Configuring Offline Files

[DEvans]

Agree with Witch, It is a question of how long is a piece of string.

 

I have seen syncs take ages (depends on how many small files you have). It is essentially just copy and replacing from the server to the client and if the client is on a slow 5.2k Sata drive over a wireless 54Mb/s link. Then obviously we are talking a long time.

 

Gigabit to High Performance SSD. Few Seconds. It is amazing how far we have come the last 5 years.

 

Once the first sync is done however, it is incremental changes from then on.

[Bankesy]

I will try this but I think I may have found an existing policy conflicting with what I am trying to achieve.

 

The policy appears to be applied to all PC's and reads as follows:

 

Network/Offline Files

Policy=Action on server disconnect (Enabled) Action=never go offline

Policy=Allow or disallow use of the offline files feature (Disabled)

Policy=Default cache size (Enabled)

Policy=Remove 'Make Available Offline' (Enabled)

Policy=Sync all offline files before logging off (Disabled)

Policy=Sync all offline files when logging on (Disabled)

 

Obviously if there is something here stopping it from working then it's affecting the Staff Laptop OU.

[DEvans]

This is what I mean about migrated networks. Did you use XP before?

 

Yeh Enable Allow or Disallow use of offline files feature.

 

Disable (Truly disable not choose "not configured" as the computer won't see a change) Remove Make available offline.

 

Sync all offline on login and Logoff. You will need to Enable these.

 

This is why in Group policy we have three choices. If you set them to not configured, it won't necessarily tell the machine to go back to defaults. Machine will go.. i'm disable.. oh you've changed it to not configured.. well i don't know what that means, so i'll remain off.

 

Once you have left it running in the school for a while, go back and change them all to not configured, thus restoring you to defaults. The less policies applying the better.

 

Hope this helps,

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Some further progress with this: I made the changes as suggested above and logged into the domain on the test laptop where sync centre appears to have come to life a bit.

 

Initially it told me there was a conflict with the Bluetooth folder so I resolved this and forced the sync through.

 

When I login offline I now get a Network Drive under Computer (this is good I take it) but there is nothing in it.

 

When I go to the *Sync Centre>View your offline files>Mapped Network Drives* I can see a drive with my username and 71% under it, was wondering if this is referring to the space used or the sync progress?

Edited July 9, 2014 by Bankesy

[witch]

What do you see if you go to "Documents" if you log on offline AFTER the sync

[Bankesy]

I see 4 folders: Bluetooth, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos which are all empty

[sted]

have you forced the first sync ive found it often requires either a silly length of time or a kick to get the first sync done

[Bankesy]

Yes I forced it following the error message I received regarding the Bluetooth conflict

[bald_pig]

If all you needed was to provide access to the files, I would've set up owncloud and pointed it at the ADC and the file server, avoids mucking about with joining all laptops to the domain etc. Edited July 10, 2014 by bald_pig
wrong cloud service

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

If I wasn't already so far down the line with this I might have explored different options but it doesn't seem that far away from working.

 

I logged into my own PC at work this morning offline and again the network drive appeared and in there was the My Documents folder and in there were all my other folders but greyed out with an X on. When trying to access them I get 'This file is currently not available for use on this computer'.

 

I want to know how comes my PC at least shows me the folders but the test laptop doesn't and then why the folders aren't available on the PC.

[witch]

If I were you, and it is a pain, I know, I would take out every single GP entry that relates to this and start again. I presume you have looked in every single policy for anything that might even be vaguely related to offline files sync? I think maybe that there is a conflict somewhere in your system.

Did you follow this:

Deploy Folder Redirection with Offline Files

 

Seems quite detailed

Good luck

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

I'll have to search all the GP entries and start again.

 

On my PC I did right click 'My Documents' and selected 'Make Available Offline', it scanned through and I tested my PC offline and sure enough My Documents were available and the My Documents folder had a sync icon on it.

 

I just need this to happen automatically regardless if I logon to a PC or laptop.

[Bankesy]

Where we are now with this:

 

I went through the group policy object that referenced Offline Files and set all of the options to Not Configured.

 

This caused error messages when logging into the test laptop off the domain so I enabled 'Allow or Disallow Use of the Offline Files Feature' and the error messages went away.

 

Now when logging in to the laptop I get the offline drive and in there is a My Documents folder and in there are all of my sub-folders from the domain but no files within these are accessible. The individual files are greyed out with x's on them.

 

Any suggestions at this point?

[sted]

right click on the drive and make avaliable offline ive found it dosent always do the first sync till you force it

[ADMaster]

I’m interested in all of this as well. Currently all of our staff laptops have local documents. I’m considering redirecting them and making the files available off line.

I have been testing this with windows 8.1 but the first sync doesn’t appear to be starting. It shouldn’t take too long because I created a new test user and just dropped a few text files in their my documents.

I went to sync center and started the sync and got an error messages stating it was unable to sync. I also clicked view off line files and it showed at 45% I’d also like to know if this is a sync percent or drive space.

The only documents available was a text file on the desktop, but not the text files I dropped in my documents

Also after forcing the machine offline the desktop had the sync icon and the documents had the grey X

 

However if the first sync takes a bit maybe I’ll give it another go and let it sit overnight.

 

@Bankesy

Here are a few group policy tips, instead of going through all of your settings manually.

If you don’t have it installed already install group policy management console. You can click on a policy and get report of all of its settings.

 

From a command prompt on the client type

Gpresult.exe /h report.html 

 

This will write out all of the settings applied to that use and machine along with what policy applied it.

You can also get the same information from the GPMC with the group policy modeling and results wizards.

I hope this helps you find the conflicting settings.

 

Cheers,

Edited July 18, 2014 by ADMaster

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

I happen to think I have found my clashing policies, in addition to the policy disabling offline files on the Staff Laptop OU I also found a policy applied to the Staff Logins OU disabling Offline Files so I assume all the time I was playing with the machines policy the other policy for the users was preventing it working?

 

Now my question is having set all offline files references in both policies to 'Not Configured' do I want to set it up again on the Staff Laptops OU or the Staff Logins OU?

[witch]

Staff Laptops

You don't want offliine files if they are logged on to a fixed machine somewhere

[sted]

Staff Laptops

You don't want offliine files if they are logged on to a fixed machine somewhere

 

if you disable it on a policy user setting are irrelivent it wont work

[witch]

if you disable it on a policy user setting are irrelivent it wont work

 

Yes, of course. But if you haven't set it on the computers it won't work either

[sted]

Yes, of course. But if you haven't set it on the computers it won't work either

 

i think on win7+ not configured = on

[witch]

Not with offline files I don't think

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

After much other research I have finally got the whole Offline Files thing working to a fairly decent standard:

 

In the end I removed the Staff Laptop OU from the main Computer OU so in effect none of the existing policies for the other PCs were being applied, only those policies attached to the user logon. Obviously I applied the policies I did want from the Computers OU to the Staff Laptop OU.

 

As far as I can tell the key setting is Computer Configuration\Policies\Admin Templates\System\Folder Redirection\Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline. Set this to Disabled or Not Configured. I've got it set to not configured on my User OU and Staff Laptop OU and to prevent all other PCs trying to sync I've set the main GPO in the main Computers group back to the original disabled settings as mentioned in my earlier post (Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files)

 

Ok so at this stage for me the laptops began performing synchronisations but would stop upon reaching an error (an error it would seem is different to a conflict where it appears to just continue regardless). So on the main GPO for the Staff Laptops I have set Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Search\Prevent Indexing Files in Offline Cache to enabled and this allowed a full sync on many of the laptops.

 

For those few that it did not work for I applied the following hotfix: Offline files synchronization may not finish on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

 

I hope this sort of helps anyone who might be interested, I would never have got this far were it not for all the helpful responses so thank you everybody.

 

Note: When I talk about the Computers group I don't mean the default AD group, I mean my main group of computers in my structure.

[DEvans]

I haven't visited this thread in a while. Looks like you have got further Banksey.

 

I'm actually not too shocked that the Bluetooth folder is being tricky, its the same problem I have with a folder created by Media Center. Media Center creates a folder called "Recorded TV". Which is installed upon the root of the Windows 7 profile, like an additional profile folder, yet server side you cannot redirect it.

 

They actually can play up with offline files, especially if the Bluetooth folder resides within "Documents", unsure if it does in your case.

 

Quick Tip

 

When playing with offline files on a test machine, never trust any result unless you format the offline file database. When you keep messing with policies a lot of the time the offline files begin to play up rotten because they don't know which way is up.

 

Warning: Do not do this on a live account, you can potentially wipe their documents.

 

How to Format the Offline File Database

 

1. On the Client/Test Machine go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Csc\Parameters

2. If parameters does not exist, create it.

3. Now in the Parameters node create a new registry value with the name FormatDatabase of type REG_DWORD (i.e DWord 32-bit value)

4. Set the data in this new registry value to 1

5. Close the regedit editor and restart

 

This now properly puts you back into first Sync Mode. As if no offline folder sync was ever done. You can then watch it's behavior as if it was a live user doing it. It should "just" work when all policies are in place, you don't really want the user to need to do anything. God forbid.

 

See if this resolves your intermittent issues with random machines.

 

Regards,

 

Dan

[Bankesy]

Hey Mate,

 

Since I am waiting for SIMS Summer Upgrade to deploy and have people moan at me during the day I have the time to write this out. haha.

 

If you have a fairly new network (2008R2) which was rebuilt and not migrated and your clients are Windows 7 (again not upgraded from Vista/XP) then you will be already very close to having it all setup and ready to go as by default a lot of the polices are already active and on.

 

I've built dozens of networks from the ground up over the last few years before I took the job i'm in now and have been fortunate to come across these gotchas and common mistakes.

 

In my network I have:

 

• Redirected Documents - To their home drive
  
• Offline Files Enabled and Working for all Machines
  
• An additional Administratively assigned offline file which is not part of the redirected folders
  

 

In my Active Directory (AD) (apologies if this is teaching how to suck eggs, this post can be the benefit of others as well), in the properties of a user you have the profile tab which specifies the location of their home drive.

 

I have it set to use drive letter P: (P for Personal) and the path to their documents on the server.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25414[/ATTACH]

 

This alone will map the P:\ drive for the user in their "My Computer" (which is now just called Computer in Win7+). This will not make it available offline automatically.

 

The reason being is because when they click Start -> Documents it will take them to their C:\Users\%username%\Documents folder because we have not yet setup the redirection to make that link go to their home folder location (P:\).

 

So in Group Policy, we setup that redirection. This is a user based policy.

 

In my environment, in my staff user policy, I have redirection setup:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25415[/ATTACH]

 

So under User Configuration -> Policies -> Windows Settings -> Folder Redirection -> *Right click* Documents and choose properties and I have chosen "Redirect to the user's home directory". On the Settings tab, I don't grant them exclusivity, don't move because I dont need to and I have Windows 7+ throughout the environment so we don't need to turn on legacy features.

 

By simply setting this policy, on the next restart of your client the P:\ drive will now be available offline and the "Sync Center" icon will appear on it.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25416[/ATTACH]

 

You can prevent this automatically happening by enabling the policy Do not automatically make specific redirected folders available offline found:

 

User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Folder Redirection -> Do not automatically make specific redirected folders available offline.

 

The reason this is here is because sometimes people don't want to use offline files. In XP environments this was common as XP offlines files were very difficult to manage, not because of the administrator, but because of the limitations built into XP and Server 2003.

 

Now because sometimes Synchronization doesn't always play ball, even on Windows 7, it is a good idea to allow your users access to the Sync Center area on Control Panel. This is optional, but because offline folders is a user based setting, as an admin you will be prevented by your own restrictions troubleshooting.

 

So I set the policy in my control panel restrictions to allow this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25417[/ATTACH]

 

User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Show Only Specified Control Panel Items -> Add in Microsoft.SyncCenter

 

For a full list of Windows 7 Canonical Names visit this link: Canonical Names of Control Panel Items (Windows)

 

Now finally, if you have a migrated environment, it is wise to turn on offline files. By the sounds of things you don't need to do this as you have already seen synchronizations, but for the benefit of others, you need to turn on offline files if in the past you have had them turned off.

 

Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> Offline Files -> Allow or Disallow use of the Offline Files feature.

 

Set to Enable.

 

This is always a good on or off switch you can use if you only want Synchronization on certain machines. So you say if you are a laptop, turn on offline files, if you are a desktop turn it off.

 

My environment I live the Microsoft Dream and have a 1:1 ratio of laptops to students and 1:1 of desktops/laptops to staff. So I have it all turned on because no computer is shared.

 

Offline files is good to turn off for shared machines. If a desktop is allocated to an individual, it is good to have on because if the server's go down, they can continue to work from their offline files cache, another safety net for you.

 

Essentially, for my documents synchronization you are all done from here. There is no need to really play with anything else.

 

What if what I want sync'd is not in their documents?

 

This is when you can use the policy Administratively assign Offline Files.

 

User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> Offline Files -> Specify Administratively assigned offline files.

 

Here you can specify a file using a unc path (\\servername\share\file). I use this for a certain file for a certain application. Meaning when offline they can still receive the settings I set server side. Clever stuff, but all optional.

 

Within this same location is where you can specify if you want to encrypt etc. I'm confident you can read a list, so i'll let you have a ganders there.

 

I hope this helps you all out with your issues mate and I hope this answers a few questions for those just curious.

 

Any other questions, by all means, that is what a forum is for.

 

Regards,

 

Dan

 

Hello again

 

If you read my last post it will sound like I had some success getting offline files to work, this is turns out is not the case as if#t was not working on any given machine for any given user so I am now working through your advice here step by step.

 

However you mention "So under User Configuration -> Policies -> Windows Settings -> Folder Redirection -> *Right click* Documents and choose properties and I have chosen "Redirect to the user's home directory". On the Settings tab, I don't grant them exclusivity, don't move because I dont need to and I have Windows 7+ throughout the environment so we don't need to turn on legacy features."

 

When I get to this point in the policy here it is set to "create a folder for each user under the root path". What will happen if I change it to re-direct to the user's home directory?