Troubleshooting Files and Folders Management

This section presents some common situations that might arise when managing files and folders and the most likely causes for these problems.

Folder Redirection Registry Keys

To help troubleshoot problems with Folder Redirection, you can view the registry settings to determine whether folders are redirected and see the path to the redirected location.

Caution

• Do not edit the registry unless you have no alternative. The registry editor bypasses standard safeguards, allowing settings that can damage your system, or even require you to reinstall Windows. If you must edit the registry, back it up first and see the Registry Reference in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit at http://www.microsoft.com/reskit.

To view redirected folder information in the registry

1. In the Run dialog box, type regedit.exe, and then click OK.
2. Navigate to the registry subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

If a folder has not been redirected, the Data value will be the default location in the user profile, as shown in Table 6.4.

Table 6.4   Registry Keys for Redirected Folders

Registry Key Name	Type	Data
AppData	REG_EXPAND_SZ	%USERPROFILE%\Application Data
Desktop	REG_EXPAND_SZ	%USERPROFILE%\Desktop
Personal	REG_EXPAND_SZ	%USERPROFILE%\My Documents
My Pictures	REG_EXPAND_SZ	%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Pictures
Start Menu	REG_EXPAND_SZ	%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu

If a folder has been redirected, the Data value will be the redirected path.

Folders Are Not Redirected

Using Group Policy, you configure a user managed by a Group Policy object to have the user's My Documents folder redirected to the server share \\ServerName\MyDocs\Username. When the user logs on to the network, the My Documents folder is not redirected to this server.

Possible causes

• The client computer is running Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, or Windows 98.
• Group Policy is not applied.
• The network share is unavailable and Offline Files is not enabled.
• The user does not have sufficient access rights to the share on which you have redirected the folder.
• There is a disk quota that has been exceeded on the target folder.
• You use a mapped drive for the target path rather than a UNC path.

Diagnostic tests

To help determine the cause of the problem use the following tests.

• Operating System. Confirm that the client computer is running Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. Group Policy does not work on earlier versions of the Windows operating system.
• Group Policy. Run Gpresult.exe in verbose mode to check whether the correct GPOs containing Folder Redirection configuration information are applied and that the expected folders are redirected.

  At the command line, type:

  gpresult /v

  This displays Group Policy setting applied to the current computer for the currently logged-on user. The following output illustrates the results of this command. If similar results are not present, no Group Policy is applied for Folder Redirection.

  The user received "Folder Redirection" settings from these Group Policy objects:
      EU-RedirectedDesktop-Marketing
          Revision Number:    16
          Unique Name:    {C19SADC-A8E8-11D2-9BEB-00A024070A22}
          Domain Name:    ntdev.reskit.com
          Source:        Domain
  
      EU-FolderRedirection-Building26
          Revision Number:    11
          Unique Name:    {FBEE2508-BCAA-11D2-B3EE-00C04FA3787A}
          Domain Name:    ntdev.reskit.com
          Source:        Domain
      Desktop is redirected to \\policy1\desktop\%username%
      My Documents is redirected to \\policy1\mydocs1\%username%
      My Pictures is redirected to \\policy1\mydocs1\%username%\My Pictures
  

• Network Connectivity. Ping the server by its IP address to test base-level IP connectivity; ping the server by name to test Domain Name System (DNS) name resolution.

  If the server that contains redirected folders is offline, and Offline Files is disabled, users cannot access their data. For more information about how to enable Offline Files, see "Implementing Offline Files" earlier in this chapter.

  If the server that contains the redirected folders is offline, and Offline Files is enabled, users should have access to their data if those files were accessed when the users were previously online. If these files and folders are not available, see "Files Available When Online Are Not Available When Offline" later in this chapter.

• Insufficient Access Rights. Verify that the user has enough file security to access folders to which his or her data is redirected. You should assign a user Full Control security access on the access control lists (ACLs) of the root of the share where he or she redirects data.
• Disk Quota. Check whether there is a disk quota enabled on the volume that contains the redirected folder. If there is a quota enabled, make sure that this quota is not exceeded. If it is exceeded, increase the quota or have the user delete files.
• Mapped Drive. Check the folder redirection target in the applicable GPO. If it is a mapped drive, change it to the UNC path for the share location. Folder redirection is processed before drive mappings, so mapped drives are not recognized by the folder redirection component.

Folder Redirection Is Successful but Files and Folders Are Unavailable

Using Group Policy, you configure a user managed by a Group Policy object to have his or her My Documents folder redirected to the server share \\ServerName\MyDocs\Username. When the user logs on, the folders are successfully redirected, but are not available to the user on this redirected share.

Possible causes

• The network share is unavailable, and Offline Files is not enabled or the items are not available in the local cache.
• The user does not have sufficient access rights to the share on which you have redirected the folder.
• When using applications, open and save operations have hard-coded locations and do not use the redirected path.

Diagnostic tests

To help determine the cause of the problem use the following tests.

• Network Connectivity. Ping the server by its IP address to test base-level IP connectivity; ping the server by name to test DNS name resolution.

  If the server that contains redirected folders is offline, and Offline Files is disabled, users cannot access their data. For more information about how to enable Offline Files, see "Implementing Offline Files" earlier in this chapter.

  If the server that contains the redirected folders is offline, and Offline Files is enabled, users should have access to their data if those files were accessed when the users were previously online. If these files and folders are not available, see "Files Available When Online Are Not Available When Offline" later in this chapter.

• Insufficient Access Rights. Verify that the user has enough file security to access folders to which his or her data is redirected. You should assign a user Full Control security access on the access control lists (ACLs) of the root of the share where he or she will redirect data. At a minimum, the user should have Read and Write access if he or she is saving and retrieving documents.
• Applications Using Hard-Coded Paths. Check the applications that the user is using. Older applications might not be able to recognize the redirected folders.

  Check the applications that the user is using. Older applications might not be able to recognize the redirected folders.

Offline Files Do Not Synchronize

A user cannot synchronize certain files or folders.

Possible causes

• Files with the file name extensions .mdb, .ldb, .mdw, .mde, and .db are not synchronized by default.
• You have configured a Group Policy setting to specify additional file name extensions that cannot be synchronized.
• Network connection problems prevent accessing the files they want synchronized.
• Insufficient disk space exists on the client computer to synchronize files.
• The user does not have Read or Write permissions on files they want synchronized.

Diagnostic tests

To help determine the cause of the problem use the following tests.

• Extensions Not Synchronized. Check the file name extensions of the files that were not synchronized to confirm that they are not on the list of files to exclude.

  Check whether you have applied any Group Policy settings that restrict other extensions from being synchronized.

  Check the following Group Policy setting:

  Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files\Files not cached

  Using this Group Policy setting, you can designate additional file name extensions that cannot be synchronized. You can check this on your client by running the Gpresult.exe tool and looking for the following in the output:

  KeyName:    Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetCache
  ValueName:    ExcludeExtensions
  ValueType:    REG_SZ
  Value:        *.xls
  

  Any file name extensions listed in the Value line are not synchronized. In this example, any files with the extension .xls are not synchronized. The user cannot override this Group Policy setting.

• Network Connectivity. Ping the server by its IP address to test base-level IP connectivity; ping the server by name to test DNS name resolution.

  Use the net view \\servername command to view the server and its shared resources. You should be able to see the share name that stores the files. This also confirms that the user has rights to access the share.

• Insufficient Disk Space. Check the amount of free disk space on the client to make sure there is sufficient disk space to synchronize the missing files.
• Insufficient Access Rights. Check user permissions on the unsynchronized files.

User Cannot Make Files and Folders Available Offline

The user right-clicks a file or folder to make it available for offline use, but Make Available Offline does not appear.

Possible causes

• The file or folder selected is actually a local file or folder and not on a network file share.
• The user is trying to make his or her redirected My Documents folder available offline but does not have access to the file share.
• Offline Files is not enabled, or a Group Policy setting was applied to disable Offline Files.
• User is in a multi-concurrent user environment, such as Terminal Services or Fast User Switching. These environments are not compatible with Offline Files.

Diagnostic tests

To help determine the cause of the problem use the following tests.

• Local File or Folder. Validate that the file or folder is on a network file share and not a local share.
• Insufficient Access to My Documents File Share. If the Make Available Offline option appears when you right-click a file or folder, but not when you right-click a redirected My Documents folder, then you should check that the My Documents folder is actually redirected successfully and is not local. Then verify that the user has appropriate file security to read and write to the location where the My Documents folder is redirected.
• Offline Files Not Enabled. Check whether Offline Files is enabled.

To verify that Offline Files is enabled

1. Click My Computer.
2. Click Tools, and then select Folder Options.
3. Click the Offline Files tab.
4. Select the Enable Offline Files check box.

   If this procedure does not enable Offline Files, there might be a Group Policy setting that prevents Offline Files from being enabled. The Group Policy setting that controls this is:

   Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files\Enable

   To see if this Group Policy setting is applied, run Gpresult.exe in verbose mode on the client computer. Compare the output of this tool to the following sample:

   KeyName: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetCache
   ValueName: Enabled
   ValueType: REG_SZ
   Value:
   

   If the output of Gpresult.exe on your client looks like the example, this Group Policy setting is applied and Offline Files is disabled. You must change this Group Policy setting to enable Offline Files.

   Note

   • When the Group Policy setting Enable Offline Files is configured with a setting of Disable, the Offline Files feature is disabled.

Files Available When Online Are Not Available When Offline

Documents and programs that are accessible when connected to the network are not synchronized with the local cache for offline use.

Possible causes

• The files reside on a computer that is not running Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. Computers running previous versions of Windows do not support automatic caching of files and folders.
• Offline files are not enabled on the local computer.
• Allow caching of files in this shared folder is not enabled on the file share where the documents are being accessed orAllow caching of files in this shared folder is enabled but is not set to Automatic Caching.

Diagnostic tests

To help determine the cause of the problem use the following tests.

• Windows Version. Check whether the server containing the file share is running Windows 2000 Server. Check that the client is running Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional.
• Offline Files Not Enabled. Navigate to a network file share, right-click a file or folder, and then check whether there is a Make Available Offline shortcut menu.
• Caching Not Enabled or Not Automatic. Use the following procedure to check caching settings on the file share.

To check the configuration of the file share

1. On the file server containing the file share, click My Computer.
2. Navigate to the folder that is shared, right-click the folder, and then select Properties.
3. Click the Sharing tab, and then click Caching.
4. Make sure the Allow caching of files in this shared folder check box is selected.
5. In the box, select one of the following:
   • Automatic Caching for Documents if this share contains documents.
   • Automatic Caching for Programs if this share contains application files.