Vanishing Files in File Explorer

[dtstivo]

We have a frustrating issue with Windows 10 file explore with what appears to be vanishing files? A user will view their homearea folder on a workstation and all files will be present. They can then return to the folder a while later on the same workstation and it appears that some of the files have gone, vanished. Although If at the same time I RDC into the server the files are indeed present. A refresh of the file explorer still won't show the files. Then after a short period the user on the same workstation can return to there homearea and all files are present and correct?!?!?

 

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on and what is causing this issue. It is causing frustration not only to us, but to the teachers and students.

 

Thank you in advance for any ideas any of you may have.

[bknaggs]

Is it happening at the same time as a backup routine is running? Depending on the backup software in use brief network dropouts can occur at the same time as the snapshot is being removed.

[dtstivo]

Hi, thanks for your reply, no our backups all run over night.

[aleach2]

Disable the offline files service and try again. We had something similar at a site we looked after.

[dtstivo]

Brilliant, I will try that and see if it improves things, many thanks.

[Domino]

Are they on a drive mapped by GPP? It sounds similar to behaviour we saw recently: https://www.urtech.ca/2017/01/solved-file-explorer-mapped-drives-close-spontaneously/

[dtstivo]

Yes mapped via GPO, trying the solutions mentioned by Aleach2

[Michael]

I suspect this is a DNS issue - try restarting the DNS service on the server, then performing comparisons between -

 

\\server\share

 

\\server.fqdn\share

[dtstivo]

I suspect this is a DNS issue - try restarting the DNS service on the server, then performing comparisons between -

 

\\server\share

 

\\server.fqdn\share

 

No harm in giving this a try either, many thanks.

[dtstivo]

None of the above seems to have cured this problem.

 

It definitely centres around Windows 10 machines. Offline syncing all switch off in the GPO of users and computers, restarted the DNS. You can have a Windows 10 and Windows 7 computer side by side and the file isn't appearing on the Windows 10 computer but is on the windows 7 one???

[ap_]

Does command line or a third party file explorer show the same results?

[dtstivo]

Just to update, we think we have solved it. It appears to be an issue in Windows 10 1803 not starting the services fdPHost and fdResPub. Set by default to manual start. Enabled this via GPO under Computer Config -> Preferences -> Control Panel -> Services and all now seems to be working as is. Hope this helps others and thanks for everyone for taking the time help solve this.