Offline files and Folder Redirection
We are testing folder redirection with Windows 7 and are having some issues. 1) Offline files are failing to synchronize with one of our file servers. Clients receive an Access Denied error. Our users documents are redirected to \\<servername>\users\users\<username>. I noticed that the sync centre is trying to synchronize in the following location which is wrong \\<servername>\users. Obviously this isn't going to work and the users will receive an access denied error. I can't see anywhere I can correct this either on the client or with Group Policy2) If I try to disable offline files with Group Policy the folder redirection doesn't work properly. When users click Start, then try to click documents nothing happens. When offline files are re-enabled everything works again. The file servers are fully indexing all the user shares. Thanks for the help in advance.
December 14th, 2009 9:07am

What is the location of the redirection? If it is on a computer, what is the operation system? I suggest you check if the permissions are correct. Make sure that the user have full control right on the folder. If the above suggestion does not help, temporary disable the firewall and check the result again. If the issue persists, please change the NTLM authentication level. You may refer the following website. Network security: LAN Manager authentication level Please change Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated. If your Windows 7 system is Windows 7 Home Premium, you may need to configure it via Registry. 1. Launch regedit from Start Search box.2. Find the following branch. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa 3. Create a DWORD key under Lsa and set: Name: LmCompatibilityLevel Value: 1 4. Restart. Hope it helps.Arthur Xie - MSFT
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December 17th, 2009 11:47am

Hi Arthur, Sorry for the delay in my reply. We are running Windows 7 Enterprise 32-Bit desktops and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise 32-Bit for our file server. I really don't want to use offline files in my network, so I guess what I am really trying to achieve is the ability to use Windows 7 with Folder Redirection turned on and NOT use offline files. Is this possible? All my testing has reviled that I CAN NOT run Windows 7 with Folder Redirection if I have Offline Files turned off. Thanks in advance.
January 13th, 2010 2:54am

If anyone is interested, the issue was with the users home drive share on the file server. The NTFS permissions were incorrectly setup. Once the permission were fixed Windows 7 was able to redirect users documents directory to their home drives.
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June 21st, 2010 4:55am

Hi Arthur, Sorry for the delay in my reply. We are running Windows 7 Enterprise 32-Bit desktops and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise 32-Bit for our file server. I really don't want to use offline files in my network, so I guess what I am really trying to achieve is the ability to use Windows 7 with Folder Redirection turned on and NOT use offline files. Is this possible? All my testing has reviled that I CAN NOT run Windows 7 with Folder Redirection if I have Offline Files turned off. Thanks in advance. Hi, I see you managed to sort the drive shares out. Did you figure out how to run Folder Redirection with offline files turned off though in the end? Thanks.
August 19th, 2010 6:54pm

Hi Lad29, Sorry for the late reply. I haven't used technet forums in awhile. Yes I did end up getting my Windows 7 workstations to apply UNC paths to document libraries with offline files turned off. There are a few steps in the process. 1) Make sure your network shares are indexed by your file servers 2) I disabled offline files with a GPO 3) Make sure your NTFS permissions are correct. We had nested folders and the permissions were setup incorrectly. This meant users couldn't traverse the folder structure and the UNC paths wouldn't map in the documents library. 4) I used Folder Redirection GPO to apply the UNC paths to user’s document libraries in Windows 7
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November 23rd, 2010 7:22am

Did you figure out how to run Folder Redirection with offline files turned off though in the end? It turns out the main factor is the SHARE permissions. If share permissions are set for everyone=readonly the problem occurs. If share permissions are set for everyone=full the problem goes away.
October 4th, 2011 12:14am

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