Offline Files Disappearing

I have many PC's with Windows XP that our users just recently have started to use their Active Directory accounts to login instead of their old NT accounts.

When a user logs in they map to certain shares on a server. I enable that drive (Its their U drive" for offline files so that when laptop user go home they can still access the files on that drive.

When they logged in on their NT account this worked a treat but now when they login under their AD account they do not see the drive in My Computer even though you see it syncs when they log off.

STRANGE thing is that when you click Start > Documents and choose a recent document that they were working on that was on the synced U drive they open the file and in My Computer the offline drive, the U drive, now appears!

Its a pain for users to do that just so they can navigate through their offline drive.

Anyone know what causes this? How can I get the offline drive to appear in My Computer straight away?

Very strange!

 

I don't use sync folders myself so cannot provide specific advice. However, I would make the point that when a user logs on to a domain or AD they effectively become a different user even if they use the same credentials.

For example, if I logged on locally to an XP PC as reggieb with the password reggieb, I would receive an system identifier (SID) from the PC. If I then log out and log on to the AD as reggieb with the password reggieb, the AD server will give me a SID. The SID the PC gives me will be different to the SID the AD server gives me. It is the SID that defines the user. As far as the system is concerned, by logging on to the AD, I have logged on as a different user.

I expect therefore, that you will have to reconfigure the mapping and sync for each user again! Start the configuration from scratch and ignore the fact that it worked before when the user were logged on as local users.

 

Thanks for your post but the users was not local users, they were NT Domain users before and now have switched to AD users.

In the "Local Settings" I know see two folders, one is tyhe "username" of the person and the other is "username.AD DOMAIN" which is obviously there new AD account.

In NT4 the offline files worked but in AD they dont.

I took a new PC, new user, enabled offline files, no Group Policy attached to their OU, and logged into the AD account.

Chose the drive I wanted offline and synced it.

Then I disconnected from the network and logged back in as the user and sure enough the offline folder was not visible in My Computer UNTIL I went Start > Documents and accessed a document on the offline drive.

Then the offline drive appeared in My Computer and everything is fine.

Why? What causes that? Why do I have to force the drive to appear by accessing something on it.

I even added the user as a Domain Admin and still the same.

Every user gets this.

Strange!

 

It is very clear now, the offline files must be existed in somewhere in the local computer/notebook. The only flaw is they do not show up in "My computer" under the offline folder.

Could you "search" one of the offline files and find out where the offline files are when the computer/notebook is offline?

 

Oh I know where the files exist. They live under the C:\Windows\CSC folder.

And, as I say I can get access to them whilst offline by clicking Start > Documents and opening up a recently viewed document that is on the synced drive and then magically in My Computer the offline drive appears.

But to non computer literate people that is an extreme hassle. All they know is opoen up My Computer and they should see the offline drive.

They dont!

Why does it not appear when I open My Computer, why do I have to access a document on the drive so it then appears in My Computer?

 

Could you create a shortcut of "C:\Windows\CSC" folder on Desktop ?

This is not a perfect solution. However you can have "non computer literate people" to access the folder easily, they don't even need to open "My Computer ".

I am setting up the Windows 2003 Server for my customer next week, if time permit, I will do the test and report it here.

 

Are you running WINS on the AD server? This sounds like it may be another NetBIOS issue. A lot of systems since XP and 2000 server are designed not to use NetBIOS. However, there still seems to be a lot that work best if NetBIOS is working - Windows Explorer being one of them. If you don't have a WINS server, NetBIOS has to sort itself out and you tend to get strange behaviour in Network Neighbourhood as a result. Especially along the lines of finding network resources that are not specifically accessed.

I wonder if this is a related issue.

If this is important to you, I'd be tempted to install WINS on the AD server and add 044 & 046 options in DHCP to force client PC to use WINS. However, you could try using the LMHOSTS file on test systems first.

 

Reggie,

Homerjnick said they did not find the offline folder, did not mention the name resolution has problem when they use notebook in the company.

I think the problem is on client side. When offline, the system could not keep the offline(or Sync) folder under "My computer ".

 

Jason,

I have created the shortcut as a short term fix but that means doing it for everyone on our LAN.

And yes we already have a WINS server on our AD running.

 

If you have a huge number of users, there would be a big task.

Maybe you can write a script which can create shortcut for everyone?

or write a step by step guide(detailed) and send it to whom may need.

 

Yeah I could do that BUT why should I? Its a **** microsoft thing that is supposed to work.

I am the type that would rather find out why it is not working rather than work around it.

Otherwise new members in IT can get confused if it is not documentated.

 

You are right!

My suggestion is temporary for you letting things work. And then you will have time to find out who is the culprit. Or you can contact Microsoft and ask them why do they provide such a terrible product.

 

I added 044 and 046 to our DHCP and this has not resolved the issue.

My users home directory, which lies on a server is also synced and that does appear in My Computer when they are working off the LAN. But other drives do not.

I even thought maybe it could only handle one synced drive so disabled there home directory being available offline but it still didnt make there other drive available offline.