missing offline files

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We use offline files for a few years now and it's working fine. A few weeks

ago some of our users noticed that synchronizing was very slow. Normally it

took seconds to check for differences, now it took minutes. They also

noticed they missed a large amount of their (offline) files.

I re-initialized the offline files cache (kb 230738) and created a new local

copy. The files are still missing. When I look with the explorer, tools,

folder options, offline files, view files I see all the files and most of

them say "local copy is incomplete".

I tested on another PC with another user and it works fine.

Does anyone have an idea what might be wrong and how to solve this?

 

Regards

 

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[Guest David Shen [MSFT]]

RE: missing offline files

 

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for posting in newsgroup.

 

According to the post, this seems to be performance issue.

 

Before we move on, please collect some information for the further analysis.

 

Information needed:

======================

 

1. Do these problematic clients locate within the same LAN or in the same

site?

 

2. Was the server available when the client attempt to synchronize offline

files?

 

3. Was the network connection between the problematic clients and the

server stable (fast or slow link)?

 

4. Was "Fast User Switching feature" enabled on the problematic clients?

 

Here are some suggestions which may be helpful for you.

 

Analysis and Suggestion:

======================

 

1. If a server has been unavailable (offline mode) and then becomes

available again for connection, Offline Files Client Side Caching tries to

transition that server to online mode if all the following conditions are

true:

 

a. There are no offline changes for that server on the local computer.

b. There are no open file handles for that server on the local computer.

c. The server is accessed over a "fast" link.

 

With following steps, we can configure Offline Files Client Side Caching to

ignore these conditions and transition the server to online mode regardless

of whether these conditions exist.

 

To do this, please follow these steps:

 

a. Click Start, click Run, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.

 

b. Locate and click the following registry subkey:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache

 

c. Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

 

d. Type SilentForcedAutoReconnect, and then press ENTER to name the value.

 

e. Double-click SilentForcedAutoReconnect.

 

f. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

 

Please note: After you apply this steps, the following behavior may occur:

 

a. Any offline changes will remain unsynchronized and unavailable until the

changes are synchronized in the future. This situation causes a dirty cache

condition that is announced through a small warning overlay image on the

Offline Files icon in the notification area.

 

b. Any open handles to files that are cached on the associated server will

be automatically closed and invalidated. This action may cause problems if

the programs that are using those files cannot work gracefully with invalid

file handles.

 

c. If the server is available over a slow network link, such as a satellite

link or a telephone line, the server will still be transitioned online.

This scenario may cause very slow access to the remote file system on the

server from the local computer.

 

2. If the "Fast User Switching feature" is enabled on the clients, the

offline files should not work normally. We cannot use fast user switching

when you use offline files.

 

We can disable the "Fast User Switching feature" with following steps:

 

a. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

b. In Category view, click User Accounts.

c. Click Change the way users log on or off.

d. Clear the Use Fast User Switching check box, and then click Apply

Options.

e. Quit User Accounts, and then quit Control Panel.

 

Reference:

==============

 

How to use offline files in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307853

 

Files that you add to the Offline Files folder on a Windows XP-based

computer are synchronized when another person uses the computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811660

 

Hope it helps. Thanks.

 

David Shen

Microsoft Online Partner Support

[Guest Ad]

RE: missing offline files

 

It are laptops which, of course, are not always on the same LAN. But, when

they sync, they are always on our local LAN. When they are connected to the

local LAN the server is available and the speed is high. Fast user switching

is off since we're on a domain. To be sure I took one of the laptops out of

the domain and checked if it was really off. It was.

It's just a few of our laptops who experience this, most of them are OK.

We use a GPO with some offline settings.

 

Computer config :

Prohibit user configuration of Offline Files : disabled

Default cache size : 2500

 

User config:

Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline : enabled

Prohibit user configuration of Offline Files : disabled

 

Regards

 

Ad

 

 

"David Shen [MSFT]" wrote:

> Dear Customer,

>

> Thank you for posting in newsgroup.

>

> According to the post, this seems to be performance issue.

>

> Before we move on, please collect some information for the further analysis.

>

> Information needed:

> ======================

>

> 1. Do these problematic clients locate within the same LAN or in the same

> site?

>

> 2. Was the server available when the client attempt to synchronize offline

> files?

>

> 3. Was the network connection between the problematic clients and the

> server stable (fast or slow link)?

>

> 4. Was "Fast User Switching feature" enabled on the problematic clients?

>

> Here are some suggestions which may be helpful for you.

>

> Analysis and Suggestion:

> ======================

>

> 1. If a server has been unavailable (offline mode) and then becomes

> available again for connection, Offline Files Client Side Caching tries to

> transition that server to online mode if all the following conditions are

> true:

>

> a. There are no offline changes for that server on the local computer.

> b. There are no open file handles for that server on the local computer.

> c. The server is accessed over a "fast" link.

>

> With following steps, we can configure Offline Files Client Side Caching to

> ignore these conditions and transition the server to online mode regardless

> of whether these conditions exist.

>

> To do this, please follow these steps:

>

> a. Click Start, click Run, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.

>

> b. Locate and click the following registry subkey:

>

> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache

>

> c. Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

>

> d. Type SilentForcedAutoReconnect, and then press ENTER to name the value.

>

> e. Double-click SilentForcedAutoReconnect.

>

> f. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

>

> Please note: After you apply this steps, the following behavior may occur:

>

> a. Any offline changes will remain unsynchronized and unavailable until the

> changes are synchronized in the future. This situation causes a dirty cache

> condition that is announced through a small warning overlay image on the

> Offline Files icon in the notification area.

>

> b. Any open handles to files that are cached on the associated server will

> be automatically closed and invalidated. This action may cause problems if

> the programs that are using those files cannot work gracefully with invalid

> file handles.

>

> c. If the server is available over a slow network link, such as a satellite

> link or a telephone line, the server will still be transitioned online.

> This scenario may cause very slow access to the remote file system on the

> server from the local computer.

>

> 2. If the "Fast User Switching feature" is enabled on the clients, the

> offline files should not work normally. We cannot use fast user switching

> when you use offline files.

>

> We can disable the "Fast User Switching feature" with following steps:

>

> a. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

> b. In Category view, click User Accounts.

> c. Click Change the way users log on or off.

> d. Clear the Use Fast User Switching check box, and then click Apply

> Options.

> e. Quit User Accounts, and then quit Control Panel.

>

> Reference:

> ==============

>

> How to use offline files in Windows XP

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307853

>

> Files that you add to the Offline Files folder on a Windows XP-based

> computer are synchronized when another person uses the computer

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811660

>

> Hope it helps. Thanks.

>

> David Shen

> Microsoft Online Partner Support

>

>

[Guest David Shen [MSFT]]

RE: missing offline files

 

Hello customer,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

According to the description, here is some information which may be helpful

for you.

 

Analysis and Suggestions:

=======================

 

1. Since a GPO that configured with Offline Files setting is applied, does

the GPO apply on the problematic clients? If so, I would like to suggest

that you disable the GPO first, and then try syncing the offline files on

the clients to the file share on the server.

 

2. Does any virus scanner run on these problematic laptops, based on the

experience, virus scanner will cause the offline files not the sync files

and folders. If possible, please disable or uninstall your anti-virus or

disk scanning software temporarily to test this issue. Meanwhile, to

isolate the influence of additional applications or services, I suggest

that you perform a clean boot to see whether this problem is resolved.

 

After that, please check whether the situation will reoccur.

 

For more information about clean boot troubleshooting, please refer to the

following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

 

Q310560 How to Troubleshoot By Using the msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/5/60.asp

 

3. If the problem continues, please re-initialize the CSC database, and

then create a new share, and then enable offline to see whether this issue

continues.

 

Please refer to:

 

How to re-initialize the offline files cache and database

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230738

 

I look forward to your reply and thank you for your time.

 

David Shen

Microsoft Online Partner Support

[Guest David Shen [MSFT]]

RE: missing offline files

 

Hello customer,

 

How's everything going?

 

I'm wondering if the suggestion has helped or if you have any further

questions. Please feel free to respond to the newsgroups if I can assist

further.

 

David Shen

Microsoft Online Partner Support

[Guest PD43]

Re: missing offline files

 

v-dashen@online.microsoft.com (David Shen [MSFT]) wrote:

>I'm wondering if the suggestion has helped or if you have any further

>questions. Please feel free to respond to the newsgroups if I can assist

>further.

 

It works better if you quote part of the message you are replying to.

[Guest David Shen [MSFT]]

RE: missing offline files

 

Dear Customer,

 

I am happy to hear that it helps.

 

David Shen

Microsoft Online Partner Support