Roaming Profile not Syncing

[Hightower]

Strange one, on our new network I'm tinkering with roaming profiles. This is what is happening.

 

1) Logon as new user

2) Play about a bit, logoff. No profile uploaded to server

3) Logon as same user again, logoff, no profile uploaded to server

4) Restart machine

5) Logon as same user once more, logoff, profile gets uploaded.

 

I've checked the before/after permissions and owner of the server profile location, and nothing is changing so it doesn't appear to be permissions related.

 

Anybody come across this before?

[X-13]

Did it drop the network?

[Hightower]

Did it drop the network?

 

I've tried with multiple users, if you mean 'was this a one off'

[X-13]

Nah, I mean did the computer lose the network connection.

 

 

It's happened here a lot. With 2 specific computers. Every. Single. Day.

 

They lose the connection and rely on a cache profile. So it doesn't get updated serverside. It keeps internet access, but loses the ability to access the server for files and shared drives.

[Hightower]

Nah, I mean did the computer lose the network connection.

 

 

It's happened here a lot. With 2 specific computers. Every. Single. Day.

 

They lose the connection and rely on a cache profile. So it doesn't get updated serverside. It keeps internet access, but loses the ability to access the server for files and shared drives.

 

I doubt it. There's nothing in Event Viewer saying that the profile failed to upload. It's a VM, and the host didn't drop the network so I have no reason to believe the VM would.

 

It's almost as if it doesn't have a profile location set in AD, until the machine restarts and then as if it says "oh, I should be storing my profile there"

[Hightower]

Can I give this a bump - it's really quite strange.

 

Just created a new user, logged onto Machine A, logged off - no profile uploaded to server. Then logged same user onto Machine B, logged off - profile uploaded.

 

It's almost as if the user has to logon/logoff once before it's realised that the profile should be uploaded to the server.

[alan-d]

Does the user get issued with a Temporary profile when logging in? (Message in notification bar) But otherwise everything looks normal? I just started getting this with a new user I'm testing.

[sted]

you havnt made your user(s) a member of domain guests have you. I did that to my test user forgot about it then ages later i started playing road with roaming profiles and wondered why they werent propagating to the server

[alan-d]

I haven't no. Mine is a direct copy of the one I've been using for months.

[Hightower]

Does the user get issued with a Temporary profile when logging in? (Message in notification bar) But otherwise everything looks normal? I just started getting this with a new user I'm testing.

 

Doesn't look like it. Looks like a normal profile is created locally on the machine, but doesn't get uploaded. Then they logon to a 2nd machine, another profile is created locally but this time when they log off it does get uploaded - only seems to be the very first time they logon.

 

you havnt made your user(s) a member of domain guests have you. I did that to my test user forgot about it then ages later i started playing road with roaming profiles and wondered why they werent propagating to the server

 

Nope, accounts are members of the Domain Users group & a group I created called staff with a few things changed in GPO (backgrounds etc).

[sted]

might be worth checking the group staff or group domain users havnt been added to group domain guests

[Hightower]

might be worth checking the group staff or group domain users havnt been added to group domain guests

 

The only member is guest

[sted]

The only member is guest

 

fair enough at least its something ruled out

[Hightower]

Also, I've just removed any custom GPO's from the users (such as my staff GPO) and tested again. It's still doing it, so it rules out any changes I've made in GPO.

 

Stumped, well and truly!

[Hightower]

I forgot the workstations also had a policy applied. I have since removed the link to this GPO and now it seems profiles are no longer uploading at all. Where as before, it was the second logoff when it uploaded, now I've tried 3 restarts/logons/logoffs and still nothing has uploaded.

 

The only thing that this GPO was doing (other than basics like removing last logged on user from logon box) was delprof.exe on startup.

 

EDIT: Scratch that, the profile got uploaded on the 3rd try.

 

Going to try a brand new XP install from scratch to rule out the OS.

[Hightower]

Alright, a brand new install of XP SP2, and the roaming profile is uploading to the server on first logoff. Must have changed something pretty important in my image, so guess I'll try rebuilding my image and trying again!

[alan-d]

My problem was me being stupid and forgetting to give the new user permissions in the test folder I was using

 

[Pete10141748]

I have had this happen from time to time, mainly with Windows 7 builds. Earlier in the week I spent hours trying to create a new profile for a new member of staff on a new laptop with W7, and no matter what I did it just would not create a profile. Most of the time it gave a temporary profile once logged in, but created the folder structure "[name].V2" on the server with all the correct permissions. Finally I went to another machine, logged in as the user and bam! straight away it worked. Went back to the new laptop and logged in, and everything worked fine.

 

Had this happen with XP machines too though, in our old office set-up me and the (ex)techie had a note reminding us not use to use a certain couple of machines to create profiles as they never worked.

 

Very strange stuff!

[Hightower]

I don't get it. I created a clean XP and it worked fine. So then I decided to rebuild my image.

 

I made a new WDS image with XP Pro, installed SP3 and all update. Then put on .net 1-4, client side extensions, and the 888111 audio hotfix, captured the sysprepped machine. Then I put this new minimal image on a machine, tried again and we are back to the same as before.

 

Stumped!

[Hightower]

Okay, after a couple of days solid of install something, join domain, test it is definately when I install SP3 as part of the image. So without SP3 profiles are uploaded at first logoff, whereas with SP3 on I have to loggof, restart the machine, log on and the profile is uploaded at this second logoff.

 

Seems I can't use SP3 as part of my image, but can anyone help me answer:

 

1) Why does this happen?

2) If I don't include SP3 as part of my image, is the same going to happen still when I roll it out using WSUS?

[Hightower]

Okay, found the issue and posting here incase anyone else stumbles on it. Glad to see the back of it, that's for sure!

 

It turns out that when you have SP3 installed and also have the checkbox ticked for "User must change password at next logon" in AD it causes this kind of problem. Installation of When you try to log on to a Windows XP SP3-based computer by using a roaming profile, the roaming profile cannot load. and plenty of testing later and it seems to be rectified.