Contents of network share won't refresh without restart?

Question

We have network shares on a machine running Small Business Server 2008. All domain users have access to this share, and a batch script maps it to the T: drive upon logging into Windows. One user is having an issue - the contents of only this share (other shares from the same server are fine) will not refresh without restarting.

Tried hitting F5, disconnecting and remapping the drive, and manually navigating to the UNC path, no luck. He can place files there and other users can see them, but he is unable to see any new files placed there by others.

Any idea what could cause something like this?

Answer 1

This sounds like SMB2 directory caching.

Take a look at the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanworkstation\Parameters\DirectoryCacheLifetime

on your affected and unaffected PCs. This is how long the workstation caches the directory listing and can be set to 0 to disable that caching.

Some postings on the subject advocate completely disabling SMB2, but I understand that that can have serious side-effects depending on the specifics of your environment.

There's some more background info from Microsoft here: SMB2 Client Redirector Caches Explained

Answer 2

Try the net command for a list of mapped network drives. Is it on the list? Is it mapped to the correct server/host, and directory? Sometimes just running this will be enough to refresh it:

net use

If it's no good, you can remove and remap the drive, like so:

net use t: /delete

Followed by:

net use t: \\server\directory

Hope that helps. If not let me know.