Folder Redirection/Offline Files on Win 7 | Folders are empty when not connected to the domain

Question

I've been struggling with this issue for days and cannot seem to find anyone else with a similar issue.

I will note first that I have tried using both roaming profiles and the group policy setting for force local profiles.... now onto the problem.

What I am trying to do is have my teachers accounts log onto their laptops using their domain credentials. Once logged in their desktop and documents are redirected to a network share //server/redirects/documents/.

This works fine when the computer is connected to the domain network. Offline File Sync works great and caches the files locally.

However this all breaks down when the user logs in when the computer is no longer connected to the domain network. When the user logs in the desktop and documents are empty. What I find very odd is if I manually go to the offline file folder all of the files are there, The group policy folder redirection does not execute to the offline folder. Is this by Design? (It does not work like this on Vista, I have the exact same group policy settings set on vista machines and it works flawlessly).

Additional Info

When I look at the event log there is no folder redirection events at all when user logs in and is not connected to the network.

In addition a new profile is create in c:/users/username.domain.00x. Every log in creates an additional profile. There is a event that states that a registry files were still in use.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I have seen the very same issue on windows XP. You dont actually state if this is a windows XP machine.

Unfortunately i had to give up on offline files, as it was causing way to many issues.

The issue with the registry still being in use when you log in, and the creation of new profiles every time you log in without a network connection, could point to a damaged local copy of the profile.

If this is happening on all machines, then im not sure, if its one or two, it might be worth removing the roaming profile's and then rebuilding/

Answer 2

This hasn't been touched in a while, let's see if I can take a crack at this

The windows profile problem plagues every version of Windows I usually deal with. We've always referenced this document to fix it, as the registry gets messed up when loading profiles. We usually create a new profile completely and migrate information over, then follow the document linked above. That saves time over wiping/reinstalling the OS.

As far as offline files, MOST folks I know are moving away from that. I'm not usually in the business of suggesting third party apps usually, but icloud/dropbox/etc work great.