The advantage of Volume Shadow Copy is that files that are locked or in use can still be copied or synchronized. An even more important feature of VSS is that it can help prevent the synchronization mechanism from locking a file during a sync, thereby preventing users from getting errors when they try to save an edited word or excel document. If i understand correctly, the automatic background synchronization feature of windows 7 offline files does not make use of this shadow copy service and it therefore unable to sync open files. I would like to get an explanation why microsoft decided not to make use of the shadow volume for the automatic background synchronization feature of windows 7 offline files. I think this is very strange since there is so much synchronization/backup software available these days that does support the shadow copy feature. Even completely free ones, like freefilesync and cobian backup.

Hi ruudboek, Thanks for posting in TechNet forum. The Volume Shadow Copy Service(VSS) captures and copies stable images for backup on running systems, particularly servers, without unduly degrading the performance and stability of the services they provide. The VSS solution is designed to enable developers to enable developers to create services that can be effectively backed up by any vendor's backup application using VSS. It's designed for the data backup and recovery. And the Offline Files, known as Client Side Caching (CSC), it's designed for maing network files available to an end user when a network connection to the server is unavailable or slow. These two technology focus on different purpose and architechture. You can refer to this blog: Work smarter with offline files and shadow copy. It's very appreciated that you noticed this improved technology and give us the suggestion. If you have any creative ideas about the Windows 7 features, please submit your feedback to the Product Feedback Team: http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%20%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Microsoft clearly also designed it to facilitate the "Usually Offline support with Background Sync": http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff183315(WS.10).aspx If users are usually offline, or work on branch offices that only have a slow link to the server, they will be very, if not, completely dependent on the background sync. Since they will hold files open and could save to a file that is at the same time being used by the sync background process , what sync intervals would you recommend for that scenario?

Thanks for the quick response. The Background Sync is a machine-specific setting in Group Policy. By default, network in the "slow-link" mode will be synchronized with the server every 360 minutes with the start of the sync varying between 0 and additional minutes. To set the sync intervals should also consider the server ability and the network connection. It depends on different situation. Refer to: How the synchronization in Windows 7 Offline Files works Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Some of our users are working in a permanent "slow link" branch office will also be using a connection to a terminal server. From that Terminal server, they will be putting files in their home directory, and continue working on those files from their laptop. That laptop will also be taken home so they can continue to work on those files offline. That working method will require the background synchronization to happen much more frequently then 360 minutes. Will a 5 minutes synchronization interval be ok for those users and will that not bring them in to trouble with "files that are in use"?

I think it depends on the size of your offline files and network connection. If the offline files are very large and the connection is unstable, then they need a long time to synchronize, it might encounter some problems. Otherwise, there shouldn't show that error. Please note that, the high frequency of synchronization will increase the network traffic. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Miya, luckily offline files uses bitmap differential transfer, so it will only sync the changed part of a single file, that should make sync times a lot shorter and make the chance that errors will occur, a lot less. However i do think that the whole "Usually Offline support with Background Sync" feature is faulty by design, it will be inevitable that an error will occur at some time. I'm trying to keep helpdesk calls to a minimum and this problem will not contribute to that. Do you know if there are any plans to fix this by implementing shadow volume copy? If there aren't any plans, could you please bring this post to the development team to make them aware of this?

Hi ruudboek, Based on my known, there's no shadow volume copy services could resolve this offline files sync problem now. I've reported your suggestion to the Product Team, you can also submit your feedback in http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%20%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195. Thanks for the suggestion. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi ruudboek, Since it cannot not be achieved currently, I've already report this to the Product Team. I will change this thread type to Discussion to let other community members involved if they're intreseted in this topic. Regards, Miya TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.