Offline folders from previous profile

[Guest]

I need some expertise in offline files. Here is a chain of events that has
played out too many time. Bob is assigned a desktop which is joined to our
domain. His My Documents folder is moved from the default location to a
network share so that it will be backed up. Windows XP then automatically
makes the folder available offline. Bob leaves the company. His account is
eventually deleted. Two months later Geroge is assigned Bob's old computer.
Now, every time George logs off, he gets synchronization errors. I log in
with administrative rights, but can't find a way to stop attempts to
synchronize with Bob's old share. I cannot log back in as Bob because his
account is now gone. I try to remove Bob's profile, but the sync errors
continue. I could disable offline folders alltogether, but then George
couldn't benefit from backup. In the end, George must put up with clicking
through these errors every time he logs off. Is there a way to fix this?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I need some expertise in offline files. Here is a chain of events
that has played out too many time. Bob is assigned a desktop which
is joined to our domain. His My Documents folder is moved from the
default location to a network share so that it will be backed up.
Good.
Windows XP then automatically makes the folder available offline.

Disable this. Why do you need offline files on your LAN anyway? Disable
offline file sharing on all shares when you create them on the server (in
the share properties). In fact, if you have a domain, you can use group
policy to disable offline file usage outright.

Bob leaves the company. His account is eventually deleted. Two
months later Geroge is assigned Bob's old computer. Now, every time
George logs off, he gets synchronization errors. I log in with
administrative rights, but can't find a way to stop attempts to
synchronize with Bob's old share. I cannot log back in as Bob
because his account is now gone. I try to remove Bob's profile, but
the sync errors continue. I could disable offline folders
alltogether, but then George couldn't benefit from backup.

Sure he could. Use folder redirection to point My Documents at the user's
home directory, or whatever, on the server.

In the
end, George must put up with clicking through these errors every time
he logs off. Is there a way to fix this?

I don't have an answer specifically, but hope this helps. I abhor offline
files even for laptops, but for desktops, I don't see the point. Just use
folder redirection - it's a lot simpler.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response. Of course the nightly backup will work with or
without the offline folders enabled. My reference to "backup" came from the
fact that I feel even better knowing that these documents reside on the local
machine should there ever be a network interruption (so far that's only
amounted to 1 day out of the 4 years I've been doing this, but you never
know). As far as shutting off offline folders completely, that will work for
the desktops, but our laptop users have come to expect the functionality.
The real problem for me is that I just can't accept that there is no way to
fix this problem. We'll spend some time bringing a computer back to a
pristine, neutral state before it gets assigned to a new user, and it bothers
me that I haven't found a good way to make XP (and Windows 2000, for that
matter) completely forget it's past when it comes to which folders to
synchronize.

Another interesting problem, which further supports your position, is that
on occasion, a user will not be able to access any shares except the ones
available offline on a particular server. This behavior is typical for users
who connect via VPN from a remote location, but can sometimes happen right on
the LAN. The problem usually gets reported to me when a user's print job
fails while printing to a shared printer on that particular server. Usually,
the source of the problem is a mangled or dirty network cable, but I think XP
should handle the interruption a little more gracefully, IMO.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Thanks for the response. Of course the nightly backup will work with
or without the offline folders enabled. My reference to "backup"
came from the fact that I feel even better knowing that these
documents reside on the local machine should there ever be a network
interruption (so far that's only amounted to 1 day out of the 4 years
I've been doing this, but you never know).

Get good server hardware. If there's a server outage, clients should know
it - DFS can be useful, but I don't like offline files for this purpose,
ever, and especially not on a LAN.

As far as shutting off
offline folders completely, that will work for the desktops, but our
laptop users have come to expect the functionality.

www.centered.com - that's what I always use.

The real problem
for me is that I just can't accept that there is no way to fix this
problem.

There may be, but I've given up entirely on offline files due to too many
problems with same...

We'll spend some time bringing a computer back to a
pristine, neutral state before it gets assigned to a new user, and it
bothers me that I haven't found a good way to make XP (and Windows
2000, for that matter) completely forget it's past when it comes to
which folders to synchronize.

It's a common complaint. Hence my approach.

Another interesting problem, which further supports your position, is
that on occasion, a user will not be able to access any shares except
the ones available offline on a particular server. This behavior is
typical for users who connect via VPN from a remote location, but can
sometimes happen right on the LAN.

Known issue w/VPN/remote users. Users on the LAN? Not so much so, but I've
seen it.

The problem usually gets reported
to me when a user's print job fails while printing to a shared
printer on that particular server. Usually, the source of the
problem is a mangled or dirty network cable, but I think XP should
handle the interruption a little more gracefully, IMO.

All I can say is, I think offline files is a nice idea and doesn't work well
enough for me to waste time on it ever again. My $.02. ;-)