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Problem

  • We have a Windows 2008 R2 server with a network share setup on one of the storage volumes. Users on desktop computers use a scanner to scan single-page documents and convert them to a digital format. They are saved to a folder called "SCANS" within the previously referenced network share

  • From this point, the user can browse to this network location and see the saved files via Windows Explorer. They can also open them and view them via whatever program is needed to open the specific file type (IE PDFs open with Adobe Reader XI).

  • The problem is that the users are then logging into a 3rd party program where they upload these scanned documents from the "SCANS" folder to another storage location. When they click to "browse" their network shares from this 3rd party program, they are not visible.

  • After waiting a period of time (mins? hours?), the files start showing up just fine from the 3rd party program's file browser.

Troubleshooting Attempts

  1. Made sure the locations we're browsing are exactly the same (IE same server, same share, same folder in both Windows Explorer and the 3rd party program)
  2. Made sure that the browse window in the 3rd party program is looking for "all files" and not a specific file type
  3. Checked file/folder permissions for domain users accessing the share
  4. Worked with the 3rd party software vendor to see if they could assist.

The software vendor states that they have no explanation for what would cause a delay in their file browse capabilities. After speaking with someone familiar with their development, it sounds like they just use a standardized piece of code from Delphi to browse a Windows file system.

Conclusion

  • Something is either broken with our network share/file and folder permissions, or something is wrong with the software being used to browse the file system
  • The strangest part is that the files do eventually show up in the 3rd party browse window, but they're delayed by what seems to be random periods of time.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. We've exhausted all other avenues of support without success.

Thanks for your time,

Aaron

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  • To speak to your conclusion: It's not likely that it's a permissions problem, as that would manifest itself in multiple ways (access denied in Windows Explorer, etc.), which you've already ruled out. If all of the evidence leads to the third party program being the root of the problem, than it's most likely the root of the problem. You can slice and dice this any way you like but if the third party program is the only program that exhibits this behavior then that's where I'd focus my troubleshooting.
    – joeqwerty
    Jan 7, 2015 at 23:21
  • Thanks for the reply, joeqwerty. While i'm inclined to agree with the logic, this kind of problem is just bizarre. The software vendor has many clients using this program in the same way (attaching files from network shares), so i'm still leaning towards something environment-specific. I'll continue investigating, but thank you for your input. ~Aaron
    – Aaron
    Jan 8, 2015 at 15:56

1 Answer 1

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I found a thread on MS TechNet that described the same issue we're having to a T, and once we started looking at SMB settings on the file server/XenApp server, we figured it out.

TechNet Post About File Share "Refreshing" Issue

Here is the Server Message Block (SMB) Wiki if you're unfamiliar

Wiki

Since the users are accessing this file share from a 2003 (SMB 1.0) Citrix/Terminal server with many other users also accessing this file share from that same server, the SMB settings needed to be adjusted.

We used the "Mixed Environment" instructions here:

Citrix Blog - SMB Settings for XenApp/File Servers

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