Recovered documents

[witch]

I have a situation where somehow perfectly normal, properly saved documents are being treated as recoved documents, and opened whenever Word is opened. Currently there are 46 of the little darlings!

If I go to the user profile/microsoft/word there they all are - deleting them there stops them coming back but only until another lot of documents are created and saved by the children.

The documents are definitely saved properly in the first place, so that isn't the problem

This has only just happened but someone suggested that there is a setting somewhere in Group Policy that will prevent documents from being recovered - anyone know where it might be?

[contink]

Just out of interest, are the children all using a common login?

 

I ask as I seem to remember this happening with us at some point. Can't remember for the life of me how we resolved it but I think you get this problem because the synch' goes bad or something...

[witch]

Yes, they are all using a common login

[CESIL]

Where are the temp files being created? Is there a permission set that stops the pupil account from deleting the temp file?

 

If they are not deleted when the document is closed then Word will attempt recovery next time it starts.

 

I had a similar problem here when teachers were working on annual reports on a USB stick. A couple of teachers were removing the memory stick too soon after closing the files. This left the temp file on the stick and next time they tried to open a file they were offered the recovery options.

[witch]

Temp files arent deleted when the account logs off

[CESIL]

Have a look at where .asd files are being created. (This is set in File Locations in Word options)

 

If these are found at statup Word will offer recovery of the files.

 

On my setup they are in "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\Word"

 

Are these files getting left behind when a user logs off?

[witch]

Yep!

[CESIL]

In that case try GPO

 

Microsoft Office Excel 2003/Tools | Options.../Save/Save Autorecover Info

[contink]

Ok based on what's been gleaned so far I'm guessing here but you have a roaming profile in place here, possibly with Application Data redirected to a folder on the server.

 

Because there's lots of people using the same account on various machines it seems someone or lots of someones are shutting down without actually closing documents properly, etc...

 

As far as I can tell the only way you're going to avoid this is to do a logout script that looks for and clears out any of the .asd (is that right cadjs?) extension files and remove them. Failing that, remove the application data redirect...

 

Not sure what else to suggest I'm afraid.

[CESIL]

Yes, I am sure there are .asd files lurking somewhere that are not being cleared properly.

 

See the USB example above.

 

If users are doing something daft (natch) then disabling autorecover seems the best option...then again are users going to complain they lost work...

[witch]

I thought that I had disabled the auto recover but the TA running the class has just dashed in to say that there are 45 recovered documents now!

Absolutely stuck

Help

 

for this to happen due to bad saving - every single child would have to do it wrongly and I have stood and watched them, and they are fine, so as far as I can see it isnt that.

Neither is it machine based

[CESIL]

OK can you just confirm exactly how these files are named? What is the file extension?

 

Also are the students creating new documents or working from a template or previously saved file?

[witch]

More digging reveals that, yes, the files are definitely being autorecovered and saved under the user profiles.

I cannot find out where the setting is that is allowing this - done the GPO thing with no response.

I will have to try the logoff script I suppose

Sorry to be a pain but what exactly would I put in it?

Feeling dim today

[contink]

I will have to try the logoff script I suppose

Sorry to be a pain but what exactly would I put in it?

Feeling dim today

 

You'd need to find out where the auto-recover files are actually being saved to first then with that you should be able to play with this little script to do what you need:

 

remove profiles from Docs&Settings

 

... that does more than you need but should provide the basis for what you want.

[contink]

You'd need to find out where the auto-recover files are actually being saved to first

Further to the PM's I'd need to know this info' first before I could offer any help with getting a script to try and sort the problem.

[witch]

the files are saved under microsoft word under the user profile

[contink]

the files are saved under microsoft word under the user profile

ok, that's a start but I need an actual location from the %profile_root% ..

 

eg: %profile_root%/application data/somefolder/docs/

 

... that'll help me avoid any unfortunate deletes we don't want.

[witch]

\\rdc2020\users\User Profiles\KS2\Microsoft\Word

 

I think!

[contink]

\\rdc2020\users\User Profiles\KS2\Microsoft\Word

 

I think!

... Be better to be sure..

[witch]

Yeah I know - natural inability to state that I know something

That is definitely the path

[contink]

Yeah I know - natural inability to state that I know something

That is definitely the path

Ok... I'll see what I can do... it'll be a few days mind...

[witch]

Thanks for trying for me

 

I wish I could do it myself but I would not be confident that I wasnt going to break something!

[contink]

Finally got around to looking at this properly (apologies Witch) but had some issues finding the thread in the first place because recovered was spelt incorrectly in the title

 

Anyways... I've found where these files live and noticed a few things.#

 

1. If you use roaming or mandatory profiles on the server they live in:

\\PROFILE_SHARE\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Word

 

2. There's two file extension types in this folder:

- AutoRecovery save of DOC_TITLE.wbk

- AutoRecovery save of DOC_TITLE.asd

 

3. If you don't have admin access for the profiles you may not be able to remove anything... However I suspect if I run a script to delete these files as a login script it might work.

 

 

What I'm not sure about though is whether the profile will load into the local machine and therefore need to be deleted from there so that it updates the roaming profile or not. Hmm... any suggestions welcome.

[Michael]

On the local machine, under Computer Management, have you tried adding "Domain Users" within the Administrators group? You can do this via MMC which is easier.

[contink]

On the local machine, under Computer Management, have you tried adding "Domain Users" within the Administrators group? You can do this via MMC which is easier.

 

I'd rather not make my domain users into local administrators... That's a bit of a security risk to say the least!