Windows 7 file and folder refresh not working correctly. Anyone know a fix?

[adhutton]

We are having a problem on our Windows 7 PCs with file and folder refresh....

 

When a user deletes a file/folder or creates a new file/folder in either Windows Explorer or on their desktop, the view does not refresh immediately and the user has to either press F5 or close the window and then open it again to see any changes.

 

This is causing problems with some users as they are creating new folders and nothing appears to happen, so they try it again..and again..and again.... Eventually when the view refreshes, there are several new folders sitting there!!!!

 

The affected drives are network, mapped drives and reside on a (Windows 2003) file server.

 

I have Googled this already and it seems to be a known Win7/Server 2008 problem, but at the moment I can't find a suitable fix!!!

 

Has anyone seen this problem or know of a working fix please?

 

Cheers_ Andrew

[john]

I have had this issue for a while and put it down to my annoying Oracle storage systems, but in a way glad its happening to someone else. I do find F5 the solution or a quick reboot seems to solve it as well, its not a solution but you are not alone.

 

One thing that someone suggested was ensure that Offline files on the share and caching of the share is disabled which would make sense unless you actually need them on so maybe worth trying those in your situation. I would but ours are direct shares off the Oracle SAN so not possible to tweak them settings as its obviously not a Windows box.

[adhutton]

Thanks John. I am really surprised that nobody else on here seems to have anything to contribute, considering this seems to be a pretty big issue for lots of people. The problem really annoys me, and is now starting to significantly annoy our users!

 

This post on Technet has over 250 responses to an ongoing issue which MS haven't yet fixed! (I found it whilst looking for a solution)...

 

Windows Explorer doesn't refresh when moving/deleting

 

If anyone else has experienced the problem or has found a permanent/temporary fix then we would really like to hear about it, thanks.

 

Andrew

Edited July 11, 2012 by adhutton

[sted]

i had this on my home pc. Turned out to be down to a mapped network drive that wasn't available deleted the network drive and problem went away

[john]

The more annoyingly strange one I have is you delete a file and folder and then refresh and its back! Its like magic you blink and voilla its there again and you can rinse and repeat this game for many hours on end as it just keeps doing it. Never solved that one either, usually come back a bit later or reboot and it stops doing it but cannot put it down to W7 or the SAN, in my case I'm blaming the blasted SAN

[psydii]

Yes here is the fix: Patch everything in the networking stack between the bare-metal of the ethernet all the way up though to the explorer gui.

 

Here is a list of the hotfixes I recommend: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/95480-disabling-offline-files-server-2008-win-7-pro.html#post832973 ignore the name of the thread - there is no need to disable offline files as they are integral to the way Windows works.

 

We also updated the nic drivers and firmware.

 

This lot solved the issue for us.

 

Advice is derived from the following technet blog: How the synchronization in Windows 7 Offline Files works - Romania Networking Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

[adhutton]

Yes here is the fix: Patch everything in the networking stack between the bare-metal of the ethernet all the way up though to the explorer gui.

 

Here is a list of the hotfixes I recommend: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/95480-disabling-offline-files-server-2008-win-7-pro.html#post832973 ignore the name of the thread - there is no need to disable offline files as they are integral to the way Windows works.

 

We also updated the nic drivers and firmware.

 

This lot solved the issue for us.

 

Advice is derived from the following technet blog: How the synchronization in Windows 7 Offline Files works - Romania Networking Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

 

I will give those a try and let you know. Many thanks.

 

Andrew

[adhutton]

We have tried all of the fixes listed, but still have the problem.

 

Anyone else got any ideas? This is driving me mad.....!!!!

 

Andrew

[psydii]

Sorry to hear that that hasn't worked for you.

 

In the default state when a client writes to a file share, the changes go to direct to the server, while read operations are served from the cache.

 

My guess would be that this issue is caused by Explorer either displaying a cache of the last result from the CSC, or the CSC not having updated its cached to reflect the change yet.

 

 

Does this problem occur if you **uninstall** (disabling isn't enough, since the filter driver will remain in the data path) your av from a workstation?

 

Also can I just check what version of ntoskrnl.exe, csc.sys, mrxsmb10.sys, mup.sys, rdbss.sys, explorer.exe and shell32.dll have you now got?

Edited August 24, 2012 by psydii

[RJD00IS]

When addressing failure to refresh Windows Explorer directory trees of shared folders over a Home Network of PCs, I recently I provided an answer on the Microsoft Answers Forum that fixed my shared Network Directory Tree refresh issues without any gimmick work around. It involves your Windows LAN Manager Server Registry parameter IRPStackSize. Increasing the value of that parameter resolved refresh issues on deleted and moved file entries.

 

 

 

You can see that forum thread at:

Shared folder, Windows 7 does not auto refresh the files as they are - Microsoft Community

 

Hope someone finds that helpful.