Folder Redirection not moving local files

[USMCGrunt]

Recently setup folder redirection and I can't figure out why but user's existing files are not relocating from their local machine onto the server. Once the policy hits the PC, it creates the appropriate folders on the server and the user's profile accesses those folders which in turn freaks them the fuck out because all the folders are empty as if they've lost all their files. In reality, their files are safely located on the local machine under the local directories. I haven't had this issue before and I'm not sure what's causing it. Below is a grab of the settings I'm using, this show's the contact folder but its exactly the same for desktop and documents. I can manually go in and move the files from PC to server and they show up and all is well...but that's a bit of a pain in the ass to have to do for a couple hundred users once this goes into production.

 

[dbwillis]

'Move contents of Contacts to the new location' = Disabled

I have mine set to Enabled and its working okie dokie

 

[USMCGrunt]

'Move contents of Contacts to the new location' = Disabled

I have mine set to Enabled and its working okie dokie

I kinda thought that was the issue but im scared of that setting because of the logic that it uses and I've been bitten in the past by it.

Say you have that checked and you change the path from say \\server\share to \\namespace\share and that namespace share is the same location as the server share. Well the logic that setting uses goes as follows:

Has the location changed: yes
Move files to new location
Delete files from old location

Being that the new location and old location are actually the same physical location, you've just had your user files deleted. I can't remember the specifics of when it happened to me because I hadn't implemented DFS yet, needless to say though, it was not good. I also have a GPO setup at a different location exactly as I have this one setup and everything works just fine.

 

[dbwillis]

I remember something about that bug, I had one customer that I didn't want to get bit by that at, I think I changed the server share to get around it.
That customer I didn't use the GPO versions, so I cant go back and check, but I think it was...

old \\Server\MyDocsRedir$
new \\Server\RedirMyDocs$

 

[USMCGrunt]

I remember something about that bug, I had one customer that I didn't want to get bit by that at, I think I changed the server share to get around it.
That customer I didn't use the GPO versions, so I cant go back and check, but I think it was...

old \\Server\MyDocsRedir$
new \\Server\RedirMyDocs$

Guess I may just have to bite the bullet and turn it on now. There are only two people that it's applying to at the moment and we are both the IT department. I'll just have to make a backup copy of our stuff and then fire away.

 

[cyclone3d]

Are you sure the folder and share permissions are set up correctly?

 

[dbwillis]

You can always try a test user with some junk files/folders, I love my 'Test Users'..


DG1111 (Dumb 1. Guy)
DG2222 (Dumb 2. Guy)

 

[Ruoh]

Are you sure the folder and share permissions are set up correctly?

This. This is the problem I had the first time I setup redirection on the GPO here at work. Also, something else you might run into. If the users are have Outlook with local caching enabled, make sure that the PST/OST files are not being redirected back to the network drive.

 

[USMCGrunt]

Bored at work, I started rummaging around the GPO editor and found this setting in, of all places, Computer\Policies\Windows Components\File Explorer:

Verify old and new Folder Redirection targets point to the same share before redirecting
This policy setting allows you to prevent data loss when you change the target location for Folder Redirection, and the new and old targets point to the same network share, but have different network paths.

If you enable this policy setting, Folder Redirection creates a temporary file in the old location in order to verify that new and old locations point to the same network share. If both new and old locations point to the same share, the target path is updated and files are not copied or deleted. The temporary file is deleted.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Folder Redirection does not create a temporary file and functions as if both new and old locations point to different shares when their network paths are different.

Note: If the paths point to different network shares, this policy setting is not required. If the paths point to the same network share, any data contained in the redirected folders is deleted if this policy setting is not enabled.

Why is this even a configurable option??