Background
We have 18 QuickBooks company files in a mult-user environment running on a new installation of Windows Server 2016. The QuickBooks Database Server Manager is installed. All of these company files are in the latest QB 2020 format. All clients are running Windows 10 and the latest version of the QuickBooks 2020 client. The company files are accessed through standard Windows file sharing. All file permissions are configured with each accountant's Active Directory/Domain account.
The folder containing all company files sits at C:\Shared and is shared on the network as \\mm-quickbooks\shared. This \\mm-quickbooks\shared folder is mounted as the Q:\ drive on each accountant's computer. The "Everyone" group has Read access to this share.
C:\Shared contains subfolders--one subfolder for each company. Inside each company's folder is the company file plus all of the QuickBooks search indexes, company file backups, images...etc. Each company folder has permission inheritance disabled (with the Everyone group removed), and each accountant has "Full Control" of only the company folder containing the QuickBooks company file where they do their work.
We have a Fortigate firewall and Ubiquiti switches.
Problem
When one of the accountants opens up the QuickBooks 2020 client and browses to the network share to open a company file, the contents of any given company subfolder sometimes disappear. Whenever this happens, the contents of the folder are visible for a couple seconds, then all of the files in the company subfolder disappear. Usually they can get the files to reappear by going up a directory and double-clicking on the subfolder again.
If they are quick, they can browse to the subfolder and double-click the company file before the folder's contents disappear. When they do this, QuickBooks will try to open the company file. Sometimes it will open, but most of the time they will get an error from QuickBooks saying "You do not have sufficient permissions to the specified folder. To use QuickBooks in a multi-user environment, you must have read/write access and create/delete rights to the folder where the company is stored."
As a test, one of the accountants opened up a company subfolder that they had permissions for in Windows File Explorer. They browsed to the same folder in the QuickBooks 2020 "Open File" dialog, then the contents of the folder disappeared. When the contents of the folder disappeared in QuickBooks 2020, the File Explorer window went back to the root of the share where all the other company subfolders were and the company subfolder was nowhere to be found. After refreshing the root folder a few times the subfolder eventually re-appeared.
This random disappearing seems to be related to QuickBooks somehow... It only happens when they attempt to browse to the company files through QuickBooks' "Open Company File" interface. When browsing the share through only Windows File Explorer while QuickBooks was closed, I've never seen the same disappearing behavior.
What usually works is to open the company subfolder and wait a few seconds for the folder's contents to disappear. If they do not disappear, then the company file will open without issue. If they do disappear, go up a directory then re-enter the company subfolder. Keep doing this until the files stay visible, then open the company file.
Some users never experience this behavior. They are able to get into their company files with no issues.
Things I've Tried
- Turned off all Fortigate security profiles (AV, Web Filter, Application Control, IPS, File Filter) between the applicable network zone and the server. I will admit that while it may look like I've disabled all security policies between the two, I'm not sure whether or not I actually have... we don't have a network expert on staff anymore...
- Turned off the Windows Firewall of an affected PC.
- Tried creating a local account on the Windows Server, gave it permissions to the company files, then mounted the Q: drive as that user on an accountant's PC. Experienced the same behavior as I did with a domain account.
To me this sounds like a firewall or other network issue? Especially since I got the same behavior with a local server account? But I don't know how QuickBooks would be making shared files temporarily inaccessible when it tries to access them? There's clearly more going on here than I am aware of.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to further diagnose this problem, I would be grateful.
