1 and restart the system.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters\FormatDatabase

*Note that any unsynchronized changes will be lost. In addition, any files
and folders pinned by means other than Folder Redirection or Group Policy
will no longer be pinned on that client.*

The setting of this registry value may be automated using REG.EXE.

REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters" /v
FormatDatabase /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f


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[James L. Williams]

Yes, this did work. Buy why did I have to do this on three brand new
computers with a pre-installed Vista Business version.

Also, I have another issue however I am not sure where to post it. On the
start menu, you have default applications and files, however every time I
click "Remove From this List" on the default programs and files, they come
back after a system restart. Why won't they stay removed? I.E. I want to
remove AOL and Windows Media Player from the main Start Menu. So I click
"Remove From this List" and it goes away, but after I restart the computer,
they come back. I can't get rid of them. What is the problem here?

Regards,


James Williams

 

[Mike Benton]

Thank you very, very much. It's been a week with several hours of searching
for answers. This worked!! Thankfully, that has been my only issue so far
with Vista. I'm a happy customer....

 

[Stefano]

I have a very serious issue with "Offline folders", so serious that am
almost ready to re-install XP on my laptop. Would you mind to check if among
the reports you are troubleshooting there is this one too?

Quote
In the server (SBS 2003 R2) I have a folder with several sub-folders and
hundreds of files, The entire
folder is set to be available offline as they are all the
sub-folders and files. The problem is that some of these files are not
available when I go offline.
What is weird is that in Windows Explorer all the files, including the ones
that are not available, are marked with the green round logo with the two
yellow arrows indicating that they supposedly are available.
To make things more complicated and much worse is that if I right click on a
file/ click properties/ General tab the file show the above
mentioned logo; clicking the "Offline folders" tab the "Always
available offline" option is checked so people would assume that everything
is fine but under "Details" tab the file is listed as "Offline
Availability: Not available" and this is true, the file is not available!
Note that booting with XP the same file, in the same location, same Domain
etc. is available offline therefore is something specifically related to
Vista.
Another thing I noted is that all the files "really" available under
"Details" have, in the "Attribute" line a "A", the one not available do not
have it.
Unquote
Thanks in advance
Stefano

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Stefano, please try to reinitialize the cache as I described earlier and see
if this helps.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

James, I don't know why you had the Offline Files problem on a new computer.
We found it interesting the two reports were from HP computers...I'm asking
the team if there's any more info we can gather to help us determine if this
is an OEM issue.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer to your other question. Try starting a
separate thread for this.

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[James L. Williams]

My new computers where Gateway Laptops, not HP computers, so this is not
just an HP related issue. Have them check further.

Regards,



James

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

James and Mike, will you be willing to run a tool that gathers a list of
permissions for the Offline Files cache? Specifically, the tool will gather
a list of extended attributes. This will help us find the root cause of this
problem.

Please contact me via email if you will run this tool. My address is current
minus "online."


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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
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[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

I should add: this tool is most valuable to us if you have not reinitialzied
the cache. I'm hoping you all have a machine available that you haven't run
the fix on yet.

 

[Mike Benton]

Unfortunately I do not. This is a new laptop I purchased with a failing
offline files system. Once I added the registry entry and rebooted my system
worked.

 

[Stefano]

Thanks for the tip Jill, I tried it but unfortunately it did not work. I
also tried to format and re-install both Vista 32 and 64 but no luck; as a
last resort I wiped out and re-install the server OS, again no luck. Note
that this behavior is consistent on several computers, both desktops and
laptops, that are part of the domain. Again the fact that when booting to XP
the issue disappear confirms that the problem is Vista RTM related. Let me
know if there is any tool you would like me to run on my system to nail it
down. For the time being I reinstalled XP on the laptops but obviously this
is just a temporary solution.
Let me know
Stefano

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Stefano,

Wow, it's too bad that even a clean installation isn't working. There is one
other test I can have you run. It's easiest if you contact me via email for
instructions (remove "online" from my email address). The downside is that
once I get this log file from you, I can send it to the development team for
review but I can't guarantee a turnaround time or immediate solution (we are
a bit swamped right now). If you need closer assistance, I recommend opening
a case with Microsoft Product Support.


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Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
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[James L. Williams]

Sorry, I have already run the registry fix on all of my computers! However
I have post another issue that I have with these same computers regarding
the pinned files and programs on the start menu. However I have not see a
response, I beginnning to think that some things are just being ignored.
For all of my profiles, even the ones with Admin rights, every time you try
to make a change to the start menu, I.E. remove pin programs or add
programs, or just recent files, the moment I log off and then back on
again, the menu is back to factory install. I can't change anything on the
start menu. How about getting some help from Microsoft on this issue!
Would be nice. Maybe this is related to the Offline Files problem too.

Regards,


James

 

[Guest]

Do you want help from other than MS re Start?

Sorry, I have already run the registry fix on all of my computers!
However I have post another issue that I have with these same computers
regarding the pinned files and programs on the start menu. However I have
not see a response, I beginnning to think that some things are just being
ignored. For all of my profiles, even the ones with Admin rights, every
time you try to make a change to the start menu, I.E. remove pin programs
or add programs, or just recent files, the moment I log off and then back
on again, the menu is back to factory install. I can't change anything on
the start menu. How about getting some help from Microsoft on this issue!
Would be nice. Maybe this is related to the Offline Files problem too.

Regards,


James