where are domain offline files settings configured in win 2k3?

Question

We recently lost our domains win2k3 enterprise server where users offline files were stored. Every user's My Documents folder was redirected to this server and the user's files were synchronized to this server at logoff and logon. We have a replacement server now, but none of the settings in group policy are configured for offline files, yet still errors at logoff/logon. What is configuring each users folder redirection and file sync to the old server?

There was a backup DC in place when the main server went down, so it isn't possible the group policy settings were wiped out. I personally installed many of the desktops and the folder redirection and file sync were not manually configured at install.

look here "HKEY_USERS\usersid\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" where are the folders pointing to. — tony roth, May 11 '11 at 14:07
@tony: ok, but does that mean I'm going to have to do registry edits on all the desktops? — Detritus Maximus, May 11 '11 at 14:08
I think xp would auto redirect the my doc's folder if the share that was hosting them was configured for caching! Its been a long time since I've worked on this stuff.. CSC and folder redirection can become a real tangled mess if done wrong. Sorry I don't have a better answer on this! — tony roth, May 11 '11 at 14:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:13

I'd start with the "Resultant Set of Policy" tool on an affected client. The settings can't be coming from nowhere.

It's likely that you're using "Folder Redirection" and you've left "Offline Files" enabled (its default setting) on client computers. If that's the case, the default behavior would be to make redirected folders available offline. As such, you're not going to see specific configuration for "Offline Files" but you will find configuration for "Folder Redirection".

If you don't want to go through "Folder Redirection" hell you might consider assigning an alias name to the new file server computer and configuring the shares such that it can stand in place of the now-failed file server computer.

That's one of the first places I looked, and why I came here when I couldn't find any configured relevant settings User/computer-admintemplates-network. But, after reading your answer, I checked a different user rsop and found redirection happening under User/WindowsSettings/FolderRedirection. Thanks for inspiring a second look. — Detritus Maximus, May 11 '11 at 14:22

where are domain offline files settings configured in win 2k3?

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